“We’re going to continue to control,” Charles Denike said after the Homestead-Miami race. The No. 23 Cup Series crew chief has plenty of reason to be optimistic. Bubba Wallace led 56 laps en route to a 3rd-place finish at the Straight Talk Wireless 400. According to Racing Insights, his 5.90 average running position at Homestead was second-best behind Alex Bowman and fifth-best among all Cup drivers.

The No. 23 team is doing something different this season. Bubba Wallace may be navigating an 86-race winless streak, with heartbreaking losses across 2023 and 2024. Yet he and his team are very close to making some jaws drop – as his crew chief warns.

Is Bubba Wallace in-form?

When the Mobile, Alabama native first joined 23XI Racing in 2021, he found his mojo. In October of that year, Bubba Wallace clinched his first Cup Series race win in Talladega. He followed that up in a year with his second trophy in Kansas (September 2022). However, heartbreaks and controversies have plagued Wallace since – ranging from feeling depressed at his friend’s 2023 championship to door-slamming Alex Bowman in Chicago last year. It looked like Wallace could never recover, and the long list of detractors continued to grow. But with a fresh season came a fresh beginning.

Charles Denike, who fetched 8 Craftsman Truck Series victories over two years with Christian Eckes, is here to support Bubba Wallace. Denike was hired to replace Bootie Barker as the #23 crew chief at the start of 2025, symbolizing a shift in strategy and approach. “Our goal is to return to winning form and return to playoff form,” Denike said in a recent Sirius XM NASCAR episode. “We believe we do have what it takes to make a deep playoff run.”

Well, the results have not been earth-shattering so far, but the consistency is there… until the final stage. Wallace has accrued stage points in every race so far this season, barring Phoenix, and even picked up a stage win at the Circuit of The Americas. Denike even admitted after the Homestead race, “I can tell you that we only deliberately went for stage points at COTA, where we called the race to get the stage points and potentially sacrifice the outcome.”

Continuing his conversation with SiriusXM, Denike added, “The first big step for us was five races into the year on not being in a points deficit. That changed the way we wanted to proceed for the next 15 or so races into the season. So that we can race in a normal fashion on a weekly basis because we aren’t racing behind on a points deficit.” Accruing these points has softened the blow of poor finishes as Wallace has four finishes of 20th or worse yet sits 7th in the points standings.

Charles Denike continued that poor finishes do not affect their overall pace: “Even though some of the finishing results haven’t been all of where we wanted them, we’ve accumulated enough points on the way to do that. And we’ve had a lot of potential in most of the races, which is really good.” Wallace led laps at the Daytona 500, COTA, Las Vegas, and Homestead, showing that he has the pace to keep up with the grid. His drive at Homestead was particularly impressive as he was able to battle it out with Hendrick Motorsports #5 Kyle Larson for the lead and even overtook him before eventually yielding to a third-place finish.

Eventually, Charles Denike emphasized that this is just the beginning. Bubba Wallace’s rivals can expect thunderous progress ahead. “That was the first five races. And Homestead, being race six, was kind of the first one where we thought we were outside of that initial cut as we wanted to get through as we started the year. So looking forward to moving on to phase 2 of the regular season.” Bubba Wallace and the #23 are on a quest for redemption this season.

As the #23 team prepares for phase 2 of the season as we head to Martinsville, Bubba Wallace has shown the maturity of a driver who is solely focused on winning. This was reflected in his behavior at Homestead last week.

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Fist-bumping instead of fist-fighting

Well, the 23XI Racing driver has hardly been devoid of controversy. During the Las Vegas race in October 2022, Bubba Wallace deliberately spun out Kyle Larson in retaliation. Then, he entered a shoving match with the Hendrick Motorsports star, subsequently landing a one-race suspension. Last year, during the Chicago Street Race, Wallace door-slammed Alex Bowman on the cooldown lap – and incurred a $50k fine. Clearly, the No. 23 Toyota driver’s emotions have been all over the place several times. However, the Homestead-Miami race last weekend displayed a significant shift in his behavior.

In the middle of the race, contact with Noah Gragson bounced the 23 car off the wall. Yet Bubba Wallace simply passed a short remark over the radio before charging ahead to lead for 56 laps. Bubba Wallace also shared a fist bump with Alex Bowman. In the past, he had encountered the HMS star for all the wrong reasons – from spilling water on him to door-slamming him. So clearly, something was keeping Wallace from his flaring tempers. He reflected on his calm demeanor post-race: “When I got the fence, I was p—– off for a half-corner. Then, it was, ‘OK. There’s still a long way to go, regroup and focus, and I need to think about the winners that we have on this team.’ It motivates you to drive harder in a more methodical way.”

Evidently, a lot of things are working out for the No. 23 team. As we charge forth into the 2025 season, let us see when Bubba Wallace snaps his winless streak.