Bubba Wallace joins JGR for Xfinity at COTA, Indy

Bubba Wallace will return to the team with whom he began his NASCAR Xfinity Series career. On Tuesday, 23XI Racing announced he will drive the #18 Toyota GR Supra of Joe Gibbs Racing at Circuit of the Americas on 26 March and Indianapolis Motor Speedway on 30 July. Both road course starts are intended to give him more track time ahead of his primary competition in the Cup Series races the next day. Dr Pepper, a sponsor of 23XI, will join him at JGR.

During his years in Toyota’s driver development programme, Wallace made his Xfinity début in 2012 with JGR, scoring top tens in two tries at Iowa. He did not race in 2013 as he focused on the Camping World Truck Series before making two more starts at Talladega and Daytona, with another top ten at the latter. He departed Toyota for Ford in 2015 and raced full-time in the Xfinity Series between 2015 and early 2017 with what is now RFK Racing.

He permanently moved up to the Cup Series in 2018. Wallace would not return to Xfinity until the 2021 Michigan race for Hattori Racing Enterprises, where he placed tenth. In eighty-six career Xfinity starts, he has six top fives, thirty-six top tens, and two poles.

“I’m looking forward to partnering back up with Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series after making my first career start in NASCAR with them about ten years ago,” said Wallace. “The #18 Toyota GR Supra team is always strong and I’m excited to be competing with them at COTA and Indianapolis. Thanks to the team at 23XI and Toyota for helping to make this happen and thanks to Dr Pepper for coming on board for the race at COTA.”

Now in his second Cup season with 23XI, Wallace sits eighteenth in points after five races with a runner-up finish in the Daytona 500. He was in race win contention for much of Sunday’s Atlanta event before last-lap incidents resulted in a thirteenth-place run.

JGR’s #18 is the team’s multi-driver car. Drew Dollar, Trevor Bayne, Ryan Truex, and John Hunter Nemechek have all made starts for the team in 2022, and it is currently eleventh in the owner’s standings with a best finish of third at Fontana courtesy of Bayne.