Club Shay Shay - Bubba Wallace

Episode Date: February 8, 2021

On episode 20 of Club Shay Shay, Shannon welcomes in the first African-American driver to win Rookie of the Year in a NASCAR Series, and 2018 Daytona 500 runner up, Bubba Wallace. Bubba talks about how joining Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing team has put him in a place to succeed this season, at the Daytona 500 and beyond. He and Shannon go over the ins and outs of NASCAR, covering how drivers practice, how to prepare for different tracks, and the setbacks and challenges Bubba has faced as the sport’s only African-American driver. Bubba & Shannon also discuss the intersection of sports, politics, entertainment and humanity, touching on Bubba’s role banning the Confederate flag from racing, putting #BlackLivesMatter on his car, pushing to make NASCAR more inclusive, and much more. Bubba provides a fascinating insight into the world of NASCAR. His passion and knowledge for racing shine through in this important conversation.#DoSomethinB4TwoSomethin & Follow Club Shay Shay:                                                                 https://www.instagram.com/clubshayshayhttps://twitter.com/clubshayshayhttps://www.facebook.com/clubshayshayhttps://www.youtube.com/c/clubshayshay Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I am your host, also the proprietor of Club Che Che, and the guy that's stopping by for conversation on the drink today is the first African-American driver to win Rookie of the Year in NASCAR. He's the first African-American driver in 50 years to win a NASCAR Truck Series. He's the highest finishing NASCAR driver in Daytona 500 history. He finished second in 2018. The lone African-American full-time driver in NASCAR, Bubba Wallace. sacrifice muscle paid the price want to slice like the rolling dice that's why all my life i've been grinding all my life bubba how you doing bro i'm all good brother i appreciate you having me on thank you for coming on i want to ask you a question when you were growing up and your friends started calling you bubba did you object to it at first or you like okay i'll be bubba did you object to it at first or you like okay i'll be bubble i honestly i i don't i think it's weird for people to call me daryl because i'm so used to bubble like it started out with my sister the day i was born and so all of my family cousins uncles aunts and aunts everybody just everything was bubble and so once you got to the racetrack, we were, we were using Daryl a little bit. And so I was so used to Bubba that it never

really felt different to me. So how was it when you got around people that didn't call you Bubba and everybody else referred to you as Bubba and they looking at you like, that's Daryl, why are they calling you Bubba? Yeah. So that was funny seeing, playing the name game with a lot of people. calling you Bubba. Yeah. So that was funny seeing, playing the name game with a lot of people. You know, now I've, I've kind of used the Bubba brand in the racing career. So Bubba is kind of the household name now. But there's only a few people that I won't allow to call me Bubba, which is funny. My girlfriend, when she says it, it's, it's almost like she's making fun of the

name or joking. Her tone just doesn't sound right. So I do not allow her to say Bubba. So has it always been like that? Our girlfriend is Daryl. Everybody else is Bubba. Yep, that's how it's always been. For some reason, I don't know. I don't know.

I haven't accepted her to be able to say that yet. Bubba, you're in a sport that's very unique because your Super Bowl, your championship starts first. You look at football, it's the Super Bowl end of the season. Baseball World Series at the end of the season. Most sports, their championship is at the end of the season. Your sport, what you gear up for is at the end of the season. Your sport, what you gear up for, is at the beginning of the season. How excited are you in 2021 about the Daytona 500 and your chances of winning that race? Yeah, no, I'm pumped because this is an incredible opportunity for me. And I think if we look at statistics, Daytona might be my best racetrack

from a numbers standpoint right for me personally it's totally different but from numbers and just how it comes down to the data it is my best track so we've always had a really good speedway program you know being a part of the the petty family for the last three years now switching over to to mj and company um with 2311 racing and toyota i'm excited about that. So getting, there's so many emotions going into this race, just from a new team, new personnel, new opportunities, got to capitalize on everything.

So I'm excited about it. So ready to get things going for our biggest race of the year. It's always been like that. And so it's tradition. So we're all used to it. What, so the transition was talk about a Richard Petty going back but the transition as you mentioned to a new team Jordan brand Jordan this is his first time I think he's teamed up with Danny Hamlin and you're driving the 23 car

the jump man car what's what's it been like and what's your expectation with this new new team yeah it's actually been really well really going things are going like and what's your expectations with this new new team yeah it's actually been really well really going things are going smoothly and that's from my point of view you talk to crew chief and competition director they're like we need a lot more time so right uh for us i was actually in the shop today um getting seat belts fitted getting the seat fitted right so uh it's crazy to think that it's already january 14th so basically halfway through this month and two weeks two and a half weeks, we're heading down to Daytona. So there's a lot of moving parts that we still have to get going for us.

But I'm excited and pumped with the direction that we're heading. Having conversations with people that have been around Jordan that are part of our team is helping everybody grow together and kind of understand the expectations. And so I have yet to meet MJ in person, but we've shared some text messages back and forth. Yeah. I think the weather's too nice down in Florida for him to come on up here. I'm not, not time to speak for him though, but, but yeah, I think it's,

I think it's going to shape up to be a really great year for us. We get through the first couple of races. It'll be good. Well, you do know, I don't know going to shape up to be a really great year for us. We get through the first couple races, it'll be good. Well, you do know, I don't know how much you haven't met him, but I don't know how much you've heard about him, but he's not a guy that, you know, is going to take time. He's not a time type of guy. He's a guy that wants to win now immediately like yesterday. So I think I'm safe to my first encounter with MJ was on the phone.

