“History isn’t really on his side”: NASCAR YouTuber makes 'Way-Too-Early' 2025 playoff prediction about Bubba Wallace 

NASCAR YouTuber Eric Estepp shared a video on his channel earlier today in which he predicted driver Bubba Wallace would be unable to make it to the playoffs in 2025. The video that Estepp shared was about his early predictions for the Top 16 drivers who will make it into the playoffs this year, and the #23 driver and his team did not make the list.

Estepp argues that since the 23XI Racing driver has never secured a victory during the regular season throughout his Cup Series career, it is unlikely that he will break the duck this year. Discussing his reasoning in the video titled My Way-Too-Early NASCAR Playoff Predictions | 2025 Edition, the YouTuber's analysis was:

“Ultimately to make the cup series playoffs you gotta win races, and Bubba Wallace has never won a regular season Cup Series race. Not one, and he hasn't won any Cup Series race since 2022. It's been more than two years, his car the #23 has never made the owners playoffs. The #23 team usually waits until the mid-summer to find their groove, reach their peak but that's a lot of time to waste."

"Maybe with the new crew chief they'll start stronger, hit the ground running early in the season but we've never seen this team do that, ever - and we have like four years of sample size. Now you can absolutely make a case for Bubba Wallace but history isn't really on his side,” he added [16:06 onwards].

The victories that Eric referred to came back in 2021, when Wallace secured his first win at Talladega, and in 2022 when he won in Kansas. Both of these races took place during the playoff part of the season. Estepp also concedes in his video that the #23 driver is coming off the most successful year in his career, with a career-high of six Top 5 and 14 Top 10 finishes.

During his tenure at the top tier of stock car racing, most of his success has come with his current team, apart from three Top 5s and 11 Top 10s that came with Richard Petty Motorsports. Wallace has overall scored two wins, 22 Top 5s, and 46 Top 10s, along with 3 pole positions.

Bubba Wallace motivated for upcoming season

Bubba Wallace drives the #23 Toyota Camry XSE during the NASCAR Cup Series Championship - Source: Imagn

Earlier this month, Bubba Wallace took to his social media account to share his new approach to his well-being. Posting on his X (formerly Twitter) account, Wallace discussed the changes he's made to his diet, exercise, and mindset, all of which helped him prepare for the 2025 season.

Capping off the thread, the #23 driver said:

"2025 is gonna be a grind. Time to roll up the sleeves, grab a glove and get in the game! Let’s go to work!"

Bubba Wallace returns to the track this year with new crew chief Charles Denike once the season begins with the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray on February 2nd.