Bubba Wallace explains what happened in practice crash at Texas

Bubba Wallace seems to have a fast No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend, but he won't get a chance to show it in qualifying. 

That's because Wallace, who was fifth-quickest in Saturday's NASCAR Cup Series practice session at Texas, crashed in practice and will likely have to go to a backup car. He will not make a qualifying lap and will start from the rear of the pack in Sunday's Wurth 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). 

"It just came around out of nowhere," Wallace said, per Matt Weaver of Motorsport.com. "[It] surprised me. I knew I was loose in the moment, corrected and it was too late. Hate it. Thought we had some decent speed in our Chumba Casino Camry. Long Saturday. It's going to make for a good Sunday, though."

Bubba Wallace has odds stacked against him at Texas

The good news for Wallace is that Texas has been good to him in recent years. He won the pole at the 1.5-mile oval in 2023 and led 111 laps en route to a third-place finish. He finished seventh at TMS in 2024 before crashing out a year ago.