Denny Hamlin had texted me, Hey, are you free around four o'clock today? I'm like, yeah, sure. So four o'clock rolls around. If you know, Denny, he's, he's usually a couple minutes late. So it was about four 30. He calls me. He's like, Hey, what are you doing? I was like, just sitting here messing around on my phone. He was like, here's somebody wants to talk to you. And I had no idea MJ where he was at the time. and you just hear hey if we do this deal there's no more running in the back all right i'm like that's it and i was like oh that's mj so that was that was my first encounter with talking to mj and so he's i know he's all business and so am i so i'm excited about it so expect he said he meant that I mean

he said it I'm sure he said it in a joking manner but he's absolutely for so what what what are your expectations I mean you know you got you're gonna have the best of the best this is no no you know shotty we might run 10 races we might do five races this is full time and you're you've got Danny Hamlin you've got MJ back in this thing 100 yep yep for sure and my mentality my mentality has changed my mentality changed when I watched the last dance it's like okay all right I see I see what I need to be like as an athlete if I want to reach these goals and this is what I need to be like I mean you put that no fear and put the fear of God and everybody else mentality, it's like, okay, you know, that's, that's what you got to have. And hearing stories about MJ. And like I said, he has people from his

camp being a part of this team. Craig Robinson got to meet him, talk with him. He said, for his motorcycle team, he would sit there on the grid and watch certain drivers and riders and be like, look at the way he's walking. He don't want it.'t want it he ain't got it and it's like damn i better make sure i walk and talk the right way so there's a lot of pressure but i keep telling them after the year we had of 2020 pressure is nothing but a thing now the daytona 500 is your biggest race event obviously there are others you know you you got Charlotte, you got the 600, and you got Talladega, but there's nothing like Daytona. The pageantry that goes along with that. What would winning that race mean to you

and what you're trying to accomplish? I think, you know, that race, anybody can win. The Speedway races, four races that everybody in the field has an opportunity to win now you go out and capitalize on it's very hard to do you know it's it's an incredible feat for denny to be you know back to back uh you know three-time daytona 500 winner right now and and uh and so being able to do that i would love to to start to shut up some of those haters that are out there it's like okay you know we got it but knowing part of those haters that are out there. It's like, okay, you know, we got it.

But knowing, part of me knowing that, hey, anybody can go win this race. If you line your, if you put all your eggs in that basket, dot your I's and cross your T's, you know, anybody can do it. So Daytona would just be the start of that. And then we build off that. And then we go win us another one. And then it's just like looking the mic or looking the camera and drop the mic. So that's kind of what we're expecting.

You're on the final lap. Your boss, Denny Hamlin, you're in second and you might have to bump and run in or you might have to do something that you, you know, if it's anybody else other than your boss, you might, no problem. What would you be willing to do to win that race? The final lap, your boss is in first, Bubba Wallace is in second.

What would you be willing to do to win that race? Well, let me say Denny's minority. Denny's minority owner, MJ's majority owner. Okay. So for me, I've always, you race how they they race you and if he didn't wreck me to get by me then i won't wreck him but i'm gonna do everything but that to win my first race to win the day look i understand you but you said you do everything but wreck him if he didn't wreck you well if he if he wrecked you you probably wouldn't be in that position so you might have to give him

a wreck me good enough he better wreck me good enough so i probably wouldn't be in that position. So you might have to give him a- He better wreck me good enough. He better wreck me good enough so I don't get back to that position. I mentioned earlier, you came from the Richard Petty, who's the godfather of NASCAR. The king, yes, sir. He's the king, yes. And I grew up being from rural South Georgia, and I knew Richard Petty and and kale yarborough and allison

and sterling yeah all those guys harry ganton uh bill elliot awesome bill from dawsonville he's from georgia what was it like to be around him to pick his mind and to to to hear how he looked at racing as opposed to how you viewed racing yeah it was totally different so there was obviously a huge error era gap there uh from when he climbed out to when i climbed in and and hearing the stories between there's there's no there's not a better duo in the racing world than richard petty and dale inman and you know there's a lot of people that i will miss from that organization but those two guys are at the top of the list just from hearing those stories. And so, I mean, they were racing three or four times out of the week, driving to California on Monday, being in New York on Wednesday, and it's just like, holy cow.

So all those stories that you heard of what they'd gone through, what they had to do, breaking down on the side of the road, driving the race car to the racetrack, you know, those are the true American badass hero days back then, and while things have changed and evolved and gotten much bigger and faster and lighter and whatever you want to call it, the racing is totally different from back then, and so you had to learn how to adapt to that, and both of them get it, you know uh richard for both of them being in their 80s it's incredible how in tune they were with the race cars with the the format of the races whatever the ins and outs of nascar they were in in tune with what's going on so while it was a little difficult hearing some like hey this is what we tried back here in the 70s and 80s try this and it's like well it's a little bit different now.

We're a little bit faster. The cars are built a little bit different. So it was good to hear and understand the knowledge that they went through and that they utilized to be the best that they can be. Please tell me that when you drove for those three years, if I'm not mistaken, he drove Dodgers. So he had all the Hemings, the big. So he had the Kudas and he had the Challengers and the Chargers and the

Superbees. Please tell me as a part of your deal, you ended up getting one of those. I did not. And maybe that's, maybe it's coming down the road. We had a great partnership with Chevrolet when I jumped on. So, um, yeah, I didn't, I didn't get that in the deal the first thing i got from him which i thought was cooler than anything this is when i filled in those four races in 2017 uh before signing on full-time he called me up he's like hey i want you to come up to the to uh level cross to petty's garage the museum and at the end of that tour got to see all the the race cars there the dodges and

everything and he i walked away with one of his cowboy hats that he signed and this was before i was a part of the the team or anything full time and i thought that was one of the coolest things so it's a centerpiece here downstairs in my living room that's a great conversation piece for sure but it's it's it's a centerpiece on my table always have that pre-covid what is it like at one of those racetracks to hear a hundred thousand two hundred thousand fans and to hear that cry as you go around that track because you could hear it here building and then the and when it's coming down to the end okay you got the final couple of laps and then everybody is on their feet it's it's there's nothing like it you know there's i

just can't wait until everyone is safe and healthy from covid and we get you know the vaccines in place and just get this virus out of here um i can't wait for fans to come back for to full capacity because everything that went on in 2020 has brought a new demographic, has brought a different face to NASCAR. And I want to see that in person. And I want to feel that vibe and that energy. And I feel like there'll be much greater than anything that we've had. You know, different from what other people say.

