2022 had been a season of near-misses and heartbreak for Bubba Wallace, who stepped up his performance from the previous year but was frequently plagued by misfortunes on pit road or simply coming up short. After missing the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs and moving to injured team-mate Kurt Busch‘s #45 car for the postseason, he finally found his way to Victory Lane.
Wallace took the lead on lap 225 of Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway and led the remaining forty-three laps to finally win in 2022 and for the second time in his career. Besides advancing the #45 to the next round of the owner’s playoffs, the victory makes non-playoff drivers two-for-two so far after Erik Jones‘ Darlington triumph; Wallace’s maiden win at the 2021 YellaWood 500 was also as a playoff spoiler. While that win was shortened by rain, Kansas saw him win entirely on pace after holding off his 23XI Racing boss Denny Hamlin.
“I get excited, and I get let down a lot when I’m excited, so it’s better to come into it ho-hum and be relieved with the win at the end of it,” said Wallace. “It’s really, really cool. I think you never know when it’s over. You had Denny behind us that was coming pretty hard, but it was going to take a really big mistake for him to get to me. So I was really focused on that. I didn’t have time to think about anything else.”
He had enjoyed great success at the first Kansas race in May but a late pit penalty doomed his chances of winning that, though Busch would take the victory. As such, the #45 is one of a small handful of a Cup car that has won multiple races in a season with different drivers, with the latest instance being in 2002 with Sterling Marlin and Jamie McMurray in the #40 for Chip Ganassi Racing; the #45 joins the #21 of Wood Brothers Racing in achieving the feat at the same track as WBR’s A.J. Foyt and David Pearson both won with the #21 at Daytona in 1972.
“We are winners again,” Busch tweeted. “Proud of @BubbaWallace and @23XIRacing for getting it done today.”
Wallace recalled, “I remember the conversation that Denny pulled me aside down in Florida, and he goes, ‘Hey, we want you to drive the #45 and compete for a championship. We believe in you.’ It’s continue to do what we do. I didn’t walk away from that being like, ‘Oh man, we got to ramp it up here.’ We’ve been stellar. We’ve been really, really good.
“It’s only a matter of time, and the little bit of things that we needed to clean up, and here we are today. We executed today. Still wasn’t a perfect day, but we were able to execute and bounce back and make the most of it.”
While not the Toyota masterclass of the AdventHealth 400 where all six Camrys finished in the top ten, Toyota drivers still occupied four of the top five positions with Christopher Bell (third) and Martin Truex Jr. (fifth). The two exceptions, Kyle Busch and Ty Gibbs, respectively suffered spins that ruined their days.
Race results
| Finish | Start | Number | Driver | Team | Manufacturer | Laps | Status |
| 1 | 6 | 45 | Bubba Wallace^ | 23XI Racing | Toyota | 267 | Running |
| 2 | 25 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 267 | Running |
| 3 | 4 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 267 | Running |
| 4 | 3 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 5 | 12 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 267 | Running |
| 6 | 9 | 24 | William Byron | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 7 | 5 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Trackhouse Racing Team | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 8 | 7 | 5 | Kyle Larson | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 9 | 17 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Team Penske | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 10 | 15 | 99 | Daniel Suárez | Trackhouse Racing Team | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 11 | 22 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 12 | 8 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Team Penske | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 13 | 13 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 14 | 11 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 15 | 10 | 17 | Chris Buescher | RFK Racing | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 16 | 23 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 17 | 2 | 22 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | Ford | 266 | Running |
| 18 | 28 | 16 | Noah Gragson* | Kaulig Racing | Chevrolet | 266 | Running |
| 19 | 27 | 31 | Justin Haley | Kaulig Racing | Chevrolet | 266 | Running |
| 20 | 21 | 42 | Ty Dillon | Petty GMS Motorsports | Chevrolet | 266 | Running |
| 21 | 36 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 266 | Running |
| 22 | 29 | 41 | Cole Custer | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 266 | Running |
| 23 | 32 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 266 | Running |
| 24 | 31 | 77 | Landon Cassill* | Spire Motorsports | Chevrolet | 266 | Running |
| 25 | 26 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | RFK Racing | Ford | 266 | Running |
| 26 | 20 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 265 | Running |
| 27 | 30 | 51 | Cody Ware | Rick Ware Racing | Ford | 265 | Running |
| 28 | 33 | 15 | J.J. Yeley* | Rick Ware Racing | Ford | 264 | Running |
| 29 | 24 | 43 | Erik Jones | Petty GMS Motorsports | Chevrolet | 264 | Running |
| 30 | 35 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | JTG Daugherty Racing | Chevrolet | 262 | Running |
| 31 | 34 | 78 | B.J. McLeod* | Live Fast Motorsports | Ford | 262 | Running |
| 32 | 18 | 21 | Harrison Burton | Wood Brothers Racing | Ford | 115 | Accident |
| 33 | 19 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | Spire Motorsports | Chevrolet | 114 | Accident |
| 34 | 16 | 23 | Ty Gibbs* | 23XI Racing | Toyota | 90 | Accident |
| 35 | 1 | 8 | Tyler Reddick | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 67 | Accident |
| 36 | 14 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 33 | Accident |
^ – Currently in owner playoffs
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points