NASCAR’s 1.5-mile tracks have been Toyota’s strength this season, and with the Cup Series headed for three consecutive weeks on those intermediate speedways, 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace believes this year’s championship is Toyota’s to lose.
“I think the next three races is a good indicator of who your champion will be,” says Wallace, who’s 10th in the standings, 92 points behind the leader. “I think this goes back to being in our wheelhouse for the next month.”
Of the seven races on 1.5-mile tracks this season, Toyota has won four of them and four of the season’s final seven races are on those type tracks. Overall, Toyota has won 15 of 29 races this year and leads the manufacturer standings by 175 points over Chevrolet. Ford is third, 205 points behind Toyota.
“I think it’s Toyota’s championship to lose,” Wallace said. “I think just going off of how many races that we’ve won as a Toyota organization this year, it would be a shame (if) we didn’t seal the deal.”
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Kansas Speedway.
Kansas Speedway this weekend is the first 1.5-mile track on the schedule since July. Then there is Las Vegas and Charlotte with Homestead wrapping up the season.
“We (Toyota teams) are all itching to get back to mile-and-a-half tracks,” Wallace admitted. “Our Toyotas have been dominant there, so I think we pick up right where we left off. We continue to push for more, so I don’t expect to see a different change of scenery.”
Until after the Bristol race when Kyle Larson took a one-point lead over Denny Hamlin, only Toyota drivers had led the standings this year. Tyler Reddick took the standings lead with his victory in the season opening Daytona 500 and held it until June when Hamlin became the leader. Hamlin held it through the end of the regular season and the first two races in the Chase. However, Hamlin now trails Larson by a mere point. Joey Logano is third, 16 points behind Larson, while Christopher Bell is fourth, 17 points in arrears. Fifth belongs to Ty Gibbs, 42 points back, and Ryan Blaney is sixth, 52 points out of first. Reddick, who appeared unstoppable early in the season, is now seventh, 61 points behind Larson.
“It’s the later part of the Chase, so this is where you get some separation and you start to see the standings kind of settle out to where they’re at,” Wallace said.
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.