I strongly believe that the vibe that NASCAR is putting out right now, we have a lot of momentum behind what we're doing. And so pre-COVID, it was great. And I can only imagine it's going to be 10 times better than that once we can get back to that category of no fear of having a virus or anything like that. You've got 30, 40 cars on the track, 840 horsepower. Can you hear the crowd over all that engine noise? No, I can't. When we're we're you know we're locked in we got spotters and crew chiefs talking to us but um no i i cannot hear the crowd i wish i could but we we still put on a show if we can't hear

them or not you know i i'm interested to to know how much like if i'm playing obviously if I'm going to play a game to Super Bowl I'm going to go practice you know tennis you practice golf you practice how do you practice and ask how much of it actual going to the course and driving and how much is the simulation well it's 95% simulation we don't practice anymore

you know there's no cars too expensive too risky a lot of a lot of it has the funding to do with it uh they're trying to bridge the gap from the big teams to the small teams right you know back in say 10 years ago you could go test monday through through friday and you know you could test monday through sunday if you had a sole test team to go out and do that while while we're racing on sundays so um but then you started seeing some of the disadvantages for the smaller teams they couldn't afford that and so now it's about 10 to 15 tests that NASCAR puts on they send one car from every

organization to come out and test and be a part of it if they if the teams allow that or if they if they choose to do that um but now with COVID, testing is out. And then now with the schedules, we're showing up and just racing. And so now it's gone all to simulation. So I'm on a new schedule with Toyota, being a part of the TRD family, you know, being up at the simulator every Wednesday now for a couple hours or a few hours a week doing that stuff, figuring out what we need, figuring out, you know, what

helped us this weekend, implement that in the next weekend, and get a feel for it. You know, it's not 100% true to feel, but it still gives you a general idea of what to expect when you unload, and it gives the engineers some data to look at to get that much closer. We're fighting for thousands of an inch, three thousands of an inch you know that's you can't even i can't even show you that on my hands on my fingers here but that's what we're fighting for that's how you get that edge in front of people how you know and i'm trying to equate what you do to what we do like if i play one opponent i might have a certain group of plays and then i play the next opponent i have maybe some of those same plays, but add some different plays on. How much is – how much different is it from track to track?

It's very different. As much as, you know, there's – we call them the cookie-cutter tracks, the mile-and-a-halves that all kind of look the same, the Charlottes, the Texas, the Kansas. They might look the same, but they totally race different. Like, it's – you know know some places have a lot of character a lot of bumps nooks and crannies that you got to muscle around uh texas is mainly one groove right around the bottom charlotte is from the bottom lane to the top and bumpy and so you just got to

figure things out and so you have a notebook you have you know the the debrief notes from years prior races prior where you are oh this is what we did here you're rolling out of the break here you're picking up the break here you're picking up the gas here certain things like that so it's it's pretty similar to for you playing different opponents it's like okay we got to bring this set of rules out we put this one back we put this back on the shelf bring this one out so yeah you definitely go through a lot of different mind changes, mindsets for different racetracks. I'm curious because, okay, they say a car, just to say for the sake of argument, a particular

car gets, my car gets 35 miles to the gallon, but I need to do X, Y, and Z in order for it to get that 35 miles to the gallon. You might say, well, I can go 20 laps on the get on the on the tank of gas or however many laps you go how much variance is that for speed if you say i'm going to go somewhere between 155 180 and if i go three or four laps i'm going 175 to 190 so how much variance is that as far as gas mileage and what you're doing actually in the car yeah well there's there's a lot of variance especially the speedway stuff because you think everybody's just wide open turning left and whatnot but it's funny the leader is mainly the only one that's wide open everybody

else is saving fuel we're riding around riding around half throttle quarter throttle yeah like trying not to use as much fuel and that that that number starts to rise that all of a sudden your strategy starts to come into play oh we can pit on lap 19 ah he just got another lap for us now we can pit on lap 20 then you start you know plugging in those numbers this is why i just drive so i'm taking my best edumacated guess because i'm not trying to go against my engineers here um but there's a lot of variance at the speedways and then even at even other racetracks it's like hey we need you to save like a lap and a half of fuel here you start to do different things shut the car off while you're racing entering in the corners using the

clutch to refire and get back going there's a lot of things we can do inside the race car to to um to advance or prolong our fuel mileage. Does anyone outside of you and your team know you're actually doing that? Can the fans in the stands tell that? Cause I know we can't tell that at home. I've only been to a handful of racetracks. I went to Sonoma, which is the road course, which is totally different than anything. There's big speedways because it's a lot of, you know, you get up to like a quarter of a mile and you go foot and then you back into a curve.

So that's very, but does anybody else know besides you and your team that you're actually doing that in the car? Well, it depends on who's listening. You know, now with the access to that, that fans have, that the media has, everybody can listen to what we're saying. And so when the spotter, the crew chiefs comes over and it's like, all right, we need to go on fuel saving mode then tv picks up on that and it's like oh 23 car is out saving fuel we might have an in-car camera that weekend then they can come in and hear it all so yes anybody if they're listening at the right time at the right moment they can understand

it here you're driving for jordan now and to have that 23 or you have that jump man logo, you know, what that logo represent, that logo more than anything represents excellence. It represents clutchness. It represents if bubble Wallace is have a chance to win the race within the last two, three, four laps, bubble Wallace needs to make sure that 23 car is in victory lane yes absolutely I know it's a it's a like I said earlier it's a total different mind shift that I've that

I've gone through and I've been racing for 17 years and I can't remember a time like this where the opportunity is so high and you know myself being mentally prepared physically prepared to capitalize on that. That's the biggest thing. I have to make sure I show up for 36 weeks with 150% effort. Jordan wants 200%. So let me restate that. I got to show up with 200% effort. Now he's going to text me. He's like, no, I want 300. It's always, he wants more. And I love that mentality. I love that, that pressure that's going to come with that. And it's just going to motivate you. And not only myself, but crew chief, engineers, people at the shop, we have to execute and be on it from the time we roll out from Daytona

until we pack up at Phoenix. We have to be on it. And so there's going to be some bumps and mistakes along the way from myself, from our crew, but we're in this together as a team. And as long as we minimize those mistakes and put our best foot forward each and every each and every weekend and give it our all then hey that's what we got this sport more than any is is about sponsorship it's not like the nfl where everybody you have a salary cap everybody gets to spend up to here and nobody can spend below that it's like that in a lot of sports.

