For weeks, Bubba Wallace and the No. 23 team at 23XI Racing have been showing speed—sometimes among the best in the field. But until Sunday at Homestead, the results hadn’t matched the performance. After a frustrating stretch of near-misses and tough breaks, Wallace finally delivered a well-earned third-place finish, and he didn’t hold back in his post-race reaction:
“About f—ing time we got one.”
It was a statement that summed up not just Sunday’s race, but the season so far for Wallace and his team. The speed had been there. The potential had been evident. But between bad luck, strategy calls that didn’t pan out, and late-race circumstances beyond their control, they hadn’t been able to put together the finish they knew they were capable of.
That changed at Homestead. Wallace ran inside the top 10 for much of the race, executed clean pit stops, and made the right moves when it mattered. When the checkered flag flew, he was in third—his best finish of the season so far and a much-needed confidence boost for the entire 23XI operation.
“It feels good,” Wallace said. “This is what we’re capable of, and we’ve just got to keep putting ourselves in position.”
For Wallace, the key now is maintaining this momentum. Homestead proved that when things go right, he and his team can run with the best. Now, with that long-awaited strong finish in the books, they’ll look to build on it and turn speed into consistency as the season rolls on.
