Bubba Wallace reflects on 'really good year' in 2023 NASCAR season

Bubba Wallace had his best NASCAR Cup Series season to date in 2023, finishing a career-best 10th in the points standings.

Wallace consistently had a fast No. 23 Toyota and made the playoffs in his third season with 23XI Racing. Though it was a successful season, the only thing missing from his resume was a trip to victory lane. Wallace found his way there in each of the previous two seasons, but came up just short this past season, posting five top-5 finishes.

Wallace, reflecting on his season recently, said the lack of a victory is the one thing that “bugs the hell” out of him.

“Everybody I see in the industry the last couple days have come up to me and continued to remind me how good the season was, and it is when you peel back the layers and look at it,” Wallace said, via NASCAR.com. “We checked a lot of boxes, but I don’t know if it’s just me being young and hungry, but I got zero wins. So that bugs the hell out of me.

“But yeah, I mean, we made a good run, proud of the efforts from the team. It was a really, really good year. I’m so excited to … not get it started yet because I’m enjoying the downtime, but I’m excited for the next one to start.”

Bubba Wallace entering fourth season with 23XI Racing

23XI Racing had a strong season as a whole as in addition to Wallace, Tyler Reddick also qualified for the playoffs. Reddick won two races and finished 6th in the points standings. Both headline the driver lineup for 2024, which promises to be a season of new for 23XI Racing. The organization is in the process of setting up a new headquarters building and will have a reinvigorated Toyota body style for 2024 with the Next Gen Camry XSE set to debut.

Wallace believes these new additions will help 23XI Racing excel this upcoming season.

“I think moving forward, with Tyler having a year with us and figuring it all out, I think it’s only going to expedite the process on where we want to be,” Wallace says. “I think, there’s a lot of races where we were the top performing two as a team, and I think we want to do that more. And so, we’ve got all the right people in the right spot. The new shop’s going to pump some new life into our guys and into ourselves, and we’re gonna go out and work our asses off this year.”