Bubba Wallace is $50,000 short this week at Pocono. He faces that loss after NASCAR levied a penalty on him for door-slamming Alex Bowman under caution after the latter’s first win of the 2024 season. Furthermore, Wallace’s playoff chances are looking bleak at the moment, with history seemingly repeating itself. Unless he can turn his season around, Wallace may be forced to rely on points again to make the cut, a scenario he likely hoped to avoid but now seems increasingly likely. However, amidst all this trouble, Wallace remains optimistic.

After all, the 30-year-old Alabama native is a soon-to-be father with his wife, Amanda Carter. When the couple announced their little one’s arrival back in April, it was also revealed that they were expecting the baby in October, which coincidentally happens to be Bubba’s very own birth month. And it seems that in these troubling times before a guaranteed ray of sunshine, the thought of family has spurred some positive changes in his general perspective.

To help him out just a little further, as EssentiallySports is at Pocono this weekend, our NASCAR journalist, Bharat Aggarwal put up a tricky question at the Trickiest of Triangles as he asked Bubba if he had decided on a name for the third member soon to grace his beautiful family. And Bubba’s answer was as heartwarming as his newfound outlook.

‘Nameless Wallace’? Bubba jokes about his child’s future name

October’s not too far away, but Bubba has a few considerable tasks ahead of him. With just six races left until the 2024 playoffs, he has to find a way to lock a spot for himself. Once he does that, Wallace must prepare for fatherhood, which is no easy task, even for a multi-millionaire NASCAR driver. That’s a lot of pressure, but it appears he is a changed man after making negative headlines yet again in the Chicago Street Race.

Only a few weeks ago, news broke of a dust-up with fellow Toyota driver Aric Almirola, who got suspended from his #20 Xfinity seat at Joe Gibbs Racing for his role in those incidents. Several fans held Wallace to blame because of the ambiguity surrounding the incident. One even went as far as to say, “Seems out of character for Aric. I’m curious what Bubba said that made him react that way“. And then to see him lash out at Alex Bowman over an incident that happened more than an hour ago irked others further. After a whole week of contemplation, and some good advice from Kevin Harvick, Bubba was heartfelt in his apologies.

His final apology was the most moving, which he made to his wife Amanda, and it went exactly like, “I wasn’t the best husband… I made her feel like she had to walk on eggshells after bad races. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about going home and getting a fresh reset and being close to the people that are around you.” It was certainly an honest and commendable gesture by Bubba, which could signal a steady resurgence in the latter half of the regular season.

On that note, to lighten the mood at the presser just a little, Bharat Aggarwal from EssentiallySports asked Bubba a lesser-probed question at Pocono: “You have baby Wallace arriving in October. Have you and Amanda settled down any names yet?” 

With a hint of surprise, but all in good humor, Bubba jokingly told EssentiallySports, “I can’t tell you that. We have one picked out. And she (Amanda) is the keeper of that. So we’re gonna wait until he’s born to see if it fits. If not? Then, he’ll be nameless. That might actually be his name. Nameless Wallace – has a nice ring to it.”

Classic Bubba. Down to entertain audiences with his signature humor, which gets taken out of context, more often than not. It is nice to see him not lose his charm, where even the strongest can fail. And with only 6 races left to make the playoffs, this brand-new attitude could certainly help him grab a victory. But when speaking about the origins of his flaring tempers, Bubba made some interesting revelations about his childhood.

Reflections on a tough childhood built in Mobile, AL

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Bubba Wallace answered many other questions by the media present while revealing why he won’t be appealing for that $50,000 fine, which he also called the “best thing that happened to” him. He also talked about an interesting dynamic that allegedly works in the background of NASCAR’s penalty-assigning policies for incidents like Bubba’s.

As per the man himself, “I’ve now realized, they’re not going to really emphasize on what started it, they emphasize on what finished it, right? I try not to start too much (stuff), but I was just raised to end it.”

Explaining what he meant by that last part further, Bubba said, “I blame my dad. He is an eye-for-an-eye guy. He is all about being fair, at all cost of being fair. You punch me in the face, I’ll punch you in the face and then we shake hands after it and we’re even.”

Well, it seems like the negative headlines are behind Bubba Wallace and he is now only eyeing that elusive win. Though he may be riding off a winless streak that stretches back to 2022 in Kansas, this new Bubba Wallace looks very likely to flip the script on its head to make the playoffs, yet again.

As for the confirmed name of ‘Little Wallace’? We must wait until October to find out.