Bubba Wallace has been one of NASCAR’s most talked-about drivers lately, and for good reason. Along with the entire 23XI Racing team, he’s been on the rise. In just its fourth year, 23XI Racing—owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin—snagged its first regular-season championship, and Tyler Reddick made it to the Championship 4, outperforming seasoned teams like Joe Gibbs Racing.

While Reddick stole the spotlight for much of the 2024 season, Bubba Wallace made a strong late-season push, having one of the best years of his career. He finished six times in the top 5, fourteen times in the top 10, and had an average finish of 15.28. These are his best stats ever in NASCAR, and with the way he’s been improving, many are expecting big things from him in 2025 and beyond. So, when NASCAR decided to give him a tribute, you’d think it would be a slam dunk. But, as usual, it didn’t quite land the way they hoped.

Is Bubba Wallace worth the hype?

Let’s take a look at Bubba’s career so far. He’s been in NASCAR’s Cup Series for 7 full seasons, which is plenty of time to rack up some serious stats. But, so far, they haven’t exactly been jaw-dropping. In 255 race starts, Wallace has two wins, 22 top-5 finishes, and 46 top-10 finishes, with an average finish of 19.78. Now, by no means are these stats bad, but if we’re talking about a driver who’s supposedly on the verge of superstardom, they’re not exactly mind-blowing either.

That said, if you zoom in on his year-over-year growth, things start to look a lot better. Bubba Wallace spent his first three years (2018-2020) with Richard Petty Motorsports, a team that—no disrespect to the legend, Richard Petty—has never really lived up to its owner’s legacy. The team only scored 5 wins in 900 starts, so Wallace was essentially starting from the back of the pack. Over those first few seasons, Wallace never finished in the top 20. He was 28th in 2018, 28th in 2019, and 22nd in 2020.

Then in 2021, Wallace made the jump to 23XI Racing in their debut season. He scored his first win at Talladega, becoming only the second African American driver to win in NASCAR’s top series after Wendell Scott in 1963. Wallace finished the season 21st overall. In 2022, he picked up another win (Kansas) and ended the season 19th. But 2023 was when things really started to click. Although he didn’t win, Wallace finished 10th in points, showing that he was becoming more consistent. And in 2024, despite finishing 18th overall, he posted his best stats ever.

Wallace’s progress is undeniable. But when NASCAR tried to celebrate his growth with a tribute video, let’s just say… things didn’t go as planned. Here, take a look:

NASCAR’s tribute to Bubba Wallace was meant to highlight his journey and shut down his critics. The video showed Wallace “cutting out the noise” of the haters, enjoying the small victories along the way, and just being himself. The idea was good—acknowledging Wallace’s resilience and how far he’s come in a sport where he’s had to prove himself at every turn. But the execution? Well, that’s a different story.

Fans did not like it one bit and for many reasons. Now, for the fans who were able to look past the editing blunders disagree with Wallace being deserving of such a tribute!

Fans lash out at NASCAR’s tribute for Bubba Wallace

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The video starts with an animated guy struggling to pull earphones out of his ears, followed by Wallace literally “shutting out” his critics. The message was clear, but the editing was… not so much. Fans immediately jumped on the video for its confusing narrative and awkward flow. One fan summed it up perfectly with, “Who else missed the point?” And to be honest, a lot of people did. This edit is part of a trend of ‘unexpected edits’ that are meant to mislead the viewer and NASCAR fans clearly didn’t get the joke.

But beyond the editing flaws, many fans took issue with the idea that Wallace even deserved a tribute like this. Some fans flat-out questioned whether he was even worthy of all the hype. One person asked, “Is this the excuse for his lack of success?” And you can see where they’re coming from. But take a look at his performance towards the end of 2024, and it’s a different story.

When you look at his performance in the last 15 races of the 2024 season, you start to see a trend. His average finish in those races was the 3rd best on the grid, tied with William Byron (13.1). The only two drivers ahead of him were Christopher Bell (8.1) and Kyle Larson (11.9). That’s pretty impressive, especially when you consider that Wallace finished ahead of all the Championship 4 drivers, including Joey Logano, who finished the last 15 races with an average of 17.6.

Yet, fans believe, he is just a “Normal driver, (this is) just marketing” or that it’s “Interesting to make an edit of the guy who is hardly top 20” Well, his season finish was 18th, but the fact that he managed to finish out the season with better average finishes than all Championship 4 drivers is commendable.

This is including his teammate Reddick, whose average finish in the last 15 was 15.3.  One fan’s argument is that Wallace is the “Most talked about 25th average driver in NASCAR” Well, not 25th but 21st, if we consider his average finish in the next-gen car, which has been 16.5. Still not bad! But it’s hard to argue with one fan who says “when’s the last time he won.” Yes, even though Wallace has shown consistency in recent times, he’s failed to bag wins. His winless drought is at 80 races after winning the Kansas in Sept of 2022.

At the end of the day, Bubba Wallace has the talent, there’s no doubt about that. He’s shown steady growth, especially in 2024, but the wins just haven’t come. Fans want to see him finish off what he’s started and prove that he can close the deal when it matters. So, what do you think? Will 2025 be the year Wallace finally breaks through with a win, or will he continue to be the guy with potential but no trophies? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!