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Denny Hamlin Not Alarmed by Bubba Wallace Situation Despite 23XI Driver’s Precarious Position

Jerry Bonkowski
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(L-R) NASCAR Cup Series drivers Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace.

With eight races left to secure a position in the NASCAR Cup playoffs, Bubba Wallace might as well be called ‘Bubble’ Wallace. The NASCAR standings say Wallace is in 13th position, with a 49-point edge over 16th-ranked Erik Jones, who technically is on the bubble.

But looking at playoff eligibility, three drivers below Wallace in the standings — Austin Cindric (currently 15th heading into Sunday’s race in Chicago), Josh Berry (19th) and Shane Van Gisbergen (32nd) — have already secured automatic berths in the 10-race postseason with a race win each.

This is where it gets interesting. That puts Wallace virtually right on the bubble in 16th place in the overall playoff standings as opposed to the season standings to date. That’s why every point from here through the final regular season race at Daytona International Speedway on August 23 is absolutely crucial to his playoff hopes.

Wallace absolutely needs a good finish in Sunday’s street race in Chicago. The Alabama native has not won a Cup race since 2022, and this year has just three top-five and six top-10 finishes in the first 18 races.

But Wallace also has six DNFs, all due to crashes. He and best friend Ryan Blaney are tied for most DNFs this season, but Blaney has an automatic playoff berth by virtue of winning at Nashville last month.

The 23XI Racing driver also needs to bounce back from back-to-back poor performances in the last two races: Pocono (36th, crashed out) and Atlanta (22nd), which saw him drop from ninth in the season standings to 13th.

Some might say Wallace’s playoff hopes are dire. In his previous seven full-time seasons as a Cup driver, Wallace has made the playoffs just once: 2023, when he finished 10th. He came close to making the playoffs last season, but wound up short, finishing the season 18th.

Wallace’s teammates have had mixed seasons to date. Tyler Reddick is sixth in the standings while Riley Herbst has been virtually invisible this year, ranked 35th — second-lowest of all 36 full-time Cup drivers.

23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin isn’t worried about Wallace

He may not be panicking about Wallace just yet, but 23XI co-owner and fellow Cup competitor Denny Hamlin is admittedly concerned about Wallace’s playoff chances.

“Yeah, he’s still in the playoffs after all those DNFs,” Hamlin admitted in Saturday’s media availability. “You just can’t panic in the situation that they’re in. I think if we were struggling for speed on the No. 23 car, then there would be a more heightened sense of alertness to what’s going on.

“A lot of these are just circumstances. Some of them are circumstances that we control, some of them are mechanicals we’ve controlled, some of them we have not. And others, it’s just other people making mistakes in front of him and he’s getting caught up in the middle of them.”

But Wallace, Hamlin and everyone else at 23XI know that statistically, Wallace is anything but secure in the overall playoff rankings. Coming into Sunday’s race, he is just 23 points ahead of 17th-ranked Ryan Preece, who has knocked on the winner’s door several times this year.

Then there’s Erik Jones, who is 49 points out of the playoffs (even though he is ranked 16th in the overall season standings coming into Chicago), AJ Allmendinger is -59 points and Carson Hocevar is -62.

If Wallace has a few more bad outings like he’s had recently, or if one or more other drivers earns a first win of the season in the next eight races, the playoff standings could quickly change — and not in Bubba’s favor, for sure.

Hamlin doesn’t have to worry about his own playoff hopes

Of course, Hamlin doesn’t have to worry about his own situation with Joe Gibbs Racing. He’s won three times this year and is ranked fourth, locked into the playoffs. Not bad for the oldest active full-time Cup driver.

“I think you have to stay the course and not panic and hope things play out the way that they should,” Hamlin added about Wallace. “If things play out naturally, he is certainly one of the fastest cars that is on that bubble.”

As a result, Hamlin is adamant about Wallace’s situation. “I’m not concerned about him racing his way into the playoffs,” Hamlin said. “I think that if he was 50 (points) behind at this point, I still would feel okay about it. Not great, but okay about it. But him being ahead with all the bad luck he’s had, I’m not too concerned, truthfully.”

Post Edited By:Abhishek Ramesh

About the author

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski

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Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran sportswriter who has worked full-time for many of the top media outlets in the world, including USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (4+ years), Yahoo Sports (4 1/2 years), NBCSports.com (8 years) and others. He has covered virtually every major professional and collegiate sport there is, including the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships (including heavy focus on Michael Jordan), the Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX-winning season, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs World Series championships, two of the Chicago Blackhawks' NHL titles, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour debut, as well as many years of beat coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA for USA Today. But Jerry's most notable achievement has been covering motorsports, most notably NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA drag racing and Formula One. He has had a passion for racing since he started going to watch drag races at the old U.S. 30 Dragstrip (otherwise known as "Where the Great Ones Run!") in Hobart, Indiana. Jerry has covered countless NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA races and championship battles over the years. He's also the author of a book, "Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates", published in 2010 (and he's hoping to soon get started on another book). Away from sports, Jerry was a fully sworn part-time police officer for 20 years, enjoys reading and music (especially "hair bands" from the 1980s and 1990s), as well as playing music on his electric keyboard, driving (fast, of course!), spending time with Cyndee his wife of nearly 40 years, the couple's three adult children and three grandchildren (with more to come!), and his three dogs -- including two German Shepherds and an Olde English Bulldog who thinks he's a German Shepherd.. Jerry still gets the same excitement of seeing his byline today as he did when he started in journalism as a 15-year-old high school student. He is looking forward to writing hundreds, if not thousands, of stories in the future for TheSportsRush.com, as well as interacting with readers.

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