Baseball, it's a free-for-all. You spend as much as you want. And I know it's been somewhat challenging for you, an African-American in the sport of NASCAR that's been predominantly white since its inception. Talk to me about how much of a disadvantage that's been in your racing NASCAR. And now you have someone that Michael Jordan can go out and get those corporate dollars to help you become a more,

to put you in with all those, the Kozlowski's, the Danny Hamlin, even though he's a minority owner, those guys to put you right there on the level playing field. Yeah, well, in years prior, we were always fighting for that. And I was trying to do everything I could off the racetrack, on the racetrack to attract those sponsors. And you never know how they're going to come about. And we look at 2020 and everything that went on there, bringing in brand new partners into the sport with DoorDash, Columbia, Route Insurance, you know, having McDonald's come on board. For sure, they've been a part of my program for a couple years now. And Dr. Pepper, those five partners, I got to see our schedule for this upcoming year. And there's not one empty slot. Not one empty slot.

And years prior, it's been eight, 15 slots that are open. And we were questioning, we were looking at each other like, how are we going to make this work? We always did. Years prior, it's been eight, 15 slots that are open. And we were questioning, we were looking at each other like, how are we going to make this work? We always did. We always did. But, hey, knowing that we are fully funded throughout the year, it's a pat on the back to my camp.

I'll give a pat on the back to myself. But just everything, everybody in my corner that's helped me get to this position. It's going to be a heck of a year. We got no excuses. That was my motto coming into this year. No excuses. I got the funding. I got the car. I got the people.

Just got to have the driver. So we're good. You also drove for Joe Gibbs. I played in the league. I'm old enough to remember. I played against some of his team, Coach Gibbs' team. What was it like? What type of man?

I know he's a man of faith, but what would he like around the track? The same as what you know. That's very powerful because that's how I like to align myself. What you see me talking to you today is how we would be sharing a drink here on the couch here, wherever you're at, hanging out. I don't change for anybody anything. And that's how coach is coach wants to win he has that winning mentality but he doesn't change who he is you know

depending on where he's at he's that same man same man of faith great great guy to be a part of uh aligned with and uh honored to say i've raced for him and kind of racing for or with him this year with the partnership with Toyota and JGR there let's get to NASCAR we know what NASCAR has been a predominantly white sport since its inception a lot of their the majority of their fans I'd say 95 to 98 percent of their fans have been white you're the lone full-time black driver. Normally when people are the only, they tend to sit back. I don't want to ruffle any feathers. I'm happy to be here. I don't want to cause a ruckus. I don't want anybody to look at me. Why was it so important for you to say, NASCAR, there's some things that's going on here that's not right. if we try to build get you know build and and

bring more people we're going to need to change some things why was it so important for you to take that that stance you know i don't know if it's necessarily important or it is don't get me wrong it is important but i think that's part of my personality i'm not a person to sit back and not want to ruffle any feathers i am the if you seen years past, my mouth's got me in trouble a lot. It's, it's gotten me some good deals. It's gotten me some bad deals. And I'm the one to cross the boundary and, and, and apologize later, ask for forgiveness later, you know? And this was something that, you know,

a lot of it came from talking to or seeing what others had to say. And so you were kind of peer pressured into it a little bit, not saying that I was pushed to say what I wanted to. I was just like, you know what? There's a point here. Let me do some more research and understanding of what's going on and figure out how we can make this a better place for everybody. And I was just like, you know what? Social media is so powerful. It's the quickest way to help you. And it's quickest way to hurt you. Pick your poison, which way you want to go right and sometimes you're trying to go one way and it ends up another and so you just have to be comfortable with what you're saying comfortable

in your own skin what you're doing and uh for me i just it's like hey this needs to change this needs to stop we got to do better and let's make this a more inclusive place and uh while there was everything's 50 50 glass half full glass half empty you know there's a lot of good that come out of there was a lot of bad that come out of it but so be it i think i think actually there was more good to come out of what the changes have made for nascar the biggest thing for us is okay we can't get stagnant we have to keep going we have to keep pushing for more there's a never-ending process in the direction that we're heading so what are we doing what are we gonna do to to keep making this more inclusive for everybody to be a part of it the confederate flag was prominent it's way proudly behind those campers those winnebago's, those trucks, you as an African-American,

understanding what that flag actually meant and how many people died behind that flag. What was your feelings like seeing that flag, knowing that you had to go race those tracks? And then what was the conversation like when you had with nascar saying guys it's got to change so honestly shannon i i didn't understand the full effect of that flag until this past year okay this was this was another flag to me like i i kind of knew like rebel flag

and you know never really i kind of just kept it at that and then didn't really say confederate flag and then starting to see more conversations and i remember certain tweets um i'll never go to a nascar race because of the confederate flag or i'll never go back to a nascar race because of that and i'm like and i'm like hold up time out let me confederate flag type it in do my research, which a lot of people don't want to do nowadays. They're just so quick to jump to conclusion. It's like, do your research, get an understanding for yourself,

do your due diligence. So I did that. And I'm like, okay, this is causing a lot of hurt and pain and it's isolating our demographic to where we're at. And it's like, I know for a fact that NASCAR provides so much more opportunity than what it's given and what it's labeled as. And so how do we get past that barrier? Let's start with the Confederate flag.

Okay, this is going to be a bold move, risky move for a lot of people. We're going to lose some fans. Now, you know you're going to, Bubba, you knew as an African-American because they would say, okay, you come in here, you upset an apple cart. You knew you were going to take some criticism for this, right? Oh, absolutely. Just by me waking up saying good morning, I start criticism. I learned that, okay?

Okay, there's people that don't like that you woke up breathing. I have accepted that a long time ago. Okay. So it doesn't matter if I'm handing out $ dollar bills to people they're just mad at that so i i have stopped caring about what other people think okay and and so i knew going into it it's like okay get ready roll your sleeves up because it's about to get feisty and you've seen a lot of people leave the sport never going to pay attention to the sport again but those are the same peoples that are still tweeting at you bad things and it's like i thought you were gone are you still here or what move on or not yeah when are you

gonna win when are you gonna win a race bubba exactly it's like bro you're you're you're barking up the same old tree like okay give me a chance here we got it so okay uh yes i knew going into that it was going to be a lot but hey nascar was on board everybody in my camp was on board the drivers the teams crew members everybody a part of the whole sport was on board with the direction if they weren't then they were gladly shown the door and that was it how do you yeah sure the drivers the crew chiefs i mean i'm sure maybe some like that's nothing wrong but how do you convince the hundred thousand that's been doing it this way for 70 plus years because you mentioned you want to make it more inclusive which means you want others other that

