Who is Bubba Wallace?

Bubba Wallace may not be one of the most popular drivers in NASCAR today but he is one of the most talented. The 23XI Racing star's aggressive and unapologetic attitude doesn't sit well with a lot of fans, although he never saw that as an issue. In the past, Bubba was accused of being too aggressive on the track with his moves but looks like he has worked on that aspect of late. His race craft has matured as a result but that hunger to win is still very much intact. Bubba is at the prime of his racing career and it will be interesting to see how that pans out.

Bubba Wallace’s early life

The 23XI Racing driver was born on October 8, 1993, in Mobile, Alabama, and raised in Concord, North Carolina. He was born to Darrell Wallace Sr and Desiree Wallace and has a sister named Brittany Wallace. He was educated at the Northwest Cabarrus High School. While a lot of drivers today come from racing backgrounds, this was not the case with the driver of the 23XI racing team. His father owns an industrial cleaning company while his mother works as a social worker. Bubba Wallace is the only full-time driver in the NASCAR Cup Series today who is of African-American descent.

Being a motorsports athlete is a taxing job and it's not uncommon for drivers to undergo a lot of mental pressure. Things had gotten a bit too much for Bubba Wallace as he admitted to battling depression during his racing career in 2019. Several of his peers came out in his support. After his good friend Ryan Blaney won the Cup in 2023, Wallace was affected yet again. “He called me a couple days later and I was like, ‘Man, I guess you winning the championship sent me into depression. Like congrats, but I don’t want to see that',” the 23XI star admitted as per AP.

Bubba Wallace's wife and marriage

One of the people who has helped Bubba Wallace through the toughest of times is his wife, Amanda Wallace. “I wake up and my wife’s there. She’s like, ‘How are you feeling today?’ And it’s like, one of those days,” Wallace said as per People Magazine. “We keep each other on our toes. We play video games together. So she’s a massive help," the driver added.

Amanda Wallace (formerly Carter) met Bubba Wallace for the first time in high school and it was love at first sight for the motorsports athlete. But Amanda perhaps did not feel the same way in the beginning. "She thought I was nice, but not attractive," he said as per People. "I just remember seeing her and I was like, 'Wow, she's beautiful'."

It took them a few years but Bubba and Amanda started dating in 2016 and announced their engagement in 2021. The couple got married one year later on New Year's Eve. Wallace's best man at the wedding was none other than his good friend and fellow competitor, Ryan Blaney. The couple celebrated their first anniversary recently but they are yet to have any children.

Bubba Wallace net worth 2024

Wallace has been a full-time driver in the NASCAR Cup Series for quite a while now, and a successful one at that. So it is no surprise that over the years, he has accumulated a decent amount of wealth. According to several sources, the 23XI Racing star currently boasts a net worth of $4 million. A substantial part of his income also comes from the several brand endorsements and partnerships he is involved in. As per reports, Bubba Wallace currently has sponsorship deals in place with Beats by Dre, Columbia Sportswear, and McDonalds.

Bubba Wallace's career timeline

Bubba Wallace's introduction to competitive racing came early in his life when he started participating in the Bandolero and Legends car racing series at the young age of nine. And just three years later, in 2005, the driver racked up 35 wins in the 48 races held that year. Since then, Bubba Wallace has had an upward graph in his career which saw him move to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in 2010. He was also inducted as a development driver for Joe Gibbs Racing as a part of NASCAR's Drive for Diversity Program.

After clinching multiple wins at Greenville-Pickens Speedway, Lee USA Speedway, Richmond International Speedway, and Dover International Speedway, among others, the driver finally made his Xfinity Series debut for JGR in 2012. In his first season with the team, Bubba Wallace participated in four races and clinched a season-high finishing position of P7 at Iowa Speedway. Shy of a win throughout his Xfinity Series career, Wallace's best performance came at D0ver Motor Speedway when he finished P2 in 2016 for Roush Fenway Racing.

In 2017, Bubba Wallace made his Cup Series debut for Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM), driving the No.43 Ford, at Pocono Raceway and finished P26. He was substituting for an injured Aric Almirola and went on to participate in four races that season. However, a full-time role wasn't too far as, in 2018, after Almirola's departure, Bubba Wallace was announced as the new driver for RPM. This was a historic moment as Wallace became the first African-American driver to secure a full-time ride in the Cup Series since Wendell Scott in 1971. Wallace subsequently went on to finish 28th in his first-ever Cup Season with one Top-5 and three Top-10s. His very first race as a full-time driver became his very best of the season as the driver finished P2 at the Daytona 500, just behind Austin Dillon.

Bubba Wallace has two wins in his Cup series career so far, with victories at Talladega in 2021 and Kansas in 2022. Wallace might not have won any races in the 2023 Cup season but it was a transformative year for the driver. He made it into the playoffs for the first time and achieved a career-high points finish of 10th.

Bubba Wallace’s partnerships and endorsements

Bubba Wallace has made quite a mark in NASCAR and that is evident from his sponsor list with big names like Columbia Sportswear, the United States Air Force, and Dr. Pepper, among others.

Columbia Sportswear has backed Wallace since his time with Richard Petty Motorsports and has renewed their partnership again as a primary sponsor for the 2023 season. As for his 2024 sponsorship situation, the driver will be seen reuniting with the United States Air Force, who will adorn his #23 car for select races.

