Editor‘s note: This is the 20th in a series in which we review the top 30 drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series in reverse order of the 2025 final standings.
Driver: Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota
Crew chief: Charles Denike
Final 2025 Ranking: 11th
Key Stats: 1 win, 6 top fives, 14 top 10s, 378 laps led
How 2025 ended: Wallace made the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for the second time in his career and got off to a stellar start in the postseason, clinching his Round of 12 spot by the end of Stage 1 in the Round of 16 elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway. But his best chance to advance to the Round of 8 with a Kansas win was wiped away in the last set of corners when team co-owner Denny Hamlin slid high in Turn 3, leaving Wallace in the wall and with a fifth-place finish instead en route to an 11th-place finish in the final standings with first-year crew chief Denike at the helm.
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Best race: No event compares for Wallace‘s season than leaving Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a Brickyard 400 winner, snapping a 100-race winless streak in the process. Wallace led 30 laps and held off defending Brickyard winner Kyle Larson by 0.222 seconds in overtime to secure his first crown-jewel victory and a kiss of the bricks. His No. 23 Toyota was up front all day, earning the day’s best average running position at 4.93 after qualifying second at the famed 2.5-mile track.
MORE: Wallace silences biggest doubter with Brickyard win
Other season highlights: Wallace led a career-high 123 laps at Richmond Raceway, but a detached wheel during green-flag pit stops cost the No. 23 driver too much time to overcome, saddling him with a 28th-place finish instead. His year following the Brickyard triumph was filled with both highs and lows, ending the campaign with a feast-or-famine stat sheet of six top 10s and eight finishes of 15th or worse in the final 14 races of 2025.
Stat to know: Wallace‘s top-line stats mirrored his 2024 campaign, equaling career-bests with six top fives and 14 top 10s. But this year, there was one notable positive and one negative: He led a career-high 378 laps this year while also tallying his most DNFs — nine — with eight coming as the result of crashes.
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RELATED: Final 2025 standings | Wallace through the years
Quotable: “Honestly, it’s been a lot of fun to show up to the race track with a new mindset and having an opportunity to win just about every week is what you want. Bootie (Barker, former crew chief) taught me that: Keep throwing your name in the hat, they‘ll eventually pull it. So it’s just been fun. And it goes back to what I told Charles when we met for the first time: Man, I want to have fun when we go to the race track, and we’ve been doing just that.” — Bubba Wallace on his 2025 season.
Looking ahead: Wallace made apparent gains through all track types in 2025, even bettering his previously noted struggles at road courses. His No. 23 Toyota was frequently running closer to the front of the field than in years past and had a legitimate chance to advance to the semifinal round of the NASCAR Playoffs this season. That personal momentum, coupled with a second year with Denike atop the pit box, should lead to further success for Wallace in 2026 as he climbs the echelon in pursuit of becoming one of the sport‘s best overall drivers.
