“Time doesn’t stop for you”: Bubba Wallace opens up on NASCAR's harsh reality amid poor run of results

Following his back-to-back DNFs, Bubba Wallace is entering Kansas with a wiser state of mind. Wallace, who until two races ago, was enjoying the best Cup season start of his career, got hit by a series of disappointing results at Talladega and Kansas.

So now that he's heading into Kansas, a racetrack he has won previously at, the 23XI Racing driver is a little more aware of how NASCAR can be.

"It’s, I think, learning you know how the sport can go. You can start your year off the best we’ve ever done, and you got to be mindful that it can go south quick — which it has. But that shouldn’t deter you from the path that you’ve set yourself up for the start of the year," Wallace said as per Frontstretch.

And so you can be frustrated and pi**ed off all you want, but as long as you make it constructive criticism, giving yourself and the team the right feedback to keep the needle forward, that’s what I’ve been trying to do," he added.

Wallace claimed that it's easier for him to put it all aside, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating for him. Wallace claimed, that while it's "still hard," it is still what it is, simply because of the nature of NASCAR.

"The sport doesn’t stop; time doesn’t stop for you. So no need to sit and dwell on it. There’s a lot of people in your corner that are looking for good things out of this weekend, so we’ve got to go out and do that for them," Bubba Wallace said.

Bubba Wallace has some big expectations to deliver on in 2024

Earlier this year, before the season began, Bubba Wallace's boss, Denny Hamlin, the co-owner of 23XI Racing, made it pretty clear what he expects out of his two cars for the 2024 season. Hamlin claimed that while their expectations are to get better. And while having two cars in the playoffs is a goal, it is too modest of a goal for everything they have going on.

"My goal would be to have both cars, at least both cars in the Final 8," Hamlin said on Actions Detrimental.

The #11 driver claimed that Wallace and Tyler Reddick have everything they need to go out there every week and compete for race wins. In fact, Hamlin believes that the same expectations that are there from a Joe Gibbs Racing car, should also be there for a 23XI car.

"I don’t understand why that we would move our goals any lower than that,” he claimed.

Hamlin's goals, or at least the trajectory of them, was something that Wallace was headed towards until Talladega. He had scored three top 5 finishes and a top 10 in Texas. But after that came his two DNFs.

So heading into Kansas, Wallace would be hoping to turn his fortunes around and get back on the track that would not only take him to race wins, but take him deeper into the playoffs.