Denike, who is in his second consecutive full-time season as a crew chief in the Craftsman Truck Series for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, will replace veteran Bootie Barker as Bubba Wallace's No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota crew chief for the 2025 Cup Series season.
The two-time Xfinity Series champion led a race-high 97 of 267-scheduled laps and executed a final-lap pass on Playoff contender Ryan Blaney to grab his third Cup victory of the 2024 season and race his way into his first Championship 4 appearance.
The 2021 Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led a race-high 62 of 109-scheduled laps and muscled away from the field during a 26-lap dash to the finish to notch his sixth Cup victory of the 2024 season and race his way into the Playoff's Round of 8.
The 2023 Daytona 500 champion from Olive Branch, Mississippi, led 19 of 195 over-scheduled laps and edged Brad Keselowski by 0.006 seconds during an overtime shootout to snap a 65-race winless drought and record his fourth Cup career victory at 'Dega.
The 2021 Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led a race-high 462 of 500 laps and secured his spot into the Playoff's Round of 12 with his fifth Cup Series victory of 2024 at Thunder Valley.
The 30-year-old Wallace from Mobile, Alabama, will remain at 23XI Racing on a new multiyear basis as he is currently campaigning in his seventh consecutive season in the Cup Series division.
The two-time Cup Series champion from Middletown, Connecticut, led nine of 266 over-scheduled laps and became the first Playoff competitor to transfer from the Round of 16 to 12 by winning the 2024 Playoff for the first time ever.
In a span of 367 grueling laps of the 2024 Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Chris Buescher and Bubba Wallace went from competing against one another for the 16th and final berth to this year’s Playoffs to both being knocked out of contention amid a new race winner capitalizing on the Playoff’s “Win and You’re In” format.
With their respective top-10 runs at Daytona, Chris Buescher and Ty Gibbs are currently scored above the top-16 cutline to make the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs while Bubba Wallace is scored below the cutline ahead of next weekend's regular-season finale at Darlington.
