NASCAR veteran Denny Hamlin continues to marvel at the development of Bubba Wallace.
Over the past five seasons, the No. 23 Toyota Camry driver has steadily improved and is in the midst of a career year in 2025. Wallace stacked another win with his victory at the Brickyard 400 this summer, has led a career-high 368 laps and now finds himself in the Cup Series playoffs for the second time.
On Hamlin’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast, the 23XI co-owner spoke on the performances Bubba has been able to put together of late. And even admitted that Wallace has “the fastest freakin’ car we’ve got.”
Hamlin on Bubba: ‘I can’t believe it’
“Bubba’s turnaround over the last few years has just been — I can’t believe it, truthfully,” Hamlin shared. “The maturity he has shown — he’s been the lead car at 23XI really the entire year. I think the 45 [Tyler Reddick] might have him on average finish because he doesn’t have as many DNFs, but the 23 has been the fastest freakin’ car we’ve got, and that’s something that just, I can’t believe it.”
“Whether it’s [new crew chief] Charles Denike and his setups or Bubba’s mentality, something changed over there that has made Bubba someone you’re going to have to contend with every single week. And you’re gonna have to contend with him this weekend, by the way,” the three-time Daytona winner said.
“If you haven’t seen his road-course skills, they’ve dramatically improved. I couldn’t be more proud of that 23 team and what they’re doing week in, week out.”
Wallace earns top-5 finish at Kansas Speedway
Bubba is fresh off of a P5 finish in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 where both he and Hamlin were in line to possibly get a win with some hard racing down the stretch — something Denny also touched on during his episode.
“I thought we had an incredible finish. I hate that we didn’t win, and then my second hate is that the No. 23 car didn’t win,” Hamlin stated. “But man, it was an exciting freaking race, and that was two competitors going for it. Bubba knew it meant a lot to him. I knew it meant a lot to me.”
“I tried to make the move I made to win. I raced hard. I never, ever want to be accused of racing with bias. This should certainly silence that. But I mean, we had a great finish — something I hope the fans can be happy about.”
Bubba commented on Sunday’s dynamic after the race where he said he really appreciated the team and threw a little lighthearted jab his boss’ way as well.
This story was originally reported by The Spun on Sep 30, 2025, where it first appeared in the NASCAR section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
