Bubba Wallace slays 2022 demons, completes 23XI Kansas sweep

2022 had been a season of near-misses and heartbreak for Bubba Wallace, who stepped up his performance from the previous year but was frequently plagued by misfortunes on pit road or simply coming up short. After missing the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs and moving to injured team-mate Kurt Busch‘s #45 car for the postseason, he finally found his way to Victory Lane.

Wallace took the lead on lap 225 of Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway and led the remaining forty-three laps to finally win in 2022 and for the second time in his career. Besides advancing the #45 to the next round of the owner’s playoffs, the victory makes non-playoff drivers two-for-two so far after Erik Jones‘ Darlington triumph; Wallace’s maiden win at the 2021 YellaWood 500 was also as a playoff spoiler. While that win was shortened by rain, Kansas saw him win entirely on pace after holding off his 23XI Racing boss Denny Hamlin.

“I get excited, and I get let down a lot when I’m excited, so it’s better to come into it ho-hum and be relieved with the win at the end of it,” said Wallace. “It’s really, really cool. I think you never know when it’s over. You had Denny behind us that was coming pretty hard, but it was going to take a really big mistake for him to get to me. So I was really focused on that. I didn’t have time to think about anything else.”

He had enjoyed great success at the first Kansas race in May but a late pit penalty doomed his chances of winning that, though Busch would take the victory. As such, the #45 is one of a small handful of a Cup car that has won multiple races in a season with different drivers, with the latest instance being in 2002 with Sterling Marlin and Jamie McMurray in the #40 for Chip Ganassi Racing; the #45 joins the #21 of Wood Brothers Racing in achieving the feat at the same track as WBR’s A.J. Foyt and David Pearson both won with the #21 at Daytona in 1972.

“We are winners again,” Busch tweeted. “Proud of @BubbaWallace and @23XIRacing for getting it done today.”

Wallace recalled, “I remember the conversation that Denny pulled me aside down in Florida, and he goes, ‘Hey, we want you to drive the #45 and compete for a championship. We believe in you.’ It’s continue to do what we do. I didn’t walk away from that being like, ‘Oh man, we got to ramp it up here.’ We’ve been stellar. We’ve been really, really good.

“It’s only a matter of time, and the little bit of things that we needed to clean up, and here we are today. We executed today. Still wasn’t a perfect day, but we were able to execute and bounce back and make the most of it.”

While not the Toyota masterclass of the AdventHealth 400 where all six Camrys finished in the top ten, Toyota drivers still occupied four of the top five positions with Christopher Bell (third) and Martin Truex Jr. (fifth). The two exceptions, Kyle Busch and Ty Gibbs, respectively suffered spins that ruined their days.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	6	45	Bubba Wallace^	23XI Racing	Toyota	267	Running
2	25	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	267	Running
3	4	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	267	Running
4	3	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	267	Running
5	12	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	267	Running
6	9	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	267	Running
7	5	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	267	Running
8	7	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	267	Running
9	17	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	267	Running
10	15	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	267	Running
11	22	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	267	Running
12	8	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	267	Running
13	13	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	267	Running
14	11	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	267	Running
15	10	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	267	Running
16	23	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	267	Running
17	2	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	266	Running
18	28	16	Noah Gragson*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	266	Running
19	27	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	266	Running
20	21	42	Ty Dillon	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	266	Running
21	36	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	266	Running
22	29	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	266	Running
23	32	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	266	Running
24	31	77	Landon Cassill*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	266	Running
25	26	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	266	Running
26	20	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	265	Running
27	30	51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	265	Running
28	33	15	J.J. Yeley*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	264	Running
29	24	43	Erik Jones	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	264	Running
30	35	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	262	Running
31	34	78	B.J. McLeod*	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	262	Running
32	18	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	115	Accident
33	19	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	114	Accident
34	16	23	Ty Gibbs*	23XI Racing	Toyota	90	Accident
35	1	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	67	Accident
36	14	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	33	Accident

Bold – Currently in playoffs
^ – Currently in owner playoffs
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points