doesn't necessarily look like them to come and have an enjoyable experience at the track like they're having how how do you convince the fans that they can still enjoy the track without that flag flying so i have seen there's there's three people three types of people the ones that will never accept change the ones that will consider change and the ones that that are like, okay, yeah, this is changing, and I'm all for it. Those are the people that are doing the homework and seeing that life is much bigger than themselves. It's about our brothers and sisters and our neighbors and making this a better place. And so while it's like, okay, the ones that aren't going to change, we don't want you. The ones that are considering it let's let's have a drink let's have a beverage let's talk about it let's let's get you on the

other side of the fence then you decide if you want to go that route if you don't we ain't pushing you we're just trying to help educate and the ones that are for the change it's like okay give us some time we're coming up with a game plan we're going to keep this going and so that's that's what we've kind of looked at as a whole of like, okay, here's the three sections that we got. We got 75,000 people over here in the won't change. We got 150 here in the maybe considering it. And then we have 300,000.

Okay, we're going to target this area. We're not, you know, those people appreciate your time, but we are moving on with or without you. Appreciate your time, but we are moving on with or without you. Memorial Day weekend, George Floyd. And then you saw the uprising and people like watching a man die on live television. And then you see the athletes from LeBron James and to Serena Williams and all the pro football players. What did Bubba Wallace feel? And what did you feel your responsibility?

And what did you want to do to get your message out and say, America, enough is enough. We got to be better. Yeah, well, it's just so tough because people see it as, and people of color understand it totally. And it's hard for people that are not of color because it's like, well, this doesn't affect me. Right. Yes, but no.

That's not the way of thinking. Exactly. And it's like, this should affect you because at the end of the day, take skin color out of it. This is human beings. This is people. You wouldn't want your family treated like this should affect you because at the end of the day take skin color out of it this is human beings as people right you wouldn't want your family treated like this so why are you letting some person that you don't know being treated like this and so trying to convey and orchestrate that message and get that out to your peers and your colleagues has been another challenge uh and getting them to understand because, you know, inside our

walls, inside our four walls at NASCAR, there was five or six of us that would say something. And that leaves 35, 34 of the people out there that are silent. And it's just like, this ain't the right look. You know, you guys got to step up in a powerful way, in a positive way. And so while we're still working on that, you know, for me, it was, this was, you know, I've gone through racial discrimination from law enforcement. I've just to an extent, obviously I'm here to tell my story and we've lost a lot of, of, of people, a lot of wonderful people to, you know, law enforcement, just abusing their authority. And it's like, man, this is, when is this going to change? And how, how do we get a chat?

How do we make it to where, you know, this is the most important thing talked about. And a lot of people, they'll say, shut up and dribble, shut up and play football, keep politics out of the sports, you know, because they look at us as the entertainment and they don't want to see us as anything else. You're an entertainer. That's it. Nah, brother, we are people. And then when this starts affecting us, that's when it rises us up to say something. Now, all of a sudden, that whole entertainment role is out the window. Yeah, we still go entertain because that's what we do.

That's what we know. But at the same time, we are going to try to make this world a better place for our kids coming up through for our next generation coming up through so get with that or move on because this is what's happening and so while sports have have been in a position to talk and use their platforms which is so powerful and i encourage all athletes from all backgrounds to do uh there's still a lot of work to be done you look at what happened a couple of weeks ago where people were upset at the election um they lost it was a fair election it was free election it was the most secure election in the history of our country but the person that they wanted to win did not win. And they felt the recourse that they needed to take was to overthrow basically a coup,

overthrow the government and put our guy in place again. It's the very thing that you notice Bubba when blacks have a grievance, if they have a complaint, if this country is so bad, leave. It's almost as if this is our country. We have a right to criticize this. We have a right to complain. Blacks, shut up.

Be grateful that you're here. You get gainful employment, and we don't want to hear from you. So how do we convince those to see us as equal, to say we have flesh and we have skin in the game also i think if we knew that answer would be a much better place so i think i think you know there was a show of entitlement that we've seen there at the capital and and you know i think that's the same show that we have when we show up to the racetracks or the basketball course it's like this is our court right you know but this is on a much broader scale take take out sports take out this is dictating how our life is run and controlled

basically right um and it's like okay like said, we have skin in the game too. Why can't we express that? Why can't we show that? I don't know why it's not allowed. Just because I think they scared us. Who knows? Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal.

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And who doesn't want that? Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I think a lot of this has to do, Bubba, they look at it if you're like black and successful. Why do you care about someone that's black and not successful? Why do you care if you have, if you have a, you live in a gated community, you have nice cars, you have a nice bank account. Shannon, why do you care about them? Because I'm human, because I have something called empathy.

I have something called compassion. And it's just not, I've never looked at it, Bubba. I don't know. And I don't want to speak for you and I don't want to speak for anybody else, but I've never looked at it, Bubba. I don't know. And I don't want to speak for you. And I want to speak for anybody else, but I've never been one that says, because I have everything as well, as well in the world. That's not how I look at it. That's not how I was raised. Nope. Nope. If I show up in a nice car, I'm hesitant. I'm not the boastful, like, oh, check me out. This is what it is, what it's all about. You know, this is like, hey, if you work hard, you can get to these levels one day.

And I encourage everybody to work hard and do what you got to do and push people to be better from all aspects. That's what it's about. It's about lending that helping hand. How can we get you to the next level in whatever aspect it is in life, whatever job, whatever career you have? How can you be better? Seeing what I do is motivation. Use know, seeing what I do is motivation, use that. Seeing what you do is motivation, I use that. You know, it's not being the jealous type or the too good for one another because I know where I came from. I didn't have nothing. But if you work

hard, put your mind to it, anything is accomplishable. And so it's just, man, it's so tough to have all the correct answers on how to make this world a better place. That's why these conversations are being had is to figure out all that. And for us to sit down and have that dialogue, have that fellowship, and then other people will start to watch and latch on and be like, you know what, these guys make a pretty good point. But I think showing that

we all bleed the same we all cry the same we all put on our pants the same way it's like we're not saying we're better than you you're not better than us we're all equal when when can we understand that what what's it gonna take obviously the the looting the rioting and whatever we've seen that was the chaos capital that ain't the right way that's you just expressing your feelings yeah sure but that still ain't the right way to do things so we gotta see when they did that they say those are people that are pissed off but when blacks see people we protest inequality we protest uh police brutality we protest uh things of that nature oh well well it's an excuse excuse excuses excuses all day long excuses are like elbows everybody's got one close enough i said that

i said that the nice way you know what i was gonna say yeah since we're talking about social issues one of the greatest americans one of the most famous americans has a birthday coming up dr mlk dr king what does he mean to bubble wallace and what do you think if he was alive today what do you think after what he had gone through in the late 50s and 60s if he was alive today what do you think he would say i think we want to know what that dream was that he has is this the part of that dream that he had i honestly i don't know i sit there and think about that a lot i think about not to get off topic but i sit there and think about how the music industry would be different if Pac and Biggie were around.

