Bubba Wallace made his 300th career NASCAR Cup Series start after taking the green flag in Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway.
The driver of the No. 23 Toyota for 23XI Racing is competing in his ninth full-time season at NASCAR’s top level and has amassed three wins while qualifying for the Cup Series postseason twice (2023, 2025).
Wallace got the call-up to the Cup Series in the middle of 2017 to pilot the No. 43 for then-Richard Petty Motorsports (now Legacy Motor Club) after Aric Almirola suffered an injury. Wallace competed in four races that year before earning the full-time ride in the No. 43 for the 2018 season.
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He collected three top fives in three seasons for RPM before a shockwave new ownership duo of Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan formed 23XI Racing and named Wallace its full-time driver for 2021.
Before Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions at Kansas, Wallace contemplated some of the moments from his racing journey, saying some of the lows of his career had stuck with him along with the highs.
“I reflect a lot, reflect a lot on the bad ones because we always say we can always remember the ones we lose, right?” Wallace said. “So, yeah, 300, it’s crazy. It’s cool to go through the motions with RPM and now 23XI and to build this team into what it is now, so it’s cool to play small parts.”
Wallace earned his first career victory at Talladega Superspeedway in October 2021, becoming the first Black driver to make the trip to Victory Lane since Wendell Scott in 1963.
Wallace scored his second Cup win in the 2022 postseason at Kansas Speedway and competed for the championship in 2023.
After a winless 2024, Wallace scored the biggest victory of his career in 2025 — holding off two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Larson to win the Brickyard 400 at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Wallace entered Sunday’s race eighth in the Cup Series standings with four top-10 results so far in 2026.