 Wallace during driver intros @ CotA. Image: 23XI Twitter Bubba Wallace had a horrible day during Sunday's EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix 250. Wallace slid into the rear of the 5 of Kyle Larson on lap 10 putting a very early end to his day. Wallace's contact with the 5 car led to a broken toe link and a broken oil line which may have been the cause for the seeming lack of brakes on the #23. Even the broadcasters pointed out something was likely wrong with the breaks on the 23 as he entered the turn way too fast.
When Wallace brought his MoneyLion #23 Camry into the garage and after exiting his car showed immediate displeasure with the outcome. Wallace smacked his car's buckled-up hood hard enough that the cameras nearby picked up the sound of the impact. During his interview with Fox Sports, Wallace voiced his frustration pretty clearly. "Just trying my hardest not to go down the slippery slope of self-doubt here. Two weeks in a row of making rookie mistakes 6 years into Cup, need to be replaced." So Who Could Replace Him? So let's amuse the people who think this is a reality. We all know he's not going anywhere anytime soon. But it doesn't hurt to have fun and speculate. So, who could replace Wallace in a fast, closing-in on top-tier Toyota? I've got an opinion on this of course. 1.) John Hunter Nemechek.
2.) Corey LaJoie.
3.) Denny Hamlin.
4.) Unknown Road Course Ringer.
By: Tom Luttermoser
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Pastrana will return to the NASCAR Truck Series this Friday at Daytona for the first time since Las Vegas 2 in 2020 with Niece Motorsports behind the wheel of the #41 WWEX Silverado, here is a great First look at his 41 Truck.
He will also field the #67 Black Rifle Coffee Camry for 23XI Racing in Thursday's Duels and, in hopes, the Daytona 500. This would be the first time Pastrana will field a Cup car. Images Via 23XI Racing and Niece Motorsports By: Tom Luttermoser  Credit: DARLINGTON, SOUTH CAROLINA - SEPTEMBER 03: Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 McDonald's Toyota, exits pit road during the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on September 03, 2023 in Darlington, South Carolina. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images) Fans for several years now have hated the very idea of Wallace in the sport. Now naturally this stems from 35,000 different reasons that each individual fan will explain to you in nauseum on why they hate the guy. Wallace took Rowdy's place as the most "hated" driver in the sport roughly about the time of the Talladega race in 2020. (I'm not going into this as we all know the who, what, when and where.)
But of course, Wallace has a TON of racist haters who don't even try to hide why they dislike him on social media. You've got the racists, the "But Muh Flag" crowd, the "he tried to murder Larson" crowd, the "he's a crybaby" crowd, the noose crowd and so on and so forth. So, with all of this hatred, why is it that we see Mr. Bubba Wallace plastered all over social media or NASCAR media? It's actually such a super simple answer and it stuns me that more people don't understand it. A lot of people site that NASCAR is trying to "jam him down our throats" and, well, yeah. They look at the numbers, and this quick article will tell you exactly why that is. It is all stemmed to 1 word "Media." Media is all about 1 thing, attention. With social media and websites it's all about getting the most Engagements (people liking, emojis or sharing), the most impressions (how many people see the content, due to the algorithms it's the stuff that gets the most engagements that gets seen the most) and lastly and most importantly (to us with a website), the most website visits. Here's the thing, most of us really don't care if the responses are positive or negative as long as it is bringing in the eyeballs. Where are we going to get the most attention? Prime example, I wrote an article and did a sit down interview with Howie DiSavino III a few months back. Everyone said I did a pretty good job at it despite it being my first time doing so. Less than 100 people even liked the posts much less opened or read it. Now to the opposite, I can go onto any Facebook NASCAR Page and simply post "Bubba Wallace." I'll receive 200 angry Emojis, 100 laughing emojis and anywhere between 20-50+ negative comments. No information shared, no picture, not 1 word.. just his name. And I have, I've done this dozens of times just to test the waters, and god forbid I say something positive about the man. (224 angry emojis just for posting a pic of him and his new wife saying congratulations.) So, to me, someone who needs to look at the total number of impressions and engagements per post you'd think this would be all I post. Well, at Seriously Fast Media we refuse to do click-bait so we don't. So why? Why do we constantly see Wallace everywhere? The answer is super simple thanks to the haters, It gets impressions... and it gets engagements. They are single handedly fueling what they dislike seeing. To make my point more clear, majority of the comments or engagements will come from people who wouldn't even open this. Now on top of what I’ve personally seen, I’ve chatted about and joked about this with the editors and online directors of several online publications as well as YouTubers and Facebook Page and Group admins. Even though we would laugh, they all backed my observations. Now on top of this, Wallace is loved by his fans, he is loved by his sponsors and he is loved by much of his competition. Plus, he is a fantastic ambassador for the sport into the black community. None of that hurts much either. By: Tom Luttermoser Image Credit: 23XI Racing  By: Tom Luttermoser Image: 23XI Racing
