Bubba Wallace had a month of May to forget. He put that in the rear view at Michigan International Speedway.
Taking advantage of Toyota’s lightning fast speed, Wallace was in the mix throughout Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400. He ended the day with his best finish of the 2026 season, coming home in third, through 15 Cup Series races.
“We’ve gone through a month of hell,” Wallace told Prime Sports after rounding out the podium, a touch over 12 seconds behind race winner and 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin. “It’s hard to be happy with a third place because this is what should be happening when we’re executing like we are and we get blindsided by something. At the end of the day, it’s no excuses, I just need to be better.”
The No. 23 Toyota led nine laps and was in the middle of a Lap 82 melee that took out his 23XI Racing teammate and Stage 1 victor Tyler Reddick. Carson Hocevar attempted to jump to the inside of John Hunter Nemechek on a restart, but clipped the No. 42 car, turning Nemechek sideways into Wallace. While saving the No. 23 car, Wallace got into the side of Reddick, who also knocked out fellow Toyota teammate Ty Gibbs.
Wallace continued on with minimal damage, though the splitter was hindered from optimal performance. Towards the end of Stage 2, the No. 23 car bled positions, falling one position short of earning additional stage points in 11th.
“We have an asterisk on our finish because of the splitter damage, one of the most important parts of the car has damage, so who knows what our potential was,” Wallace added. “After Stage 1, I thought we were third or fourth, so I would say we executed all day.”
When the checkered flag flew, Wallace was the leader of the 23XI camp in third. Toyota swept the podium, with Hamlin capturing his 63rd career victory, tying Kyle Busch for ninth on the all-time win’s list. Erik Jones finished runner-up with Legacy Motor Club, his first top-five effort since last year’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
By finishing fifth in the opening stage and earning third-place points for his finish, Wallace bagged 40 points for his work. That’s more than his previous three races combined at Watkins Glen International, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway (34).
Wallace jumped four positions in the regular-season championship standings to 11th, 32 points below Christopher Bell in 10th.
“This is what we can do when we’re not caught up in someone else’s [expletive],” Wallace told reporters after the race. “It’s the same group of guys busting their ass every week and things are just clicking. When they are not clicking, they are not clicking. It’s about like golf, when it’s not on, you are shooting a terrible round. We’ve been shooting terrible. Now, we’re back on the par trend.”
The Cup Series heads to Pocono Raceway next weekend, where Wallace has four finishes of 11th or better in the last five races. Last year, the No. 23 car had a brake rotor explode.