Race: Bubba Wallace – NASCAR Driver Sheds Light on Reaching Kyle Busch Level of Unpopularity

In NASCAR, Kyle Busch is one driver who people love to hate. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver is notorious for being hot-headed and being incredibly outspoken. Owing to his infamy, he has often drawn the ire of fans and drivers alike. Suffice to say, the #18 driver often gets booed during driver introductions.

However, at the Martinsville race in 2020, Bubba Wallace found himself in Busch’s shoes.

When he heard some booing, Wallace assumed that it was for him. However, his engineer clarified that it was the customary boo for Kyle Busch. At that, Wallace acknowledged that the booing was for Busch, but said that the booing when his name came up would be worse.

What did Bubba Wallace say about Kyle Busch?

Clarifying his statement, he said, “From 2020 to now, the fanbase is different. I went from a lot of cheers in the driver intros, but now right behind Kyle Busch in the boos. They hate Kyle, one, because he wins a lot. But two, the way he acts when he loses. He acts like a crybaby. And now, when you go ‘political’, as they say, now I’m getting just as many boos as he is.”

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This is largely because of the enormous backlash from the confederate flag controversy. Wallace was one of the biggest driving forces behind this, and a fair number of fans were unhappy with this development. Nevertheless, the African-American driver has not let this affect him too badly. Even the Richard Petty Motorsports stood firmly behind the driver.

Since then, he has moved to the 23XI Racing team and is thriving there. In fact, he has registered his first NASCAR Cup Series win for the outfit. The best part was that he did it on home soil, at the Talladega Superspeedway.

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In 2022, the #23 driver came very shy to nabbing a second win, this time at the Daytona 500. However, Austin Cindric managed to hold on and win ahead of him.