Updated: What’s the matter with Bubba Wallace?

High hopes and expectations have morphed into frustration since finishing second in this year's Daytona 500

Editor's note: Bubba Wallace's struggles continued Sunday at Richmond, finishing 26th and three laps off the lead lap in the 37-driver field. Here's Austin Dickey's original analysis, written before Sunday's race, but obviously still rings true after yet another disappointing finish for Wallace and the 23XI team.

Bubba Wallace and the 23XI racing team entered the 2022 season with high expectations and even higher hopes. However, after a close runner-up finish in the Daytona 500, the team has struggled to finish off races this season and currently sits 20th in the standings.

Consider: Wallace has finished 19th, 25th, 22nd, 13th and a season-low 38th (last Sunday at Circuit of the Americas) in his five starts since Daytona.

At the same time, he's dropped from 4th in the driver standings after the 500 to 20th heading into Sunday's race at Richmond.

The early season struggles stem from what seems to be a different form of adversity every week. Although Wallace has ran closer to the front than he did last year, he’s struggled with turning a good run into a strong finish so far this season.

On multiple occasions this year, Wallace has ran in the top 15 for most of the day, only for misfortune to take him out of contention for a strong finish.

Bubba Wallace on the lack of overall Toyota speed going into this weekend & his thoughts on Richmond. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/d41IrQUscc

— Noah Lewis (@Noah_Lewis1) April 2, 2022

In Las Vegas, Wallace was running around the top 10 all day only to get caught up in Erik Jones’ late-race wreck that triggered overtime. Officials waved the caution just a moment too late and it left Wallace heading full speed towards Jones as he slid back up the track.

Wallace took evasive action and veered left to narrowly miss the spinning car of Jones. Unfortunately, he could not slow down in time to avoid the tire barrier on the inside wall before nursing his car home to a dissapointing 25th place finish.

In Atlanta, Wallace’s skillset seemed perfect for the speedway-style track reconfiguration. He ran upfront all day and even took the white flag in second place, primed to make a move on William Byron for the win.

Yet, as Wallace made a move going into Turn 1, he got hung out to dry and lost all of his momentum. As is the case with speedway racing, Wallace dropped like a rock through the pack before getting caught up in a wreck coming to the checkers and sliding across the finish line in 13th.

If there is a silver lining, the quality runs have shown that the Michael Jordan and Denn Hamlin co-owned 23XI team is making the necessary progression toward becoming a championship contender. That being said, there’s still a lot the team needs to improve on.

In the two races where Wallace had a seemingly uneventful day, he only managed to run mid-pack, which led him to a 19th at Auto Club and a 22nd at Phoenix. Although these finishes are semi-typical during the long NASCAR Cup Series season, they only add to Wallce’s urgency to perform.

Since Wallce has failed to capitalize on the races where the team brought a fast car to the track, the margin for error is shrinking and the need for a breakthrough performance is mounting by the week.

This past weekend at Circuit of the Americas, Wallace fell victim to a loose wheel which ended his day early. With the majority of the field running at the time, Wallace finished the race in an abysmal 38th.

To make matters worse, crew chief Bootie Barker and two other crew members were all suspended for four races because of the loose wheel, leaving him with interim crew chief Dave Rogers to try and turn his season around.

After the race, Wallace showed his frustration when he tweeted, “All ya can do is laugh. Ha.”

Bubba Wallace describes what he and his team learned about the wheels last week as he said the wheel felt more like a flat spot than a loose wheel before it came off at COTA. pic.twitter.com/C974yKvQPB

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) April 2, 2022

As a guy known for speaking his mind, Wallace’s few-word remark speaks volumes about his disappointments this season. Considering the struggles that Toyota has faced all across the board this season -- with just Martin Truex Jr. (7th) as the lone Toyota driver in the top 10 heading into Sunday's race at Richmond -- there is a lot of optimism that Wallace can still turn things around.

However, 23XI is still young and it may take time before the team starts firing on all cylinders consistently. By comparison, veteran teammate Kurt Busch is off to a much better start in his first season with the team, coming into Richmond in 13th place in the driver standings.

Keep an eye on Wallace and his 23XI this weekend at the first short track race of the season. With two more short tracks -- Martinsville and then the dirt race at Bristol -- to follow consecutively after this weekend, Sunday's race could be the momentum builder that Wallce needs.

Either way, the pressure is on Wallace to meet the lofty expectations that come with the spotlight he commands, and fans are watching eagerly to see when he can turn things around.