It’s been a wild postseason for 23XI Racing. Ty Gibbs was fined $75k for his pit road maneuver in Texas. Luckily for the organization, they had already shifted Bubba Wallace to the 45 in order to get a veteran in that playoff entry.

See, even though Kurt Busch took himself out of the drivers championship race, the 45 car was still in the owners championship race. Having someone like Wallace in that 45 ride over a rookie like Gibbs could be a better play in the long run.

Then Sunday happened. After a slew of 100 point penalties lately, 23XI has to at least be breathing a sigh of relief that Wallace was just suspended and no points or monetary fine came their way.

It keeps the 45 car still 9th in owners points as the top ride not still championship eligible. There’s monetary gain the more you move up in the standings and in theory, they could still finish as high as 5th.

If they didn’t make this switch, Gibbs could have put the car in 16th by his inexperience. While Wallace’s actions took a good car and ruined his finish, they at least avoided a points penalty and will now show up to Homestead with 2 interim drivers.