How racing would be if Dale Earnhardt Sr. was around. You know, how things would be different if the certain leaders that we had in this world were around. Right. And, you know, I don't know what he would say. None of us are happy, so he wouldn't be happy. Right. But maybe he would have more push to create change. I don't know what he would say. None of us are happy, so he wouldn't be happy. Right. But maybe he would have more push to create change. I don't know.

That's just tough. And I think about that constantly from every aspect, every profession, whatever, leaders, music, racing, whatever it is. I'm always like, what would they say? And I never have the answer. What did your parents talk to you about Dr. King? I'm sure in your situation, they probably experienced some things that were very unpleasant. What, what was it like with your background? Honestly, I grew up in a diverse neighborhood. I had friends from all backgrounds. I went to school in a majority white school i would say i

asked my mom this uh two weeks ago i was like hey do you know the numbers on on northwest where i went to school and she was like no i was like majority white she was like yeah for the most part and i was like yeah i would think so and but i didn't i didn't understand know those things i just thought every school was the same you know right you know there's all black school i i didn't, I didn't understand, know those things. I just thought every school was the same, you know, you know, there's all black school. I didn't understand that stuff until I actually, I got out and got to experience the real world. It's like, Oh, okay. You know, there's different demographics here and there. But for me,

it was like, Hey, if we, if we treat each other with respect, then we can be friends. And, and if we don't, it's not, it's, it's not the respect deal. Obviously you respect everybody, but is if we don't agree on something it's not the respect deal obviously you respect everybody but is if we don't agree on something this is what's wrong with the world people hate you because you say something different instead of just being like i don't agree with that i don't i don't hate them but i just don't agree with that and move on right you know i've had plenty of people come through my life and say some some hey the sky is red I'm like, I don't agree with that. I don't know if we can, you know, vibe, but Hey, have a good day though.

You know, whatever, respect to you. No, it's now, now it's like, what'd you say? Okay. Now, you know, we got to fight. I got to kill you. I got to do this. I got to hurt you because you said some dumb stuff. It's like, that's, it's not a place where you should be in a violence. And so for me, I didn't have it hard growing up. Like I said, I experienced those run-ins with the law. And hey, you got drugs or guns, you have a nice car here.

It's like, no, I don't. But I know why you're asking is because of the way I look. And that's not right. But I can buy you one if you want one, big dog. But hey, I didn't go there. I didn't go there. Right. Dr. King says, life's most pressing question is,

what are you doing for others? Do you feel a sense of responsibility that you're in the position, the platform that you have, not only to speak out, but to do, to make sure it's better for the next generation. Because everybody keeps saying it's going to get better, it's going to get better. And I'm like you, man, Dr. King, in your dream, how much worse did it get before it got better? Exactly. Exactly. And I think we all got to go through adversity.

We all got to go through a low point in life. And, and I hope this is our low point. I hope it don't get much worse than this because it's pretty bad across the whole board for, for our world right now. Right. With this virus and then everything that's going on in our nation. But, you know, God has a plan for all of us. And, and that's, you know, I kind of stand behind that and everything happens for a reason. And it's so weird to think, but things happen for a reason. And that's what it is. That's what I go off of. And so I don't kind of go too far off the deep end and try to figure out why this happened. It's just because it did.

And so I think, you know, like I said, we all got to experience some bad before we get to the good in our life. And it's how you come out of that bad. It's how bad shapes you shape you the right way the wrong way you got to pick and choose your battles there you you were in a program called drive for diversity tell us a little bit about the program yeah so when we jumped on it was a brand new year for in years past you went through a uh combine type deal competition based deal you had 60 drivers they would windle it down to 10 and then they would ship you out across the states you know go to certain teams you'd be there for a full season and whatever series it was and that was it and when i jumped in everything was in-house everything was moved to rev racing right there in mooresville

um and all the drivers were in the same team crew chief same area like we were all you know four canin cars six late models like we were we were all in house working together and um you know it was it was documented on bet you know change lanes we got the experience off track publicity just as much as the on-track publicity uh coming out of the gates for us winning uh me winning the first race at greenville pick and speedway there in 2010 um and then kind of kind of you know hey i'm i'm here i'm here in the sport i want to make this my career and then we went on to win uh four more races in those two years, winning rookie of the year, putting together a great kind of foundation to the NASCAR ranks. And so, you know, now it's continuing to provide opportunities for minorities that necessarily feel like they don't have the funding or the resources to get them to that next level.

And so now it's like, okay, we'll get you guys together. You send in your resumes. We look it over. And if we think that you have it, we'll give you a shot. It doesn't mean you're in. We'll give you a shot. And they'll hold a three or four day test session for all the drivers. And again, window it down to, I think it's a little bit less than, I think it's six now or so. So the spots are a little bit more slim but you know if you show up with the with the attitude the mindset that that second is not an option then uh you got to show that and you got to carry that and that's that's the one thing that you see kids coming up through now how critics have said man this ain't nothing but window dressing for affirmative action how do you respond to that? Obviously, there's, like I said,

glass half full, glass half empty. This is a great opportunity for minorities. This is a handout for minorities. You walk your walk. You talk your talk. This is your path. You stay on it. Don't let the naysayers get in your head.

You prove them wrong. And once we win this year, I'm going to prove everybody wrong. You were born in Alabama. You were raised in North Carolina, which North Carolina is considered the NASCAR, the racing capital of the world. And you're in Concord, around Mooresville, Kannapolis. I've been up in that area.

