"There’s gonna be a lot of pressure": Bubba Wallace's future at 23XI Racing could get tricky as per NASCAR Insider

NASCAR journalist Jordan Bianchi made a sharp comment on what the future could hold for Bubba Wallace, following his elimination from playoff contention this season. Wallace was the first driver for 23XI Racing when it was announced in 2020. The #23 driver has been with the team owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan since the beginning and has two wins in four seasons.

In half of that time, Wallace's teammate Tyler Reddick has done more than double of it. Reddick joined 23XI in 2023, and since then has won four races, and the NASCAR Regular Season championship title for this season.

Bubba Wallace, on the other hand, has only one playoff appearance throughout his career in the Cup Series. And Reddick has made back-to-back playoff appearances for 23XI Racing.

Highlighting this contrast between the two 23XI drivers, NASCAR insider Bianchi said:

"This is year four for Bubba Wallace at 23XI Racing. They’ve made the playoffs one time. He’s won two races. That’s tough to swallow when your teammate is — Tyler Reddick, has won two races in each of the last two years, and just won the regular season championship. That’s hard. There’s gonna be a lot of pressure on Bubba next year. You’ve got to take that next step. Some of the things you can’t control. You can’t control getting wrecked at Michigan when you got a fast racecar."

Bianchi praised Wallace's performance at Darlington but mentioned that when the speed got away from him, their race crumbled. He claimed that sometimes the #23 team doesn't do "a good enough job" of staying on top of things.

As for the aspect of bad luck and being collected in a wreck, something that happened at Darlington as well, Bianchi said that Wallace needs to stop putting himself in those situations.

"Sometimes that’s unavoidable with pit stop cycles, but too often it seems like they find themselves in these spots where they shouldn’t be, and bad things happen to them," he added.

Bubba Wallace opens up on him not making the playoffs after the race at Darlington

Having started the race at Darlington from the pole, Bubba Wallace was heading towards having an ideal evening in hopes of making the playoffs. His results in the past few weeks suggested Wallace had found the speed and consistency that could take him to the playoffs.

From Nashville onwards, Wallace had three finishes inside the top 10 and a couple inside the top 5. But after he found himself on the wrong side of luck, being collected in a late-race wreck at Darlington, Wallace's playoff hopes worsened.

Speaking after the last race of the regular season, Wallace remarked that his not making the playoffs wasn't for a lack of effort.

"Man, just wasn’t good enough for 16th this year. I hate that. It stinks saying that, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort for all of us on the 23 car. Best of luck to the 45 (Tyler Reddick) and hopefully a Toyota wins," Wallace said after the race at Darlington.

Wallace deemed his not being in the playoffs as an unfortunate affair. But he also praised Chase Briscoe, the race-winner at Darlington, for one-upping the #23 team and showing up when it was game time.