Bubba Wallace, No. 23 team walking 'fine line' in NASCAR Cup Series as Chase bubble heats up

SiriusXM NASCAR Radio host Dave Moody accurately described Bubba Wallace's summer results as the equivalent of an EKG on Wednesday. 

Over the last eight races, Wallace has four finishes of sixth or better — but also four of 21st or worse. With four races left in the regular season, he's 14th in the standings and 60 points above the Chase cut line. 

Summer has been up and down for Bubba Wallace

"It's such a fine line week in and week out on the level of competitiveness in this series," said Wallace's crew chief, Charles Denike, speaking Wednesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. "You can't make mistakes. The main focus is trying to control everything that we can control to not have setbacks that you then have to fight through. 

"It's a lot easier when the weekend is more straightforward. You feel like you have confidence you can run in the top five and top 10; you just need to execute a clean weekend."

If the recent trend for the No. 23 team is to be believed, Sunday's race at Iowa should be a good one for Wallace, who finished 17th at the 0.875-mile short track in 2024 but rebounded with a sixth-place effort in 2025 with Denike atop the pit box. 

"We had a good long run car last year," Denike said. "Had an incident, hitting the wall during the race where we had to change a toe link. On the final run, Bubba drove from last to [sixth]. Really encouraged with the capability of the car then and what we're able to bring this year."