I got my dogs from there. What was it like growing up in North Carolina? And did you always want to be a race car driver? Or did you want to play football, basketball, baseball? How did NASCAR get in your blood? Yeah, so we actually lived 10 minutes from the Speedway, 15 minutes from the Speedway. And two times throughout the year,

I didn't know that it was May and October. But it always happened to be at those times. And you hear race cars over there. And it's like, what's that? And it's like, that's the racetrack over there it's like okay i'm gonna go back outside and play hide and go seek and tag with my friends whatever and that was that and i started playing basketball at the age of five um and did the little rec league stuff and my sister she's five years older than me she was uh she was playing travel aau ball and so we were always traveling around following her and and i enjoyed it because her

her um her teammates had brothers and sisters that we were all in the same age group so we were out running around in the gym having fun and i would play basketball when i'd get back home and then i when I was seven and eight or no actually I was eight nine I uh I jumped on the travel AAU ball team and uh kind of thought that was my career path loved playing basketball um didn't really necessarily know of anything else I remember going to the speedway when I was probably five or six with my parents for a dinner for something I don't know why we went. And, um, I was like, can we go home? I'm ready to go home, go back to playing outside. And, uh, when I was

nine, my dad had bought a Harley Davidson, uh, took it to a bike shop to get it all customized out. And the guy who owned the bike shop called, uh, or invited us to come out one weekend. And, uh, we became really good family friends, even to this day. Um, and next thing, you know, it was like sitting in the stands that weekend. My dad was like, Hey, you want to try this? And I'm like, sure. Why not? I remember going to the racetrack actually. Um, my dad had a go-kart and I would go to the racetrack with them and I would play with the race cars and the dirt and do all that that stuff but that never was like i want to do this right my dad flipped he raced three times and he flipped every single time he flipped three times and so i definitely did my driving skills from him um he was he's always been a racing fan you know he's from nashville he that my family part of my family's from nashville so they race

up there at the fairgrounds but it wasn't until we were sitting in the stands he was like you want to try it and I'm like sure why not and that was it we went out and bought a go-kart the next weekend and started testing and running my first race was a national event we wrecked out cart was mangled and destroyed and I was like hey can we fix it and get back out there my dad was like all right we're gonna be in this sport for a while once I asked that so the rest is history no no so basketball was first love and then NASCAR. No football, no baseball. I did peewee football, and I hated practice. I played football.

I remember that. I will never forget this. I was a nose guard, whatever position. That was basically the center when I was five years old. And I remember making a play or something, i was so tired and i so i walk over to the sideline and everybody's like looking for me where's he at and i'm just sitting there like yeah where am i at and i'm like oh so they had somebody else come out there i think that was my last game i was like that was the last time with football for you huh yes that was the last

time so your dad take you to the track at nine years old asking you you want to try it you go try it uh you wrecked the car i mean you wrecked the go-kart and then i remember we had a go-kart my brother and i had a go-kart um we had it came in like three uh three uh horsepower five and eight eight was the biggest you could get yeah uh uh for a go-kart that was a two because it was we had a seat you That was a two, because you had a single-seater and you had a two-seater. My brother had a two-seater, red, never forget. And then my brother bought one for my cousins, a black one that had a five-horsepower engine

that was a single-seater. So when you get started, and I guess you go from go-karts and you graduate to midgets uh how successful were you and did you were you going all across the country racing these things yeah so we were covering about a four four hour radius uh once we kind of gotten established in the sport but uh in our go-kart days we were racing uh in virginia we were racing my first race like i said it was a national event in Florida. First ever time basically on the racetrack was in Florida, 300 karts.

So we were traveling kind of all over. Jasper, Florida was the town there. I don't know if that speedway is still there, but it took us about a year and a half. We spent about two years in every series. We felt like that was the right amount of time in every series, and it like okay here's a new bigger and faster car um but it took us i don't know i don't remember let's say six months and it was like okay we're starting to figure this stuff out i remember in bandoleros our first year was growing pains in the second year we won 35 out

of 48 races that year and uh And we were traveling all over. And then legend car days. Did a lot of the kids look like you? Because I'm thinking there's going to be some resentment. You went in that many races as the only black, and the majority of them are white. They're like, hold on, what's going on? Did they check your go-kart?

Did they think you had something special? Oh, every week. We got DQ'd before we even got off the racetrack, bro. It was pretty bad there for a little bit. When we got to the Bandolero ranks and legend car stuff, we were – our mentality – I have a good friend that we race against each other now, Daniel Hemrick. He said we were either winning in fighting or losing in fighting, we weren't going down without

a fight, I mean, we were, we were in your face, yelling, calling you every name in the book, but we were there to win, and we were done wrong, and in so many ways, from the officiating to whatever it was, I'll never forget, we, we had won a legend car race in Charlotte over at Speedway. And, and I go and do my interview. And as I'm coming in to pull in the tech, my dad's standing there pointing me by with a very aggressive point. Like, and I'm like, what's up? We're supposed to pull in here. He's like, nope, they DQ'd us. They said, we don't know what you got,

but we know you're cheating. You're DQ'd. Go back to the hauler. And it was like, okay. So we kind of knew our place there. It's like, if they can't beat us, they're going to protest us and everything. And, hey, we got caught cheating one time. That was it. And it was for something that was some bogus stuff. But, hey, other than that, we won fair and square.

I'm reading. bogus stuff but hey other than that we won fair and square i'm reading so i guess the the legends is kind of like aau for basketball like you travel you go around the country and the best team from the in the age groups are all over and you're with so i guess if you know if i got a good aau traveling basketball team and i'm winning all the tournaments, people are going to naturally think I'm recruiting the players. So you've got to be doing it. There's no way Bubba can win all these races. 48 races, he wins 35. He's got to be doing something.

Let's check his engine. What's he doing that we're not? They always were suspicious of something going on. They never wanted to accept the experience or the talent that I had. But, hey, so be it. It's fun talking about those stories now, looking back on all that stuff, seeing where we came from, where we went. I'm reading that your mom was the track star at the University of Tennessee.

