It was a tough race weekend for 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace at Pocono Raceway. Despite crashing out of the race early on, team owner Denny Hamlin said his driver’s new attitude is a “180” compared to past seasons.
There were high hopes for Bubba Wallace and his No. 23 team this season. The team entered 2025 carrying a refreshed look with new Crew Chief Charles Denike.
Though the two had a hot start to the season, sitting consistently around seventh or eighth in points, the team has been less consistent since early May. From the race at Texas Motor Speedway to the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the team failed to finish inside the top 30 but rebounded well during the past three races.
Despite solid finishes at Nashville, Michigan, and Mexico City, Wallace had a tough weekend at Pocono Raceway, qualifying 34th and blowing a tire 60 laps into the race. After finishing 36th this past weekend, the team dropped ninth in points, down to 12th.
This performance is frustrating for everyone, including 23XI Racing, which has failed to win a race in the first half of the season for the first time since 2021, its first year in NASCAR. But despite this past weekend’s lowlights, on the latest episode of Actions Detrimental, 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin said that Wallace’s newfound attitude “makes it so much easier.”
Hamlin explained that the No. 23 team’s hard times are not Wallace’s fault, saying, “It’s not on one person or one thing. Mechanicals just killed the 23 this week, other people’s wrecks have killed the 23 over the last few weeks. Nothing he’s doing.”
While this is frustrating for the team, Hamlin appreciates his cornerstone drivers’ attitude, which is a 180-degree turnaround from past seasons.
“Weeks like this, it would have to be full therapy mode in past years, but it makes it so much easier for us to fix these problems when we’re not trying to fix an attitude problem as well.” — Denny Hamlin
In the end, Hamiln says that Wallace is holding up his side of the arrangement, and now it’s up to the team to help out their driver. “He’s making our job a lot easier,” Hamlin said. “It’s on us to step up for him at this point.”
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