Bubba Wallace’s Spotter Points Out What NASCAR Needs to Do to Stop F1 From Stealing Its Talent

In the last decade or so, NASCAR has seen a sharp downfall and decline in terms of viewership, sponsorships, and the overall appeal. Although, on the bright side of things, the sport has begun to climb back up this season in all those aspects with the new car and the exciting racing it has led to. Yet there’s still a long way to go, and for that to happen, Freddie Kraft, the spotter of Bubba Wallace, has a suggestion.

In the recent episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Kraft spoke about the lack of avenues that young drivers, the kids have aside from the Summer shootout in their path to NASCAR and how they’re being swayed away to other forms of racing.

“If you talking to kids these days, F1 is obviously big, we’re talking about it here now, dirt racing is huge,” he said. “I just feel like we’re falling behind with our presence at short tracks and local short tracks.”

“I feel like we need to have a better presence at our NASCAR short tracks, to promote to the kids and stuff that this is fun, get out here and do this stuff.”

Bubba Wallace on the peculiar strategy swap at Joe Gibbs Racing in Richmond

During the race in Richmond, Martin Truex Jr. came away with the stage 2 win on an effective strategy. However, in the last stage of the race, that same strategy was taken from him by his team while Denny Hamlin’s team took it up, leading him to win the race.

This was something that was quite curious for everyone, something Freddie Kraft also pointed out in the recent episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast.

“I was very confused that why the (No.) 19 switched their strategy because I think they’d have probably won the race if they stayed on the same strategy,” Kraft said. “They were two-stop in the second stage and they won the second stage. And then, for some reason, they switched back to a one-stop there in the last stage and got beat.”

“They were ahead of Denny (Hamlin), and it was gonna come down to them and the 20 and 24 I felt like,” he continued. “And for some reason, they decided to make a switch, and switch strategies and it cost them.” 

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