Bubba Wallace and 23XI Racing must recover from their Loudon meltdown before the playoff door slams shut

Bubba Wallace and 23XI Racing have faced a downward trend since entering the playoffs. Moreover, this issue was compounded by a torrid race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where the Alabama-born driver seemingly went nowhere, finishing a dismal 26th.

The 23XI Racing squad had to up its game heading into the Round of 12 as both its drivers had recently met some lowly performances in the past few weeks in the Cup Series field. While the 23XI duo was able to advance to the Round of 12, their first race of the three-event battle ended in dismay.

Wallace started 14th and finished a subpar 26th, while Tyler Reddick's impressive qualifying performance was also unable to guarantee a strong result, finishing 21st. Though the latter has already had a tough time this year, making it to the playoffs only based on points, the Brickyard 400 winner was regarded to be a genuine threat in the postseason.

Since Dover, Bubba Wallace had finished inside the top-10 six of the nine times till the race in Bristol. But his retirement from the same race just over a week ago and him being in no man's land at NHMS mean that he and 23XI Racing would soon have to find a cure to their pace.

Otherwise, in the next two race weekends, the 31-year-old could find themselves at the exit door of the playoffs, with Wallace not making the cut for the Round of 8 for two times in the past three years.

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Bubba Wallace was left dejected after the USA Today 301 at the NHMS

23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace at the NASCAR Cup Series Southern 500 - Source: Imagn

Bubba Wallace had a tough qualifying session at NHMS. However, he aimed to move up the field come raceday, though this hope of his was trampled by his sub-optimal pace on Sunday.

Reflecting on his race, the 31-year-old told NBC Sports in the post-race interview:

"Yeah, that was the longest day I've had in a race car in a long time, just a head scratcher, and that's how it really was. [At the] start of the weekend, in practice, I didn't really know which way to handle the balance. I thought we were neutral and we obviously fired off and didn't really have much to speak for. So, I hate that. It looks like our whole team struggled just to find the speed and the feel that we needed. And I said it before, this is a tricky place, but to be that far off, it kind of caught all of us by surprise." "So I hate it. But all you can do is keep your head down and keep on digging next week."

Wallace sits 12th in the interim playoff standings, an intimidating 27 points below the cutline.

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Edited by Geetansh Pasricha