In the last four months, Bubba Wallace has experienced moments unique for NASCAR drivers.
NASCAR suspended him for a race for an on-track incident. And People Magazine published a story and photos from his wedding.
Talk about the highs and lows. From the happiest moments to the most frustrating, Wallace continues to find the spotlight even when, in those instances, he had no plans to attract attention.
Amid it all, he has come into his own as a race car driver. When people talk about potential playoff contenders, seeing Wallace’s name in the mix isn’t about what is possible as much as what will happen if he continues to drive as well as he did in the latter parts of 2022.
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The 23XI Racing driver, the only full-time Black driver in the NASCAR Cup Series, can look back at the last several months as a time of growth.
“I’m just continuing to grow and learn and try to process things a little bit slower — slow down mentally and enjoy the moment that you’re in,” Wallace said. “There was a lot of moments where we kind of just reacted and should have put some thought into it first, but that’s part of it.
“To create your boundaries, you’ve got to step over them.”
With a victory at Kansas Speedway in September in his pocket, Wallace appeared to be building momentum for 2023 as he diced among the leaders five weeks later at Las Vegas. But after Kyle Larson pinched him into the wall, Wallace hooked Larson’s car at a dangerous angle, sending him hard into the barrier. Wallace then got out of his car and shoved Larson.
Bubba relishes Kansas win
Bubba Wallace reflected on his historic win at Kansas, which was the second of his career.
NASCAR suspended Wallace for a race, the first suspension for an on-track incident by a Cup driver since 2015 when Matt Kenseth became the first Cup driver ever to be suspended for a racing incident when he crashed Joey Logano at Martinsville.
“I moved on the next day [after the suspension],” Wallace said last month as he prepared for the 2023 season. “It was unfortunate the way it all kind of went down. But I understood the positioning of everything, and that’s part of it.
“Everybody makes mistakes. And it’s if you do it again, then you didn’t learn your lesson. So I feel like I’ve learned and we can move on.”
With two bosses who are accomplished athletes — driver Denny Hamlin and basketball legend Michael Jordan co-own the team — they understood what their driver was going through while also condemning the acts.
“I can sympathize with him,” Hamlin said. “I’ve made big mistakes as well, and each one of them, I’ve learned from in some way shape or form. It’s no different with him. He learned from that.
“He understands where he drew the line and where we, as a race team, we draw a line. And although he crossed it in that moment, I think that if it comes back around to him, he’s going to be better off now from that life experience.”
Hamlin’s advice to Wallace
Denny Hamlin spoke about learning from his past mistakes and said Bubba Wallace could do the same after his one-race suspension in 2022.
Following the week off, Wallace rebounded with an eighth-place finish at Martinsville and then 22nd in the season finale at Phoenix.
“I think coming back and performing well at Martinsville [was important],” Wallace said. “Phoenix, we’ve still got some work to do there but still just showing up and having that mindset that it’s still not over [and] we’ve still got to go out and fight is big.
“It’s easy when you’re not inside the playoff picture to just roll over and already look forward to the offseason. But for us, we’re a professional group and you have to stick with it until checkered flag falls.”
Wallace, who didn’t make the playoffs, can look back at 2022 and look beyond Vegas, knowing that he led 58 laps on the way to the win at Kansas and finished with four top-5s and eight top-10s in the last 16 races.
“It’s exciting to have that win at Kansas — the way we won it was something I haven’t done in a really long time,” Wallace said. “We’ve got to do some more of that. We’ve got to lead some laps, we have to get some stage wins this year and show that we’re a contender.
“Dabbling inside the top five is OK. But we’re at that point now where the communication and the atmosphere and the camaraderie within our team inside our four walls at 23XI is well beyond playoff potential. So we have to show up and be ready for that.”
He also enters 2023 as the “senior” member of 23XI as Tyler Reddick has replaced veteran Kurt Busch.
“Our team is definitely growing in a hurry,” Wallace said. “It’s cool to just be a part of the process. … [Reddick and I] are helping each other hand in hand. I’m excited to have Tyler. He’s fast. He’s hungry. I feel like we share a lot of the same similarities.”
The elder statesman
Bubba Wallace on being the senior member of 23XI and working with Tyler Reddick.
In addition to some solid mojo from his on-track performance last year, Wallace also has added a wedding ring to his hand. He married long-time girlfriend Amanda Carter on New Year’s Eve.
Their wedding and photos were featured in People, not exactly something that most NASCAR drivers get to do. But Wallace is a national celebrity for his advocacy against racial injustice.
Wallace, though, didn’t feel comfortable about promoting his wedding.
“I question why we did it,” he said.
But he also knew it was important to his wife.
“I can’t even give one percent of my effort into the wedding,” Wallace said. “It was all her idea. It was all her vision. And she blew it out of the water. It was incredible.
“Everybody had a great time. So she enjoyed it. I think she enjoyed that little spotlight moment for sure. To me, it was just another interview and pictures.”
Wallace, if you couldn’t tell, doesn’t love interviews. He does them as part of the job. He hopes most of the interviews this year can focus on on-track accomplishments.
“We were a team that was talked about almost every week there at the last handful of races,” Wallace said. “That’s what you want.
“We’ve just got to keep delivering because it’s a long, demanding season and that flame can burn out. But even when it does, you’ve still got to be there and show up and be ready to play.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.
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