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NASCAR just concluded its first short track race of the season at Richmond Raceway, and Bubba Wallace Jr. posted another disappointing performance.
While his boss, Denny Hamlin, was driving a Toyota Camry No. 11 for Joe Gibbs Racing, carrying the checkered flag, Bubba Wallace Jr. struggled in the top 30 finishing 26th.
23XI Racing went ahead on Twitter and stated that it was not their best day, with Wallace Jr. finishing in 26th place and Kurt Busch in 35th.
Bubba Wallace Jr. has looked dominant in the past and in most of his recent races he has been running in the top-five or top-ten. He fought in Richmond to reach the front position, but his efforts did not yield any fruit.
He began the day in pole 29 and his main assignment was to make sure he made his way to the front of the pack to have an opportunity to control the race. From the looks of things, it seems the assignment turned out to be difficult.
While everyone was expecting to see him lead several laps by the end of the race, he was nowhere to be seen as he was running in the top 20. The race was disheartening for the 23XI team as his teammate Kurt Busch dropped out in the early stages after he lost fuel pressure.
Following the 26th place finish, Bubba Wallace Jr. now sits in 20th position in the table standings, with 133 points behind Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin.
Bubba Wallace Jr.'s performances in the 2022 season continue to deteriorate
The 23XI driver of Toyota No. 23 began the season with very high expectations after he closely lost the Daytona 500 as a runner-up.
Since then, he has struggled to regain his top finish, but the situation is slowly getting out of hand following four disappointing weekends. Since Daytona, he has finished 19th, 25th, 22nd 13th, 38th and 26th, dropping from 4th place in the drivers standings to 22nd place.
At Atlanta Speedway, he had the chance to finish in the top-five after sitting in the top-five in the final laps and even led laps. However, at the end of the race, he was caught up in a start/finish line wreck, pushing him to the 13th position.
During NASCAR’s first road course race at COTA, the vocal driver encountered the most stressful weekend, losing his tire and ruling him out of the race. As a result of the tire loss, his crew chief and several crew members were suspended for four races.
With over 25 races remaining, Bubba Wallace Jr. still has time to make up ground on the points table.
