Bubba Wallace competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No 23 Toyota Camry for 23XI Racing and part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No 1 Toyota Tundra for Tricon Garage.
71 Facts About Bubba Wallace
2.
Bubba Wallace then moved over to Ford and their driver development program and competed full-time for Roush Fenway Racing in the Xfinity Series.
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Bubba Wallace has been the only full-time African American driver in NASCAR's three national series each year he has competed in them.
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Bubba Wallace is the only African American driver to win more than once in any of these series, which has made him one of the most successful African American drivers in the history of NASCAR.
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Bubba Wallace started racing in the Bandolero and Legends car racing series, as well as local late model events, at the age of nine.
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Bubba Wallace drove for Rev Racing as part of NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program, and was signed as a development driver for Joe Gibbs Racing.
7.
Bubba Wallace won his very first race in the series, at Greenville-Pickens Speedway, becoming the youngest driver ever to win at the track, he was the youngest, which began as the Busch North Series in 1987.
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Bubba Wallace won later in the year at Lee USA Speedway in New Hampshire, on his way to finishing third in series points and winning the series' Rookie of the Year award.
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Bubba Wallace was the first African American to win the Rookie of the Year award in a NASCAR series.
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Bubba Wallace moved to race directly for Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2012 season.
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On December 18,2014, RFR officially announced that they had signed Bubba Wallace to compete full-time in the No 6 Ford Mustang in 2015, with sponsors and crew members to be announced at a later date.
12.
On January 28,2015, at NASCAR Media Day, it was announced that Bubba Wallace would drive the No 6 Ford EcoBoost Mustang.
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Bubba Wallace started the season with a 12th-place finish at Daytona and earned 14 top-tens to finish 7th in the final point standings.
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Bubba Wallace was beaten by Daniel Suarez for Rookie of the Year by a single top-ten finish.
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Bubba Wallace dropped to 11th in points but earned his best career finish at Dover International Speedway finishing 2nd to the dominant Erik Jones and making the inaugural Xfinity Series chase.
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Bubba Wallace made it to the round of 8 before being eliminated after the penultimate race at Phoenix.
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At Charlotte, Bubba Wallace would run upfront for a majority of the race, even leading for 3 laps, but a late-race pit stop relegated him behind the top ten.
18.
Bubba Wallace got loose and hit the wall with a few laps to go costing him a top ten and finishing 28th.
19.
Bubba Wallace signed with Biagi-DenBeste Racing to drive the No 98 Ford at Chicagoland Speedway where he would score a 10th-place finish.
20.
In February 2013, it was announced that Bubba Wallace would run a full season in the Camping World Truck Series in the No 54 Toyota owned by Kyle Busch Motorsports.
21.
On October 26,2013, Bubba Wallace became the first African-American driver to win in one of NASCAR's national series since 1963, winning the Camping World Truck Series Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway.
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In 2014, Bubba Wallace returned to the Camping World Truck Series full-time in the No 54.
23.
Bubba Wallace held off a hard charging Larson, who wrecked his car trying to catch him, and beat Hornaday by a 5.489-second margin to win the second annual Mudsummer Classic.
24.
Bubba Wallace switched to the No 34 for the Kroger 200 at Martinsville in tribute to Wendell Scott, and led the most laps en route to his second straight victory in the race.
25.
Bubba Wallace won his final race with KBM, the season finale at Homestead Miami Speedway, beating Larson again to earn his first non-short track victory.
26.
However, Bubba Wallace's truck was discovered to have had illegal vent holes, resulting in an L1-level penalty that suspended crew chief Shane Huffman for one race and penalized the No 99 team ten points.
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Bubba Wallace finished 14th after running out of fuel from 5th with 4 laps to go.
28.
In March 2021, Bubba Wallace joined Spencer Davis Motorsports to drive their No 11 in the Pinty's Dirt Truck Race on Bristol Motor Speedway's dirt layout.
29.
On June 5,2017, Richard Petty Motorsports announced plans to have Bubba Wallace drive the team's No 43 Ford in place of injured Aric Almirola, making Bubba Wallace the first African-American to race in the Cup Series since Bill Lester in 2006.
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Bubba Wallace went on to finish 26th and one lap down.
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Bubba Wallace earned a finish of 11th at Kentucky after being involved in a last-lap wreck.
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Bubba Wallace was officially introduced to the team as their new driver on October 25,2017.
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Bubba Wallace is the first African-American driver to have a full-time Cup ride since Wendell Scott in 1971.
