Bubba Wallace Identifies The Key To His Hot Start In 2026

Bubba Wallace pinpoints key to hot start in 2026

“I’ve always said at the start of every year that I want to be out of the headlines. I always find myself in it, and I’m assuming that’s just my personality. I say one thing and it takes off or I do one thing and it takes off,” Wallace explained Tuesday. “So, I’ve just been trying to hit on everything we’ve talked about in the offseason of what we need to do better.”

In his five chances behind the wheel this year, Bubba has finished top-10 in all but one — when he finished P11 at COTA.

“It comes down to managing races,” he continued. “The biggest thing that stood out in the conversation between myself, Charles [Denike, crew chief], and Dave Rogers [23XI performance director] was our floor to ceiling ratio is way too big. We need to raise the floor on the bad days and keep raising the ceiling for when it’s our good days and make sure we’re on top."

“When things weren’t going our way, we would just bleed spots throughout the race, and I struggled to take a 15th-place race car and finish 12th. ... So, just trying to clean up the things we wanted to has just been the start of it. Having fast race cars goes with it as well, and it allows you to focus on that stuff a little bit easier and let all the outside stuff sit on its place.”

It's really been a banner year for Wallace, Reddick and the rest of Michael Jordan's team to begin 2026. Now it's just a matter os sustaining this excellence and adding more podiums to their tally throughout the rest of the calendar.