During a speech at the NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Kurt Busch finally gave a little more information concerning his return to 23XI and to NASCAR Cup Series competition. Following the teaser from 23XI Racing about their #67 Daytona 500 entry, many fans speculated it would be either Kurt Busch or Carl Edwards fielding the 3rd Camry in the 23XI stable. Kurt was the obvious choice as for his continued presence with the team throughout his injury, but an announcement later on presented X Games legend Travis Pastrana as the driver. Kurt Busch has been out of the car since Pocono of 2022 with concussion like symptoms after backing his #45 Camry into the turn 3 outside wall. But in a speech this past Friday, Kurt opened up for the first time in a long while about his issues. He stated that he is still not medically cleared to return behind the wheel, referring to vision issues as a key issue. Kurt stated, "I'm still not approved to race yet at the competition level, and I still keep pushing" later referencing 95 year old inductee Hershel McGriff is his new motivator. Clearly referencing his "ironman" status as he ran a K&N race 5 years ago at the age of 90. Here's to hoping Kurt's conditions get worked out. I'd love to see him return to the track soon.  With several high ranking drivers moving to new rides in 2023, we know not everyone is just going to knock it out of the park in their first season with their new pairings. But I take a look at the performance of the drivers themselves as well as their respective new teams in '22 to come up with these predictions. I guess we will see how I did next November. First we have the biggest free agent in a long... long time, Kyle Busch. Busch made the announcement that he would be moving over to Richard Childress Racing and the #8 Chevrolet after 15 years with TRD and Joe Gibbs Racing. Busch would have his worst season in a very, very long time in 2022 with only a single win that he would not have gotten if it were not for the leaders tangling in the final corner. On the other hand, RCR would have their best season since loosing Kevin Harvick in 2013 with 4 wins and an impressively strong second half of the season for both Reddick and Austin Dillon. If both parties can get their programs together I do expect to see the 8 car and Busch get into the Playoffs and possibly even extend Busch's win record to 19 consecutive seasons with at least a single victory, though I do not see them lighting the world on fire. Speaking of Tyler Reddick, he is moving over to 23XI's #45 Toyota Camry in 2023 to take the place of a retiring Kurt Busch. Reddick off of a 3 win season with the 8 car and RCR and the 45 team off their win at Kansas 1 with the elder Busch brother can make for a very strong pairing. I fully expect to see the 45 back in victory lane before Daytona in August and possibly even multiple times. 23XI has 3 wins in the last 2 seasons with 2 coming in 2022 both at Kansas showing strength with both the 23 & 45 teams. I see a strong chance at Reddick with a second 3x win season in a row next year. Kaulig Racing made the announcement late this season that the winningest road course racer in history, AJ Allmendinger would return to the Cup Series full time in 2023. In the Xfinity Series in '22, AJ only finished outside the Top-10 5x out of 33 races. AJ made 18 Cup Series starts in 2022 being a major threat to win 3 road courses as well as a spectacular race between himself, Ross Chastain and Kyle Larson for the win at Homestead-Miami eventually finishing 3rd. He even strung together 6 top-10 finishes in a row in the second half. AJ showed us all he was ready to return the Cup in the 16 car and I expect this team to build on '22 and not only get into the playoffs, but get a win or two in the process. AJ's former part time Kaulig teammate Noah Gragson comes off a runner up record Xfinity Series Season of 8 wins to his first full time Cup Series season racing for the King at Petty GMS Racing in the famed 42 car along side Erik Jones and team Co-Owner Jimmie Johnson. Noah has a decent number of Cup starts under his belt going into 2023, 18 to be exact. Although he has had a few good runs, he only has a single 5th place finish at Talladega for Beard Motorsports to brag about. Even racing the HMS 48 car he could never string together a solid Top-10. I can see Noah being competitive next season with his aggressive but maturing driving style as this is the same team that got teammate Jones 13 Top-10s and a win this season. I just cannot say that the 42 team will get into the playoffs. Lastly, we have Ty Gibbs. Gibbs is the reigning Xfinity Champion, 11x Xfinity winner as well as having 15 Cup starts to his name. Gibbs will be inheriting the 18 team from Kyle Busch in the Cup Series in 2023 but they have gone through a rebrand as the 54. Ty impressed early on in his fill-in roll at 23XI in the 45 even scoring his first Top-10 at Michigan, but he clearly concentrated on the Xfinity title fight instead. falling off the map after that 10th place finish. But now he can concentrate on the highest series in the sport, with the support of the 2x Cup title winning team and his team owning grandfather. All could be perfect if were not for the loss of Ty's father, Coy Gibbs the night of his championship. We all know loss can be a huge factor in life and concentration. Despite this, I do see the young Gibbs competing hard as ever even knocking on the door or a playoff run. By: Tom Luttermoser Image credit not found |
