Bubba Wallace is making moves in NASCAR as he’s established himself as one of the most successful Black drivers in the league’s history. But is he on track to win his first-ever Cup Series race? PopCulture.com recently caught up with Wallace, who gave himself a strong grade for his work during his first season with 23XI racing.
“Giving ourselves a B minus, keeping ourselves humble with a lot of room for improvement,” Wallace said to PopCulture.com. “These last couple of weeks have definitely shown signs of improvement. “The Coke 600 was a good race for us, [but] made a couple of mistakes there at the end of the race. It cost us a good finish, but we clean those up, man. We’ll be a top 10 continuing team in a matter of no time. So we’ll just keep pushing forward.”
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Wallace, 27, has had strong performances in the last two races, finishing 14th in the Coca-Cola 600 and the Toyota/Save Mart 350. He currently sits in 21st place in the Cup Series standings, which would be the best finish in his career. In 2020, Wallace came in 22nd place with 597 points, and that was his final season with Richard Petty Motorsports. He joined 23XI Racing this season, which is owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and NASCAR star Denny Hamlin, who currently ranks first in the Cup Series standings. Wallace also talked about what Hamlin told him about the goals for 23XI Racing this season.
“I think that for us, it’s just getting the finishes that we deserve,” Wallace said. “A lot of our results have finished a little bit worse or behind where we’ve been running. So it’s capitalizing executing. Execution is the biggest thing. His biggest thing going into the year was for us to show progress. When springtime rolls around, we get an average finish there when summertime rolls around, make sure we’re better than the springtime. And when the fall time rolls around, make sure we’re better than the summer. It’s just continuing to grow and grow the communication, just grow the vibes with the team. It’s a great atmosphere. I feel like that can only grow from where we’re at now. We’ve made huge strides to get to where we’re at on and off the race track. We just got to keep going.”
