TOYOTA RACING – Bubba Wallace
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (September 2, 2026) – 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace was made available to the media on Wednesday as part of NASCAR Chase Media Day at the Charlotte Convention Center.
BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 Xfinity Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
What did the peptalk mean to you and the team?
“It was just nice to hear the feedback from a guy who has been through the Chase. He’s been doing it for a long time, and he’s giving his expertise and guidance on that, so it helps us shape up the next 10 weeks.”
Where do you think 23XI is right now?
“I think we are in a pretty good spot. Our 23 group is hungry for more, none of us are satisfied with being the 14th seed going into the Chase. We have a lot of work to do, but with that means a lot of excitement.”
What is like going into the first race of the Postseason as a driver?
“When you are in the Chase, it is like alright, that flow of nerves kind of settles in, whether it is a lot or a little, it settles in. You can’t ignore the fact that the nerves are there. Then yeah, it is time to go. You’ve worked hard all season long to put yourself in this position. Some are in better positions than others. For me, it is exciting for us on the 23 team. Really looking forward to Darlington and the next 10 weeks, but really trying to not get too far out ahead of ourselves. One step at a time. Base hits. Our Toyotas are stupid fast. We’ve recognized that many months ago, and so to just continue to build on that and just have fun and enjoy the moment. I think that is another aspect that we often forget is to enjoy the moment. It is always business as usual and super intense, but you have to have that pressure release valve kind of right there in your hip pocket to keep the emotions in check.”
What do you think of the Chase format with no resets or no win and you advance?
“I think for us, we looked at, Darlington is good for us. We looked at that is a good opportunity to win and get ourselves locked into the next round, and when you didn’t win that was a little bit of a frustration, because you are like okay, we still have to dig ourselves out of a hole. Gateway is a decent track for us, and Bristol is kind of hit or miss. As for now, it’s just go execute. Have a good, clean race at Darlington. Re-rack them, and go do the same thing for nine weeks after that. You never know where you could set yourself up to be at.”
With no win and you advance mulligan, do you feel like its 10 straight weeks of pressure?
“I say no. Just 10 weeks of great opportunity. Only track that I have circled is Martinsville. We weren’t that good in the Spring. We’ve felt like we’ve made some holistic changes to our set-up format for short tracks. Yeah, I just look at it as exciting.”
How easy or difficult will it be to return to your early season form?
“Get back on the horse and continue to ride, really. Our cars have only gotten faster since the beginning of the season. We just haven’t done a good job on capitalizing on that. I think for us, it is get to Darlington, a track we have all grown to love and be super successful at, and appreciate that aspect.”
With the way Toyotas are performing throughout the regular season, are there expectations that come with that?
“I think it is expectations on both parties. On the drivers and the manufacturers. We do our best to give the best feedback to Toyota to build a race car that is the way that it is on track, and then the pressure of delivering in the race car that we want falls back on the drivers. Toyota has done so much for the sport, and so much for our teams in the Cup Series to give us absolute bullets to go out and drive each and every week, so it has been a lot of fun to be the manufacturer to chase and having that brand on your chest each and every weekend and driving that car. It goes hand in hand with each other.”
The narrative has been that you need to be in the top-six to have a shot at this. Do you believe that?
“The same people that say that say you can’t really chase numbers because you get lost in translation. If you put together the best 10 weeks for us and you do that better than the rest – who knows if that propels us to a championship, because we are 90 points behind, but if you outperform the rest of the group, then who knows. I think anybody has a shot. Now if the points didn’t reset, I think we were 300 or so points out from Denny (Hamlin), we had no shot. But we are 90 out, and if you win a race, it’s up to 75 points. Especially if he gets one point off of that, so we will see how it goes.”
Have you looked how the Chase unfolded when it was in this type of format?
“No, just because it’s so different. The cars are different; the driver pool is different.”
How will Talladega impact things?
“I don’t know. I think that could be a momentum ender, because it is later, if things don’t go your way. Look at the Spring – we were leading and got crashed. I look at Talladega as one as a momentum ender, but also as a great opportunity to capitalize on other’s mistakes and pitfalls.”
Where do you feel like the team’s strength is right now?
“I would say mile-and-a-halves are probably our bread and butter right now, but who knows, what amount of work the other manufacturers have put in to catch up. With all of that being said, we can’t get complacent. It may seem like a shoo-in for Toyota to win the mile-and-a-halves, but this is the Cup Series. It is freaking hard. All of these guys are good. We are in the Chase for a reason.”
How will your ability to earn stage points help you during the Chase?
“It is just clean, green races. That is it. Just capitalizing on the opportunities in front of you, not try to get too much when you are running sixth or seventh – take that, it is a good day. You can’t get caught up in what everybody else is doing. I find myself doing that a lot – where are we points wise – just run your race, and everything will work out how it is supposed to work out. You can’t make up the hundreds of points that we’ve given up at the beginning of the season. That is done, that is over with. All you can do is focus on what it ahead of you and what you can do in the moment.”
How long does it take to reach that mental standpoint?
“I think you realize your potential, for me, early on in a race, but it doesn’t mean you settle for sixth in stage one. It’s like okay; we are only good enough for sixth right now, let’s see how stage two goes. If you are still sixth, maybe it is a sixth-place day, instead of trying to turn a sixth-place day into a first-place day and hitting the wall or running in the back of somebody and making it a 12th-place day. I think just understanding that and not being okay with being a winning car.”
What has this year been like for you?
“For me, part of it has been the same old shit, different day kind of mentality, but being able to manage it a little bit better has made it less of a roller-coaster ride as you mention. Still the frustrations of having fast cars with crap results – that is still there. Falling tremendously in the points, getting back on the cut line. All of that stuff kind of hit the replay button, but kind of how you went through it has changed. I think this year, where we are at – 14th seed – it was like we are good enough to be top-seven, so the stress of, am I going to be in or am I not, no we are good enough. If we go out and execute, and finish second like we did in Loudon, all of that stuff – if we do our things right, it should happen.”
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