As the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season rages on, Denny Hamlin has three wins. However, his 23XI Racing wheelmen in Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick and Riley Herbst have yet to get to Victory Lane.
While Herbst isn’t exactly expected to take the checkered flag home, at least not this season, Wallace and Reddick have proven more than capable. For one reason or another, neither have locked themselves into the playoffs, although they’ve done well in the overall point standings.
Regardless, the 23XI Racing co-owner in Hamlin believes the team is supplying Wallace and Reddick with the necessary tools to get a win on their resume. It hasn’t come to fruition yet, and Hamlin didn’t hold back on the matter while speaking with FOX’s Bob Pockrass.
“I just know the resources that we’ve put in at 23XI, and all of our drivers should win,” Hamlin told Pockrass. “That is the expectation that I have of them. Obviously, it is a results-based business, and if you don’t over time, you consider your options.
“Overall, I’ve seen enough progression, specifically, from the [Wallace] standpoint, that I can see where this can go. Putting himself in a playoff position year after year is good, but winning makes it better.”
Reddick won three races last season, and two the year before. Additionally, he was crowned the regular season champion, and made it to the Championship 4 in 2024. He hasn’t been able to put together a similarly successful season in 2025.
As for Wallace, his last win came during a 2022 race at Kansas Speedway. His other victory for 23XI Racing came in 2021, in a rain-shortened event at Talladega Superspeedway. To say Hamlin is expecting a little more out of Wallace would be an understatement, but Wallace is expecting more out of himself, as well.
“We have expected to win at this point in the season, and we have yet to do that,” Wallace said, per Pockrass. “But it goes back to executing and if we can just do our jobs, there’s no one behind us in the points that can beat us. So we’ll just continue to do that.”
Until Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick win and lock themselves into the playoffs, Denny Hamlin and the rest of the motorsports world will be watching the 23XI Racing duo close. A win would quiet any and all haters for a bit, but if the past is any indicator, it’s far from guaranteed from happening.
