HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- In years past, even a couple of months ago during the 2024 season, a missed opportunity would’ve seen a dispirited Bubba Wallace with his head down climbing out of his No. 23 Toyota. As the sun began to set at Homestead-Miami Speedway, there was a bright light on pit road. Part of that brilliance was the exuberant scheme of Wallace’s vehicle, but the main source of light was the 31-year-old driver.
Sharing a laugh and fist-bumping runner-up Alex Bowman and fourth-place Chase Briscoe as winner Kyle Larson celebrated in the background, there’s a newfound positivity in Wallace. “I think I’ve got a tire going down,” Wallace jokingly said on the radio after taking the checkered flag in third place. No. 23 spotter Freddie Kraft jabbed with the usual humor before crew chief Charles Denike rallied the gang. “Great work today. We did what we said we wanted to do from Vegas and that’s see the race all the way through,” Denike said.
Despite a slew of stage points and race-contending pace to start the season, Wallace had yet been able to crack the top five on the results sheet after five races. That changed Sunday at Homestead as Wallace turned 56 laps led and six stage points into his best finish since the Bristol Night Race last year.
After getting passed by Bowman for the lead with 33 laps to go and Larson for second, Wallace was hoping he’d get one final shot at the Hendrick Motorsports teammates. “My plan was hopefully they got to racing a little bit,” Wallace said. “But I messed up and Bowman messed up the same way I did, and gave it to [Larson]. So that's what I told him. I walked up to Bowman after and I said we both suck.”
Making contact with the wall a handful of times and an unpleasant run-in with Noah Gragson mid-race on a restart likely would’ve snowballed into self-destruction for a younger Wallace. While frustrated in the moment, he turned toward the bigger picture quickly. “When I got the fence, I was pissed off for a half-corner and then it was OK,” Wallace said. “There's still a long way to go, regroup and focus, and I need to think about the winners that we have on this team. It motivates you to drive harder in a more methodical way, not just driving in the fence like I did. So this allows you to think and just gotta have the right people behind you pushing you to do it.”
While Wallace is making the mental shifts himself, a new voice on the radio has been a guide for this change. Denike, who paired with Wallace this season after scoring eight wins in two years with Christian Eckes in the Craftsman Truck Series, has set a new standard for the No. 23 team early in his tenure and won’t have the team dwell on prior shortcomings.
“Before the race, we said we needed to execute like we did at Vegas last week where we control everything we could control,” Denike said. “We ran a really good 190 laps before we had an incident on a restart that was outside of our control. So we come here and we said we're going to execute that way. We're going to continue to control what we can control and the finishes will come if we keep doing that mentality. That's really what we saw today.”
Wallace entered Homestead with the second-most stage points in the series at 55. It’s a sign that the No. 23 team is among the top contenders early in the season as most of the mid-race points have come naturally. “I can tell you that we only deliberately went for stage points at COTA, where we called the race to get the stage points and potentially sacrifice the outcome,” Denike said. “Obviously, we had some issues during the race anyway there, but we went for stage points. Everywhere else, we're racing and it's been very refreshing for the group to be able to earn those points by running up front outright on merit.”
As teammate Tyler Reddick has set the bar for the 23XI organization making the Championship 4 in 2024, the gap appears to have narrowed in the early portion of 2025 as Reddick leaves Homestead fourth in points, while Wallace is in seventh. “They’re certainly the benchmark on wins right now at 23XI,” Denike said about the No. 45 team. “I'm just proud that we're in this conversation. The teams work so well together -- all three of them. It's an amazing group of people. Just super enjoyable to be able to work together and know that as we debrief this week, we were the benchmark today, fair and square. Super proud of everybody that contributes to that. Next week, something might be different, but the culture is we're all in it together.”
Sunday was a position Wallace hasn’t been in consistently in his eight full-time Cup seasons. According to Racing Insights, his 5.90 average running position at Homestead was second-best behind Bowman, which improves his average running position across six 2025 races to 12.55 -- fifth-best among Cup drivers. A complete race will serve as a huge boost for Wallace and the No. 23 team as they will be able to carry momentum into the next three race weekends at Martinsville, Darlington and Bristol, all of which fall on the 10-race playoff calendar.
As Wallace remained in a lighthearted fashion speaking to the media, he reflected on his two career wins and his past runs upfront compared to his position Sunday. “Kansas [Fall 2022], I went up and took that win, right? That was my last one,” Wallace said. “I look at Talladega [spring 2023] when I was leading taking the white and blocked Blaney, and I wrecked. Other than that, I've never been in a spot to give away a race. So I can be pissed off about it, but hell, I've never been in that situation before, you know? So it's different.”
A long season is still ahead and there’s no telling where the No. 23 team will end up or if they find Victory Lane, or make the postseason -- which was not in the cards last year. For now, at least, there’s a refreshed, motivated and joyous Wallace behind the wheel on Sundays this season.
