Bubba Wallace "took a big step forward" during the 2023 NASCAR Cup season, insists Dale Earnhardt Jr.

23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace capped off his most successful NASCAR Cup Series season in 2023. Wallace qualified for the playoffs and advanced to the second round, finishing his season with a career-high 10th spot in the standings.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. praised the #23 Toyota driver for making rapid strides across the board this past season. Dale Jr. expected Wallace to lose the intra-team battle with newcomer Tyler Reddick this season, however, he accepted he had been proven wrong.

While grading the 2023 Cup Series drivers' performance in a recent episode of Dale Jr. Download, Dale Jr. said:

"Bubba Wallace, career-high points finished this year and I will say this was an improvement. I know statistically you could argue whether it was an improvement or not but when I saw Tyler Reddick come to this team 23XI, I thought Tyler Reddick is really going to drive Bubba Wallace to achieve more. That's going to put pressure on Bubba.

"It's been different than that, it's not really worked out like I expected. They've actually run somewhat similar and at times many times Bubba Wallace has performed better. Bubba had some amazing qualifying efforts this year and ran well at other races that traditionally he hadn't ran at."

Furthermore, Wallace had traditionally struggled on road courses but seemed to pick up the pace late in the season for the final two races at Watkins Glen and the Charlotte Roval.

On this, Dale Jr. said:

"He improved at the road courses throughout the season and also at the other races tracks he struggled at. So Bubba Wallace, according to me, took a big step forward and just becoming an overall better driver across the board."

Despite not winning a race this season, Wallace and the 23XI Racing team are coming off a stellar campaign and heading into 2024 with momentum on their side.

---

Bubba Wallace recalls his first racing event

In a recent feature by Mobil 1 titled Why We Race: Bubba Wallace, the 30-year-old Cup Series driver recalled the first national event he entered as a kid and how his grit set his path towards racing.

"I know my first race was a national event 300-400 plus cars total," he narrated. "I remember spinning, and the last thing I saw was an old Chevy Suburban sitting there, and all I thought I was gonna do was cream the Suburban right, but I came very, very soft stop it was the catch fence that I did not see."

Wallace wasn't injured by the accident, but his determination to immediately fix the car was the first hint of his passion for racing.

"That’s all I remember from my first race, but I did ask my dad if we could fix it and get back out there... but when I asked if we could fix it and get back out, he knew like, All right, I guess we’ll show back up next week. I guess that’s where love came from," he continued.