When Bubba Wallace silenced his naysayers after holding off Denny Hamlin at Kansas

23XI Racing Team driver Bubba Wallace held his team owner, Denny Hamlin, at the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on September 11, 2022. This win marked a memorable moment in Wallace's career. Despite a slow start, the Toyota driver pulled off an unexpected win, and everyone praised him, including Denny Hamlin.

The 2022 season was not going well for Wallace, and his performance was not up to the mark. He even made contact with Kyle Larson at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, resulting in a DNF for Larson. This led to a one-race suspension for the 23XI racing team driver. But after the Kansas race win, the 30-year-old silenced all his critics with his performance.

Wallace qualified for the race in sixth place with a best time of 30.124 seconds and a top speed of 179.259 mph. He was just 0.225 seconds behind the leader, Tyler Reddick. The 23XI racing driver displayed his goals from the start of the race, fighting with others and gradually moving up his spots.

Since lap 32 of Stage 1 of the race, Bubba Wallace started battling with Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, and Ross Chastain for third place. The driver had to pit on the 84th lap due to loose tires and finished in fifth place by the end. By the end of Stage 2, he moved up a spot and finished in fourth place.

In the 225th lap, the #23 Toyota Camry driver took the lead and led the remaining laps. After a few laps, Denny Hamlin started catching up with Wallace, and in the 262nd, the former was just 1.4 seconds behind the latter. Hamlin's time kept on decreasing with each lap, and in the 266th, he was just 1.2 seconds behind the #23 driver.

However, Wallace didn't give up the lead and won the second victory of his NASCAR career. In a post-race interview, Wallace expressed his views on his win, saying:

"Just so proud pit crew was awesome today we had one loose wheel and just, uh, just thankful. Thanks for the opportunity and thankful to shut the hell up for a lot of people." [03:47]

A look at Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace's stats in the NextGen racing

Bubba Wallace didn't have a promising season, and the best rack rank he got was in the 2023 season, finishing in tenth place. He has two wins and three pole positions in his career. Wallace has 19 top-five and 34 top-ten finishes in his career from 2021. The #23 driver has led a total of 625 laps in his career till the Bristol race held on Saturday, September 21, 2024.

On the other hand, Denny Hamlin is on a whole different level compared to Bubba Wallace. The #11 driver finished third in the 2021 season with two wins, 19 top-five finishes, and 25 top-ten finishes. He alone led a total of 1502 laps in the 2021 season. In the 2022 and 2023 seasons, he finished in fifth place with a total of five wins in both seasons.

In the 2024 season, Denny Hamlin is in sixth place and advancing in the round of 12, and Bubba Wallace is in 19th rank with no wins.