Bubba Wallace’s 2025 season began like so many others—mechanical gremlins, shaky setups, and whispers of “what if.” But when a disastrous Charlotte qualifying run left him starting 29th, something shifted. Instead of slamming his helmet or firing off a heated tweet, he posted five disarming words: “Today s–ked…no other way around it.” No rage, no blame—just raw honesty from a driver who’s traded his trademark volatility for something far more unsettling to his rivals: peace.

But his Coca-Cola 600 race wasn’t a big improvement by any means. He crashed out of the race, marking his third straight DNF, a sticky situation indeed for the #23 camp. But, rather than going explosive on the radio or playing the blame game, Wallace took this result on the chin, with his crew chief backing him up.

Bubba Wallace needs to find a breakthrough soon

Back-to-back top 5 finishes at Homestead and Martinsville have lost their luster. With a lack of race-winning speed and inconsistency in terms of points, Wallace has now dropped to 12th in the points standings. And the buffer between him and the 16th-place driver is just 43 points. If there was a race where he could have roared back in form or bagged a good points day, it was the Coca-Cola 600. But, once again, he ended up with nothing. And Wallace has started to take notice of his dipping form.

“In fact, we were not fine..today sucked..no other way around it.” He shared on X. But there was a twist, he then went on to reveal the conversation he had with his crew chief Charles Denike. “Charles leans in the car after we’re done and says..with a smile.. ‘Ya know the one thing about this LONG schedule is we get to do it again next weekend’ We both laughed. It’s true. Again, we will be fine.👊🏾” 

This optimism is good, but how long until they keep taking these results on their chin and act as if everything is fine. The stats tell their own story. Thirteen races into 2025, Wallace’s average finish (20.769) trails teammates Tyler Reddick (14.615) and Kyle Busch (117.846). His last win? Kansas, fall 2022—a victory that feels like a lifetime ago in NASCAR’s relentless churn. Denike was brought in to replace Bootie Barker to take a step forward, but right now they aren’t even moving in the right direction.

Wallace missed out on the playoffs last year playing the points race, and with the trajectory that the #23 team is headed to, they might end up in a similar spot. Given that he had good speed on the intermediates, the upcoming races at Nashville Superspeedway and Michigan could prove to be their best shot. After that, there’s a streak of road course races along with drafting tracks. While Wallace and the #23 team have taken a laid-back approach, the same cannot be said for his teammate, Tyler Reddick.

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Tyler Reddick demands more speed from his car

There’s something off at 23XI Racing this year. Inconsistency and late charge for playoffs have been the story for the #23 team, but not for #45. Despite three top 5 finishes and holding strong 5th in the points standings, Tyler Reddick feels he is struggling with the speed on his car. Ever since the P4 finish at Darlington, he hasn’t been able to contend for race wins, and he didn’t hesitate in addressing these concerns ahead of the Coca-Cola 600.

“A lot of uncertainty this year for sure. It felt like last year at mile and a half were probably where we were most consistent. But with the left side tire changing, some of the things just not feeling exactly the same, you know. We’ve definitely lacked the speed and handling that we had last year, for sure. We’ve certainly got to get it figured out. It’ll be important at the playoffs,” Reddick said in an interview.

Reddick had to settle for a 17th-place finish at the Coca-Cola 600, not the result he was hoping for, but it’s clear that they’ve got work to do. Last year, Reddick had already bagged a win, but the good news is that he had a streak of top 5 runs after the 600 race, so he and his team have got the wiggle room in terms of points to make progress, unlike Wallace and the #23 team. Those guys need to start putting points on the board soon.