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Bubba Wallace scored only two additional top-10 finishes at the spring Texas race and the fall Phoenix race.
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Bubba Wallace finished 28th place in the final point standings.
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In October 2018, Bubba Wallace was named in Ebony magazine's Power 100 list, joining the ranks of Stephen Curry, Antonio Brown, Venus Williams and former president and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama.
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At the Brickyard 400, Bubba Wallace had one of the best runs of his career by finishing third after running top 10 all day long.
38.
Bubba Wallace continued to show improvements to his finishes during the season, notably at Richmond, where he started 37th and finished 12th.
39.
At the Charlotte Roval, Bubba Wallace finished 24th after Alex Bowman spun him out on lap 42 after Bubba Wallace gave Bowman the middle finger gesture on several laps.
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Bubba Wallace retaliated after the race by splashing water on Bowman's face.
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Bubba Wallace finished 28th in the final points standings.
42.
Bubba Wallace responded to fan criticism by mocking how easily they got offended over a video game.
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Bubba Wallace scored a second top ten in the Supermarket Heroes 500 at Bristol after starting 36th.
44.
On September 10, Bubba Wallace announced he would leave RPM at the end of the 2020 season.
45.
On September 21,2020, Michael Jordan announced he and NASCAR veteran Denny Hamlin had created a NASCAR team, named 23XI Racing with Bubba Wallace serving as the first driver in the No 23.
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Bubba Wallace was replaced by Ty Dillon in the 2021 Busch Clash as Bubba Wallace was not eligible to compete in the race.
47.
Bubba Wallace was classified 17th in the Daytona 500 after being involved in a fiery last-lap wreck.
48.
Bubba Wallace originally placed third, but due to a post-race car inspection failure on the No 17 car of Chris Buescher, his result was increased to second, equaling his best ever Cup Series result at the 2018 Daytona 500.
49.
On October 4,2021, Bubba Wallace earned his first career Cup win at Talladega after the race was shortened due to rain.
50.
Bubba Wallace is the first African-American driver to win a Cup Series race since Wendell Scott in 1963.
51.
Bubba Wallace scored the first win for a McDonald's-sponsored car since Jimmy Spencer in 1994.
52.
Bubba Wallace continued with 23XI Racing alongside new teammate Kurt Busch.
53.
Bubba Wallace raced at the 2022 Daytona 500 with a full McDonald's sponsored paint scheme, finishing runner-up to Austin Cindric by 0.036 seconds.
54.
Bubba Wallace was in contention late in the race at Atlanta, but would finish 13th after being involved in a wreck on the last lap.
55.
At Michigan, Bubba Wallace won his first career pole and finished second to Kevin Harvick.
56.
Bubba Wallace retaliated with a right rear hook on Larson, wrecking both cars down the frontstretch and severely damaging Christopher Bell's car in the process.
57.
Bubba Wallace was suspended for one race for the incident; John Hunter Nemechek was assigned to drive the No 45 at Homestead.
58.
Bubba Wallace ended the campaign 19th in the drivers' standings.
59.
Bubba Wallace stated in interviews that although he was relieved that he was not specifically targeted, he was frustrated by the backlash he received.
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Bubba Wallace nonetheless vowed not to let the incident or the subsequent "hoax" allegations "break" him.
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Bubba Wallace founded and runs the Live to be Different Foundation.
62.
Bubba Wallace was the National Motorsports Press Association's Pocono Spirit Award winner for the second quarter of 2020, and the recipient of the Comcast Community Champion of the Year award for 2020.
63.
In May 2020, after the murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, Bubba Wallace began to speak out about the abuse of African Americans by the police, becoming the face of stock car racing's involvement in the Black Lives Matter movement.
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Bubba Wallace finished 11th after securing top-ten finishes in both stages, his career-best at Martinsville in the Cup Series.
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Bubba Wallace was born in Mobile, Alabama, and raised in the city of Concord, North Carolina.
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Bubba Wallace's father is the owner of an industrial cleaning company, and his mother is a social worker who ran track at the University of Tennessee.
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Bubba Wallace is best friends with fellow NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney.
68.
In 2019, Bubba Wallace revealed that he dealt with and continues to deal with depression for most of his racing career.
69.
On July 23,2019, Bubba Wallace posted photos of Richard Petty autographing his left forearm.
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Bubba Wallace vowed to have Petty's signature tattooed if the photos were retweeted 43,000 times.
71.
Less than a month later, Bubba Wallace had Petty's signature tattooed on the back of his right thigh.