It's no secret that the headlines surrounding 23XI Racing throughout the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season have largely pertained to their off-track court battle against NASCAR, a battle stemming from their decision not to sign the new charter agreement back in 2024.
The consensus is that the off-track drama has negatively impacted the team's on-track performance throughout the 2025 season.
Tyler Reddick won the 2024 regular season championship, won three races, and made it to the Championship 4 for the first time.
This year, he barely made the playoffs, and 32 races into the year, he is still seeking his first victory. But while Reddick has struggled, teammate Bubba Wallace has had a career year, and you could even make a case that he's been stronger than the driver of the No. 45 Toyota.
After both drivers were eliminated in the round of 12 finale at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, the NBC Sports broadcast team shared a side-by-side comparison of Wallace's 2025 season and Reddick's 2025 season, and Wallace has the edge in almost every notable category.
Reddick has had a down year, but Wallace deserves credit for stepping up his game too pic.twitter.com/yjyd8G25hL
— Beyond the Flag (@Beyond_The_Flag) October 5, 2025
Wallace does trail his teammate in average finish (14.8 to 18.3), but his Brickyard 400 breakthrough was a long time coming and makes it not nearly as controversial to suggest that he has indeed had the stronger season of the two.
Bubba Wallace is disproving the narratives
There is still a contingent of fans who don't think Wallace is in the sport for his driving abilities, and his history against teammates, including Kurt Busch in 2022 and Reddick from 2023, has led to suggestions that 23XI Racing could do better when it comes to finding a driver of the No. 23 Toyota.
But Wallace's 2025 season has been exactly what he's needed to quiet the narrative that his role in the sport and with the team is merely a "gimmick", and if not for his own team owner running him up the race track on the final lap at Kansas Speedway, he'd be advancing to the round of 8 instead of three-time and reigning series champion Joey Logano.
For a percentage of NASCAR fanbase, it's an inconvenient truth, but a truth nonetheless.
At this point, you can't deny that Wallace, who has the led the eighth-most laps among all drivers in 2025, has earned his spot at the Hamlin and Michael Jordan-owned team, and while Reddick has come nowhere close to his own ceiling this year, Wallace deserves credit himself for upping his game in what has undoubtedly been a trying year for the organization.
With one win since September 2022, he is still undoubtedly trying to achieve a higher level of consistency, but after notching his first career regular season win over the summer, he hopes to carry that momentum into the 2026 season following a disappointing round of 12 elimination in 2025.