Race: Bubba Wallace – How NASCAR Driver’s Manager Kyle Hall Emotionally Confronted Him After His Daytona 500 Meltdown

Bubba Wallace has shown that he’s ‘more than just a NASCAR driver’ on several occasions in his relatively short career so far. And one of those things was him opening up about the state of his mental health, a subject that used to be generally overlooked when it comes to athletes in general.

But in Wallace’s case, even he wouldn’t have been able to admit to that if not for his best friend and manager, Kyle Hall.

In the recent Netflix docu-series, ‘Race: Bubba Wallace’, it was revealed just how important Kyle Hall has been in the life of the 23XI Racing driver.

Both Wallace and Hall have been childhood friends, along with being connected through professional responsibilities. However, it was the friend in Hall that persisted when the professional in him would’ve reached the limit in confronting Wallace about the state of his mental health.

“I remember a couple of years ago after he finished second at the Daytona 500, he is, I mean, super emotional,” Hall recalls the post-race conference from Daytona 500 in 2018.

“I’m watching this from behind the stage and I’m like, ‘What the hell is going on?'”

Hall describes his friend as someone who is always hard on himself, but this, this was “a whole another level,” which finally led him to confront him.

“I’m telling him like, ‘You gotta be open and honest with me. This is friendship right now. There is more to this’,” Hall said.

And that’s what Bubba Wallace did. He told his best friend about his depression, something which he eventually confessed to soon after.

 Hall describes the extreme drive to win that Bubba Wallace has

Hall talked about how Bubba Wallace, like all racecar drivers, has an extreme drive to win races. But, in his case, if that doesn’t happen as quickly as he’d want them, “that’s when the stress and pressure start really getting on him.”

“When he says, ‘I wanna go out there and win under the checkered’, and then that doesn’t happen, it’s just not anybody else’s fault but his own in his eyes,” Hall added.

“He would harbor it inside to the point where he is just so frustrated and so built up that he would essentially explode, like an inch away from losing it.”

However, this was some time ago. And even though depression and mental health problems don’t just vanish overnight, Bubba Wallace has at least opened up about it.

And that in itself is a huge step not just for him, but for racecar drivers in general.

Also Read: Race: Bubba Wallace – Hamlin Reveals How a “Fake News” Article Inspired Michael Jordan to Get Into NASCAR Ownership