Bubba Wallace Reveals How Toyota Orchestrated His Rolex Daytona 24 Appearance

Despite the career-best finish best P10 finish during the 2023 Cup Series, Bubba Wallace knew he needed to improve on his shortcomings ahead of 2024. The 30-year-old has been self-critical about his grey areas on certain race tracks and to tackle them he took the necessary initiatives. For those who are still wondering, it was the road courses that Wallace identified as his area of weakness and is trying to work on them.

Wallace is under the TRD partnership and he was not shy in asking for help from them to overcome his hurdles. Interestingly, Toyota lined him up alongside, John Hunter Nemechek and Corey Heim to race at the Michelin Pilot Challenge – a four-hour-long event that precedes the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona event. Peeling the layers of how he ended up at Daytona, Wallace shared the details of how Toyota found a remedy to his issues regarding road course races.

Toyota roped in Wallace for an opportunity he was looking for

The 23XI No.23 was in red-hot form throughout his breakthrough season. Despite not winning any of the races, Wallace made it to the playoffs based on points he collected during the regular season. However, there were shortcomings on the road course races that the driver himself was aware of. Making the most of his partnership with Toyota Racing, he struck a good opportunity in racing at the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge at Daytona.

Speaking in an interview with GoPRN Live, Bubba Wallace explained how Toyota planned his feature at the mega Daytona event, he said, “So we’re doing the Roar and we’re running Michelin Pilot Challenge before Rolex. Just to get some road course seat time and to get better at road courses. I really took an initiative after Indy where I qualified 18th and rode 18th all day around… I texted Toyota, a lot of high-ups and I was like, ‘Hey, I need help.’

“And it just so happened that we got better at Watkins Glen and the Roval and they came to me after the season and they’re like, here’s an opportunity to get better and I’m like, I’m all in so it’ll be fun”. Going into the event with no expectations, the trio of Wallace, Nemecheck, and Corey Heim managed a P27 finish driving the Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO at Daytona International Speedway.

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Meanwhile, the 30-year-old also explained how difficult it is for him and his team to carry on the 2023 season’s momentum into 2024 while putting in the hard yards.

23XI driver understands what it takes to be a winning NASCAR team

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Winning always comes at a cost and championship-winning drivers know the amount of time and work that needs to be put in. Racing is a craft that needs perfecting, especially for someone like Wallace, who is rough around the edges. To repeat the impressive showings of the 2023 season will take some doing. However, Wallace and his team are well-prepared for that undertaking.

Explaining the thought process for the upcoming season, Wallace continued, “Really excited to get this year started. Although I said it last year, this was the last off-season was the first time, I’m like, ‘Man, there’s no off-season.’ So now it’s kinda spiraling again like man it’s shorter. I think just having a different outlook to start the season off right… For us, it’s to take a deep breath and have fun from the start. We know the speed is there and just execute, try not to make mistakes that take us out of the finishes we deserve.”

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With the NASCAR Cup Series edging ever so close, it will be an interesting watch to see how well Bubba Wallace has worked on his road course frailties from last season.