Bubba Wallace’s run inside the top five unraveled late in Stage 1 when he lost a wheel between Turns 9 and 10 at Naval Base Coronado. The loose wheel brought out a caution and left the No. 23 team with a two-lap penalty in NASCAR’s first Cup Series event at the 3.4-mile street circuit.
Wallace Radioed the Frustration
Wallace, who qualified seventh for Sunday’s race, reacted immediately on the radio: "There it [Expletive] went. You’ve got to be [Expletive] kidding me." The message matched the moment — a strong early run that had him running near the front for much of Stage 1 suddenly turned into damage control.
For much of Sunday afternoon, he had looked comfortable on NASCAR’s new San Diego street circuit. That changed when the wheel came off, and the caution reset the race around a problem that had been building only a few seconds earlier.
No. 23 Faces the Penalty
The penalty was more than track position. Under NASCAR’s wheel-detachment policy, the No. 23 team was assessed two laps and two crew members will serve automatic two-race suspensions, turning one loose wheel into a problem that reaches beyond the car itself.
That is the part teams try to avoid in these races. A wheel loss does not just cost time on the track; it also strips away the stage result Wallace had been positioned to chase and forces the team to absorb the crew loss attached to the violation.
The weekend had already carried some edge. A fan was arrested on Saturday after climbing fencing and entering a restricted area during the O’Reilly Series race, a reminder that NASCAR’s debut at Naval Base Coronado had not lacked incidents before Sunday’s Cup Series race even settled in.
Naval Base Coronado Shift
Wallace’s setback hit a race he had approached with momentum in mind, and it came on a course where he had been competitive from the start of the weekend. The question now is straightforward: what caused the wheel to come off the car between Turns 9 and 10?
For Wallace and 23XI Racing, the answer matters because the penalty has already changed the race they were running and added a suspension burden to the crew behind the No. 23 Toyota. The car kept going, but the clean Sunday they had built through Stage 1 did not survive the wheel loss.
