Q&A: Bubba Wallace on bumping boss Denny Hamlin and an update on 23XI Racing’s diversity efforts

By his own admission, Bubba Wallace’s first nine races of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season have been far from perfect. Crashes, engine issues, pit stop mishaps, speeding penalties, miscues — Wallace and the No. 23 Toyota team have seen it all in the first quarter of NASCAR’s season.

However, the 29-year-old driver for Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s 23XI Racing team has high hopes for the next stretch of the season. Not only does Wallace say he and the team are learning from their mistakes, but his first career Cup wins also were at two of the next three tracks: Talladega Superspeedway and Kansas Speedway.

So ahead of Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega, For The Win spoke with Wallace about his season’s progress, making contact Hamlin’s bumper last week at Martinsville Speedway and the Dr Pepper and 23XI SPEED Institute Tuition Program — which 23XI says has distributed more than $230,000 in tuition support. Now in its third installment, the program offers tuition support for 23 college students each year and was established to boost the 23XI SPEED (scholarship, professional education, executive development) Institute in its diversity and equity efforts.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

RELATED: Bubba Wallace has a surprising key to success at NASCAR’s unpredictable Talladega track: ‘Respect’