Bubba Wallace opens up on his dynamic with new crew chief at 23XI Racing

23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace opened up about his dynamic with new crew chief Charles Denike and the shift in his mental approach that's helping him navigate tough results. Wallace also highlighted the importance of surrounding himself with the right people, which has allowed him to stay focused on the right things.

The #23 Toyota driver worked with crew chief Bootie Barker for his first four seasons with the Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin co-owned team. For his fifth season, he was paired with Charles Denike, who previously served as a Truck Series crew chief for five years and had a successful 2024 campaign with Christian Eckes.

Bubba Wallace is coming off back-to-back DNF results at Texas and Kansas, but isn't letting the tough weekends affect his mental approach. A stretch like this might have been devastating for the #23 Toyota driver last year, but Denike has helped him stay focused on the positives.

"I texted Charles after Texas about 8:30, 9 o’clock. I was like, ‘DAMN IT!’ All caps. He was like, ‘What the hell just happened?’ I said, ‘I was still venting after Texas’" Wallace told Catchfence.com.

"He replied, ‘As long as we continue believe in each other, good and bad days are going to come, but we will be all right.’ I believe that wholeheartedly. We showed up on Saturday in Kansas with speed, with confidence. We started off the race really strong. It just wasn’t in the cards for us. As much as we manifested it and wanted it to be, it wasn’t supposed to work out. I’ve learned to accept it," he added.

#23 Crew Chief Charles Denike (Source: Getty)

Bubba Wallace and Charles Denike have kick-started their 2025 season on a high note, winning the Duel race at Daytona. They've maintained the momentum by consistently scoring valuable stage points, which has kept the #23 Toyota driver inside the Top 12 in the playoff standings, despite recording four DNFs in the first 12 rounds.

In recent seasons, Wallace often found himself hovering around the playoff bubble for much of the regular season. This year, however, he's in a much stronger position — currently sitting 10th in the standings and 66 points above the cutline.

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Bubba Wallace explains lack of changes to short track package at North Wilkesboro

Bubba Wallace explained why NASCAR ultimately chose not to implement any changes to the short-track package at North Wilkesboro, despite earlier floating the idea of 'run what you brung race'. Teams pushed back on the idea, suggesting the $1 million prize wasn't a good enough financial incentive.

Although the non-points-paying race could have been an ideal race to test a new short-track package, Wallace said that blindly throwing stuff at the Gen-7 car without proper data wouldn't improve the package.

"You can't just throw something at it with no data behind it. So I get that, it takes time, while we want it to happen in the next immediate short track race. I'm sure it's a work in progress but we just haven't seen anything yet" he said via Frontstretch. [3:30 onwards]

Bubba Wallace hasn't secured a spot in the All-Star Race and will start 14th in the All-Star Open on Sunday, May 18. The #23 Toyota driver will either need to win the fan vote or finish inside the top two in the Open race to advance to the main event.