Bubba Wallace's road course improvement deserves commendation

Going into the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, it was easy to simply put Bubba Wallace out of mind when the NASCAR circuit visited a road course. 

Road courses had noticeably been Wallace's archnemesis since he became a full-time Cup Series competitor in 2018. Even after joining 23XI Racing, which gave Wallace the best cars he'd driven to that point in his career, the track type was still a struggle for the Mobile, Ala., native. 

That changed in the 2023 race at Watkins Glen, where Wallace —needing a strong run to make the Cup Series playoffs — ran the best road course race of his career to that point, finishing 12th in a race that was crucial in the No. 23 team making the postseason field. 

A year later, it can be argued that road courses are no longer a consistent struggle for the 31-year-old Wallace, who might have topped his Watkins Glen performance on Sunday at the Charlotte Roval. 

A strong qualifying effort of ninth on Saturday gave Wallace and the No. 23 team track position when the green flag flew. And while Wallace fell victim to a course-cutting penalty on lap 12, he persevered, finishing fifth in Stage Two and running inside the top five in Stage Three. 

Once the final pit cycle occurred, Wallace was solidly inside the top 10. He brought his Camry home in ninth place to cap a resilient effort in the final road course event of 2024. Making his performance even more special was the fact that Wallace's son, Becks, was in attendance to see his father race for the first time. 

Sunday's race in Charlotte wasn't an anomaly for Wallace, however. 2024 has been the strongest statistical season of Wallace's career, a truth made more evident by his numbers on road courses. Wallace hasn't finished worse than 20th on a road course all season and scored top-15 finishes at both COTA and Chicago. 

It would've been easy for the No. 23 team to fold after their early setback on Sunday afternoon, but an impressive drive by Wallace put the field on notice that he's no longer a pushover when the circuit turns left and right. 

For a driver who's shown marked improvement since joining 23XI in 2021, Wallace was able to put another feather in his cap on Sunday. The first road course race of 2025 will be held at COTA on March 2. That will be another chance for Wallace to show off his newfound road course acumen.