Bubba Wallace will move to the No. 45 for the rest of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season, 23XI Racing announced Aug. 31.
The news comes as Kurt Busch is still rehabbing from his concussion sustained at Pocono Raceway in July.
Wallace will remain paired with his crew chief, veteran Bootie Barker.
Ty Gibbs will instead drive the No. 23 while substituting for Busch, with Billy Scott atop the pit box.
“After consulting with NASCAR, we made this decision in the best interest of the entire organization and for all our employees who helped earn a spot in the playoffs for the owner’s championship through their hard work,” team president Steve Lauletta said in a press release. “While Ty has done a great job for us in the No. 45 car, we feel that Bubba’s experience in this car, at the upcoming playoff tracks and his recent momentum will give 23XI the best chance at maximizing our points each weekend.
“We recognize that this is a unique opportunity in the Cup Series, and we’re grateful to our employees and partners for standing with the team and supporting this decision.”
A timetable for Busch’s return is still not known.
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It would have been better if Kurt came back in the 23 and Danica 2.0 went into the 45.
Now that’s funking funny
I am confused as to what benefit this will have to anyone? Maximize points so that the 45 car finishes higher in the owner’s championship standings? Is it the driver’s championship points standing or the owner’s championship points standing that is the basis for the year end prize money that is awarded to each team. The only way this makes sense is if it is the latter. (I always thought it was the driver’s points but I could be wrong).
It would have been nice if Mr. Nebbia would have done some investigation and connected the dots for us instead of just parroting a press release.
Bill, we have news writers and we have column writers who analyze stories. News’ job is to report what happened, which is what was done here. I would think as a longtime reader of the site you would understand this by now.
No, I did not know that. So where is the list of which are which. Quite honestly writers come and go pretty quickly around here so I often don’t bother worrying about such things. But thanks for setting me straight.
Happy to help, you’ll get there.
Maybe such news feed only articles could be labeled so that they are easily identified. That way if I’ve already seen the blurb on Jayski I won’t have to waste my time clicking on a regurgitation of the same blurb….
“NEWSFLASH: Bubba Wallace Running Number 45 for Rest of 2022″
C’mon Bill, try to keep up. Lol. Just kidding.
I hope Baby Jesus finishes higher than Blubbers in every single race. Blubbers gets to pretend he’s actually in the playoffs and the media shrills will eat it up. Let’s see where the #45 ends up when reality sets in.
You realize this is for owners points, right? This is simply a move to get the #45 higher up in owners points with a more experienced driver.
Little Gibbs can’t get points for the 23 in Cup events since he is going for points in the AAA Busch series. Unless NA$CAR changes the “rule.”
Ty cannot accumulate points in Cup events, but unless my understanding is incorrect the car owner will still accumulate points for Ty’s performance in the Cup events. Bubba has outscored Ty in the events they’ve both been in (except 1, I think). So there is that. But also, from a business standpoint regardless of whether you think Ty is better or worse than Bubba, there is no denying the beaucoup media coverage around Bubba racing for the manufacturer title will swamp any coverage Ty would receive. This means Bubba will get more media mentions and more screen time – more $$ value for their sponsor’s marketing departments.
Let us not forget, the $ is NA$CAR’s middle name. lol
who’s the more experianced driver?
Bubba easily. Why do you ask?
Why would Denny want the 45 to finish higher than the 23? The 23 is Danica 2.0’s car!
As a Bubba fan, I don’t get why this is being made out to be a big deal. Sure, it’s a number change, but it was a somewhat expected move and doesn’t matter a ton in the long run. Both Bubba and Ty will still drive for 23Xi these last 10 weeks. Mildly interesting, but for me at least, all it will do is confuse me when I look at the leaderboard.
Sorry it will confuse you Dale, oh that’s right, your a bubba fan, never mind.
OK, this should be fun. In the next ten races, who will out-point who, Lil’ Jesus (I didn’t realize he was Puerto Rican) or Bubba.
Wallace can’t drive the 23, what makes anyone think he can drive the 45 any better? Give Gibbs another race or two for experience, and he will drive rings around Wallace, no matter what car he is in.
Funny how he hasn’t been doing that though.
I hope Blubber don’t wreck early. FS will have to add more space for all the additional hate mail about Wallace.
They’ll always find a reason for a Flubber story to feed his ego.
If people only come to a racing site to hate on a driver then they’re not race fans.