While Joe Gibbs Racing star Denny Hamlin locked down the pole at Pocono Raceway, where he’s the winningest driver in track history, his 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace found himself on the wrong side of fortune. Wallace never even got the chance to turn a lap in qualifying after his No. 23 Toyota refused to fire up at the most crucial moment.
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Crews scrambled to bump-start the car, but their efforts came up empty. With the clock ticking and no run on the board, Wallace was left dead in the water, forced to watch from inside the cockpit as a promising shot at a front-row start evaporated. A.J. Allmendinger and Todd Gilliland posted the slowest laps of the session after both aborted runs following dicey moments on track, but Wallace didn’t even make it that far.
Now, he’ll have to claw his way up from the back of the field. Historically, Pocono has been kind to Wallace. He’s bagged three top-10 finishes in his last four starts there, including a top-five before the advent of the Next Gen car. Since joining 23XI Racing in 2021, he hasn’t finished worse than 14th at the Tricky Triangle. And with Toyota dominating in recent seasons, the cards had been stacked in his favor, until his car had other plans.
His team owner, Hamlin, urged Wallace to stay the course and squeeze the most out of race day. “I don’t think you can get too panicked about it, you can’t change it. If you are Bubba Wallace, it’s not something you did.
“I’m confident it’s not something the team did; it’s just one of those mechanical things where the anvil fell on your [head] this time. It happens to others as well. It’s very easy for drivers and teams to get down about their bad luck, but everyone has it, and usually washes itself out over time.”
He added, “I think they are running fast enough to be a playoff car, and a lot of that is going to depend on who jumps up on the wild card races over the next 10 weeks, but I feel confident the 23 team will be a part of it.”
After all, Ross Chastain proved earlier this season that starting last doesn’t always spell doom, storming from 40th to win the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Wallace still has the tools to turn his weekend around.
Currently sitting 10th in the standings with 411 points, Wallace has logged three top-fives and six top-10s through 16 races. The hill may be steep at Pocono, but the season and his playoff hopes are still well within reach.
