A P35 finish wasn’t what Bubba Wallace wanted when he started off his race from the 5th on Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Following a well-rounded top 5 finish at Atlanta before the Vegas, coming home 5th across the line, the 23XI Racing driver had high hopes for the 400-mile marathon. Unfortunately, things did not go the way he wanted it to, instead, it went the opposite direction, ending the drivers in a complete disaster courtesy of a lug nut that ruined the exceptional start and took away the early momentum.

Speaking to Sirius XM NASCAR, Bootie Barker, the #23’s crew chief detailed the pit-road struggles that earned the team a penalty but refused to reveal the root cause of the problem, saying, “It was just a subtle thing.” 

23XI Racing crew chief details the pit-road debacle of Bubba Wallace without revealing the actual cause

Heading to the mile-and-a-half track at Las Vegas Bubba Wallace was hoping to better his position and take home his first win of the season. However, there was something else in store for him. In stage 2 of the race, his crew failed to remove a lug nut from one of his wheels during green flags stops. Failing to get the nut off of the left front tire, the crew had to go with a three-tire change and later had to cut the lug nut off to remove the tire and replace it.

This took off the 23XI Racing Toyota’s steam considerably, losing track position and returning to the track 10 laps down. Unfortunately, he had to serve a pass-through penalty for too many crew members over the wall as well. Reflecting on this pit-road woe, Barker said, “We were hitting that thing with everything we had, we didn’t have a breaker bar per se we had a torque wrench that was capable of like you said a 6, 700 pounds, that thing was huge, that thing was like 5 ft long and we bent that trying to get it off and we shattered a socket where we ended up having to do cut the wheel nut off and get it off.”

While the crew chief was open about the team’s pit road struggles, he didn’t reveal the actual cause that got them in the precarious position in the first place. “It’d probably be foolish for me to describe it so well because I don’t really want to help my competitors, I’d like my competitors to have the same thing happen to them. It wasn’t anything egregious, it wasn’t anything like, man what are you doing, it was just a subtle thing, a subtle thing in time and it caused something that I wouldn’t believe but she got on there,” said the veteran crew chief. 

With a bad episode in the rearview mirror, the driver and the team are focused on the road ahead as they reveal the #23’s new look for Phoenix.

23XI Racing shares the new look of Wallace’s #23 for Phoenix

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The US Air Force is back sponsoring Wallace’s car, which was previously graced by the sponsor when he was driving for Richard Petty in the #43 a couple of seasons ago. Now, they’ve rekindled their relationship with Bubba Wallace and are hoping their driver can get them to Victory Lane in Phoenix. In fact, one thing is most certain: the #23 Toyota Camry XSE will grab a lot of attention with its new look.

Reflecting on his collaboration, he said, “It’s really special to once again be partnered with the men and women who make up the United States Air Force. My previous experience with the folks from the Air Force was awesome, and I had the chance to meet a lot of great airmen who do some amazing things each and every day.” 

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He also added, “I’m looking forward to welcoming them to 23XI and showing them what we’re all about as we work together to try and accomplish the impossible.” While Bubba Wallace now has the US Air Force behind his back, can the driver best his previous performances and snag a win at the one-mile track in Phoenix? Only time will tell.