“It’s really special to once again be partnered with the men and women who make up the United States Air Force. My previous experience with the folks from the Air Force was awesome, and I had the chance to meet a lot of great Airmen who do some amazing things each and every day. I’m looking forward to welcoming them to 23XI and showing them what we’re all about as we work together to try and accomplish the impossible," Bubba Wallace said about the partnership.

Apart from that, Wallace has a tie-up with Mcdonalds' which dates back to 2022. The driver also ran a brand-centered paint scheme at Homestead in 2023. What's more? Mcdonalds' also has a Bubba Wallace-inspired meal for customers residing in Chicago and Northwest Indiana!

Dr. Pepper has also had a storied history with the driver. It was announced ahead of the 2021 Cup season that Bubba Wallace would be joining 23XI Racing and would be backed by a slew of primary sponsors that included Dr. Pepper, DoorDash, and Root Insurance among others.

Bubba Wallace’s NASCAR career stats

Bubba Wallace has competed in 51 races in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series since his debut in 2013 and has clinched six victories so far. Apart from that, Wallace has also reached the Top 10 30 times and the Top 5 16 times, while securing three pole positions. He has had an average finish of 10.4 with 987 laps led.

Despite being a regular face in the Cup Series since 2017, Bubba Wallace has had a hard time making it to the playoffs. The driver failed to reach the Top 10 in players' standings in the first six years in NASCAR's top faction. However, 2023 provided a redemption arc to him as the driver reached the Round of 12 following the Bristol Night Race. However, he was later eliminated after his outing at Charlotte Roval where he finished P16.

"We weren’t supposed to be here according to a lot of people, but we proved them wrong and then proved a lot of people in the garage wrong that you can’t really count on the No. 23 at a road course race," Bubba Wallace had said after his elimination.

Bubba Wallace records

Bubba Wallace may be yet to win any major NASCAR championship but he has created history in stock car racing.

The 23XI Racing driver is the highest-finishing African-American driver in the Daytona 500 (P2 in 2022) and the Brickyard 400 (P3 in 2019). He has also accumulated 6 wins in the Truck Series, making him the first African-American driver to win a race in the competition's history. He is also the first Black driver to earn a full-time Cup Series ride since Wendell Scott in 1971. He also became the first Black driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race with his Talladega win in 2021, since Scott in 1963.

Bubba Wallace foundation

The driver of the #23 Cup Series car is the founder and leader of the Live To Be Different Foundation. The organization was founded in 2017 and its main goal is to assist people achieve their dreams regardless of their age, disabilities, or racial background.

According to the foundation's website, its mission is also to inspire future generations to be more inclusive than their predecessors. Wallace has also been awarding scholarships to deserving students at the Northwest Cabarrus High School in Concord as part of the foundation. Each year, one male and one female student gets a scholarship worth $5,000.

Bubba Wallace controversies

Bubba Wallace's very nature may be admired by some but it has gotten the 23XI Racing driver into a lot of trouble. One of the most infamous fights he got into was with former Cup Series champion Kyle Larson. At Las Vegas in 2o22, the two drivers got into a physical brawl after an on-track incident. Wallace was seen clutching Larson's race suit but the Hendrick Motorsports driver kept his cool until they were separated by officials. The driver of the #23 was suspended for one race by NASCAR as a result and he issued an apology to the parties involved for letting his emotions run a bit too wild.

Wallace has never shied away from speaking his mind and he was one of the most outspoken sportsmen when protests over the murder of George Floyd took the country by storm. When NASCAR decided to ban the confederate flag, Bubba Wallace supported the step. However, just a few days after that, a noose was found in his garage stall at Talladega. Things got a bit messy with the federal authorities as a result and Wallace's team at the time, Richard Petty Motorsports was tight-lipped about the matter.

Bubba Wallace Netflix documentary

Early in 2022, the 23XI Racing star's documentary called Race: Bubba Wallace was released. Of course, the documentary delved into the life of the race car driver Wallace, but it also portrayed his activist side. The driver of the #23 was an outspoken sportsperson about the George Floyd murder and that aspect was shown beautifully in the series. It also covered the whole incident with the noose in the garage and provided a lot of insight into what goes on behind the scenes in NASCAR. It has been received fairly well by the audience with an IMDb rating of 6.6 and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 59%. The docu-series got Bubba Wallace put Bubba Wallace in a different kind of race outside the track as it was nominated and then eventually won a Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary Series(serialized) in 2023.

Bubba Wallace and Michael Jordan's connection

When NBA legend Michael Jordan decided to delve into the world of motorsports, 23XI Racing was founded along with Denny Hamlin in 2020. Jordan had been interested in investing in Richard Petty Motorsports, for whom Wallace drove at the time. However, he went ahead with building a new team and signing Bubba Wallace as their first driver on a 3-year deal. After Wallace's two impressive wins, the team extended his contract and secured its near future with the outspoken driver. When he first got the opportunity, Wallace was reportedly star-struck, However, he has been quite successful with the team and will hope to win the Cup Series with them someday.

Bubba Wallace in popular media

Apart from having his own Netflix Series, Bubba Wallace has frequently appeared in the mainstream media. He voiced the character Bubba Wheelhouse in the 2017 Pixar movie Cars 3. The driver of the #23 was also in a music video along with Denny Hamlin for a Post Malone song called Motley Crew. He is also set to appear in a Netflix series called NASCAR: Full Speed.

Bubba Wallace's social media

Bubba Wallace is quite active on social media, especially on his X and Instagram handles. On the former, he could often be seen engaging in debate with fans and NASCAR insiders.