Wallace’s San – Bubba Wallace looked set to cash in on NASCAR’s historic debut at Naval Base Coronado, running near the front after qualifying seventh and staying inside the top five for much of Stage 1. Then, late in the opening stage, he lost a wheel between Turns 9 and 10—
Bubba Wallace’s afternoon started the way a breakthrough day is supposed to start.
Qualifying seventh for NASCAR’s historic debut at Naval Base Coronado had already put him in a good position. By the time Sunday’s race unfolded. the 23XI Racing driver quickly showed he wasn’t just hanging on—he was among the fastest cars on the track. Wallace spent much of Stage 1 racing inside the top five. pressing the sport’s top road-course contenders while eyeing valuable stage points.
He looked comfortable on the demanding San Diego street circuit, a 3.4-mile course winding through Naval Base Coronado that forced many drivers to search for speed. Wallace didn’t seem to have that problem. It all felt like momentum you could build on.
Then the race changed in an instant.
Late in the opening stage, Wallace suddenly lost a wheel between Turns 9 and 10. The failure brought out a caution and ended one of the strongest runs of his season. The radio captured the disbelief in real time from inside the No. 23 camp.
“There it [Expletive] went. You’ve got to be [Expletive] kidding me.”
It wasn’t just an equipment problem—it was the timing. Wallace had been positioned to turn that Saturday-to-Sunday promise into track position and points, but the loose wheel turned the No. 23 Toyota’s day into something far harder overnight: digging out instead of driving forward.
Under NASCAR’s wheel-detachment policy, the No. 23 team was assessed a two-lap penalty. The incident also led to two crew members serving automatic two-race suspensions. Wallace’s car was still in the race. but the penalty created a massive obstacle that forced him into damage control. Instead of fighting for stage points and track position, he had to recover from a significant deficit.
The setback landed even more painfully because Wallace had come into the weekend with a goal bigger than one afternoon—building momentum in the regular-season standings and the playoff picture. Sunday’s race had looked like a major opportunity to do exactly that, particularly given how competitive the No. 23 Toyota had been during the opening portion of the race.
Wallace’s misfortune also piled onto an already headline-heavy NASCAR debut at Naval Base Coronado. The weekend had already included Shane van Gisbergen’s pole-winning performance. Earlier, a fan was arrested after climbing fencing and entering a restricted area during Saturday’s O’Reilly Series race.
Now, with the caution and penalty stacking up, one of the biggest stories belongs to Wallace. His race was far from over—but the challenge had shifted. What had started as a day that could have delivered one of his best road-course finishes in San Diego turned into a race defined by what he could salvage before the checkered flag.
For a driver who looked capable of staying near the front, the next question wasn’t whether he’d had pace—it was whether he could dig the day back out and keep it from slipping away completely.
Bubba Wallace NASCAR 23XI Racing Naval Base Coronado San Diego street circuit loose wheel wheel-detachment policy two-lap penalty two-race suspension Shane van Gisbergen O’Reilly Series Stage 1