Bubba Wallace has greatly improved his racing skills on several different types of tracks, but the 23XI Racing driver still struggles on the road courses.
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He has longed for an opportunity to get more practice on road courses, and luckily for him, he driver for Toyota, which will field cars in this weekend's endurance races at Daytona. He reached out to the manufacturer, and it will provide a great opportunity for the driver of the No. 23.
Wallace is down in Daytona to compete in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. This is the precursor race to this weekend's Rolex 24 Hour race at Daytona International Speedway.
Wallace will hop behind the wheel for Smooge Racing in the No. 23 Toyota Supra GT4 EVO, alongside NASCAR Truck Series driver Corey Heim and Legacy Motor Club's John Hunter Nemechek.
First session.@ToyotaRacing | @mobil1racing | @SmoogeRacing pic.twitter.com/IFfrdMNolS
— John Hunter Nemechek (@JHNemechek) January 19, 2024
The trio will drive in the four-hour BMW Endurance Challenge.
Though this team was just announced before this past weekend's Roar Before the 24. Wallace had longed wanted to hone his road racing skills. He reached out to Toyota back in August about getting some help with his road racing.
Toyota was ready and willing to help.
Wallace spoke with Ken Willis from the Daytona Beach News-Journal about getting the opportunity.
"I said, 'Hey, I need help,'" Wallace said. "They said, 'We're on it.' So in the offseason, they asked if I wanted to run this. I said, 'Hell yeah, why not?' "
His road course finishes in NASCAR in 2023 were not pretty, with his best being a 12th-place finish at Watkins Glen.
"It's just a matter of race-craft — figuring out how to pass, set up passing, different things like that," Wallace told Willis.
Learning the IMSA car was a bit of a challenge for Wallace at first, but now that he's gotten used to it, his confidence has grown.
It will be interesting to see how the trio fare in Friday's race and if Wallace's extra time behind wheel will benefit his performance on the NASCAR road courses this season.
More: Bubba Wallace Happy About 2023 Performance, But Wants Wins