Talk to me about your mom and her influence on you in racing. Yeah, mom's been the backbone for my sister and for myself in our careers. And it's been cool to see. I remember, I'll never forget, kind of 2009, 2010, when we kind of signed on with JGR. And that was kind of their big break, you know, 2008, we spent a quarter of a million dollars, uh, for, for myself on the, to, to stay on the racetrack. And, uh, that was probably our best year in racing for sure in the late models. But, uh, 2009, 2000, funny story about that. 2009 was when we signed on with JGR and started getting,

you know, a couple grand. Here you go. Give you some oil. Give you some product to help you out. That was our worst year ever. I quit. I quit halfway through 2009. I said we were showing up to racetracks where we had run second.

We had run top five at. And we show up in 2009. We were getting lapped in the first 20 laps. And I said, I quit. I'm done. I didn't come here to run to run this bad and so we closed up shop in 2009 and then luckily the drive for diversity day is coming about but my mom was always there supportive of everything that went on um and everything you you grew up in a biracial

household which is very difficult especially in the south because on one side you're black but they say you're not really black and on the other side you're not you're definitely not white so you caught it on both sides so how what was it like growing up in the south from a biracial household man i never felt like i was just always I guess, happy-go-lucky kid and just didn't necessarily notice if anybody was giving me a side eye or treating me different. I was just like, man, I guess he ain't cool, whatever. And you just kind of move on about it.

And you don't think about why. It's just like, well, hell, I'm going to go hang out and do all the fun stuff. You can sit over here and be mad for whatever reason you're mad about uh but i honestly don't know of of how bad i really had it and in those terms i'm not saying everything was perfect and i grew up in this you know wonderful deal maybe that's a good thing maybe i was just so young and naive that i was just like hey i'm ready to play hide and go seek with friends let's do it right and not really understand why why can't why can't little Johnny come out and play today because and then the parents will close the door and it's just like okay you must be in trouble you know and so not knowing that I was probably the issue, but anyways, um, I'm sure my parents got to experience a lot, unfortunately, but you know,

we didn't really have those conversations of, you know, Hey, we experienced this today. Now this is what happened. It was, I'm sure they kept that to themselves, but once we got into the racing world, we were able to talk about it a little bit more. Wendell Scott. Um, he's the only other black driver to talk about a little bit more. Wendell Scott um he's the only other black driver to race full-time on NASCAR what was it like meeting him and what does that mean to carry the legacy because there haven't been very many and they haven't had the the

longevity that you seem to be having. Yeah yeah I um you know being able to know his family and and I'll never forget meeting Wendell Scott Jr. and hearing the stories about, you know, their dad and what he went through and then being a part of Petty and knowing how big of an influence that Petty was to Wendell Scott and giving them basically hand-me-down parts and pieces to help him, you you know stay on the racetrack and compete the following weeks and so i just you know you know live for all those stories and knowing how much of a pioneer he really was and you know he i felt like i'm kind of like him he's just there to race he's not there for any of the other bulls bull stuff that that's going on to

to you know to the media side of things it's just like hey man i might look different but hey we all still driving you know 60 laps here let's give it our all and then you know shake hands after but it wasn't that easy for him uh as it is today um but knowing that he just wanted to show up and drive that's all i want to do but let me ask you i mean you drive cars let me ask you a question if something goes on with your car, could you fix it? To an extent. It's so engineer-based now. It's so engineer-based now.

That's going to be my excuse. There's so much intricate stuff that I wouldn't know what to do. But to an extent, I could put some air in the tires and fuel it, and then tank, we could be going. I'm not talking about your race car. I'm talking about the car that you drive every single day. If something goes on with that car. Oh, well, see, now and those are so intricate. Hey, your blinker's not working.

That affects every something in the fuel line, and that affects something. It's like, geez, just give me the old school stuff. I'll be good. I'm reading a story about Wendell Scott and how he was denied a trophy and a winner's check. And he won a race by two laps, but he was denied the trophy and the check. Yeah, that's when NASCAR was trying to find their way.

I'll say that because this was obviously a different time in society and in our history to where, you know, coloreds weren't accepted. And so him showing up on the scene, you know, he wasn't accepted from the sanctioning body. And obviously things have changed tenfold now, you know, with me and all the African-Americans that are a part of our sport are welcome with open arms. And so, you know, seeing that, it's like, man,

it just makes you appreciate the history and see how far things have come and still how far things have to go. And then I read that they denied him. But once the fans left the track, they gave him the check. They gave him enough money to cover his gas expense and handed him the trophy to get back to where he came from. So basically it wasn't about – they knew he had won, but they couldn't give this man the winner's check

and the presentation in front of the fans. Yeah, they said it was a miss scoring. Yeah. Oh, we had this miss score here. So, yeah. So it's just crazy to think that, you know, look at the technology and the people that were in place and how much of

it went to technology you know back then they were people my mom had to do this one time had to write down a hash mark for 250 laps it's like if we knew the system hey give me an extra lap so i'm ahead of the field by a lap right it was that's how people used to time and score people you'd mark a you'd cross the start finish line you'd mark a lap you'd mark another lap i would fall asleep if i was doing that and so seeing how that has gone from people to now technology we have timing and scoring we have transponders and whatever it's just like man crazy but still not acceptable what are some of the other wendell scott's probably the most uh famous of the black but you got bill lester willie t ribs elias buoy mark davis there's so many um that obviously didn't get the fanfare that wendell scott got now you uh with social media and television and marketing the way it

is now what are some of the other guys that influenced uh african-american drivers that influenced bubba wallace yeah i remember showing up when i was in the legend car days and actually seeing mark davis uh racing and getting to know him become friends with him and watch him come up to the ranks and i remember sitting there at hickory motor speedway when um and my dad would be like you know watch watch how mark's racing here because he was fast he was really good and and you know trying to learn from him uh understanding the history and seeing that Bill Lester was in the sport and I remember playing some old NASCAR games and Bill Lester being you know one of the drivers you can pick from and I would pick him and I'm kind of thinking like what my mindset was back then when I was 10 11 years old was it was I picking him because he was a black driver?

Or I think it was because I was like, this is pretty cool. So I'm going to use him because he, he looks like me. And it's like, okay, I'm going to pick Bill here. And now actually I had a great conversation with, with, with Bill Lester last week on how we can make this a better sport for minorities coming up through and just, and motor sports in general, better for minorities. So it's, uh, it's pretty cool to see how everything come full circle. Well, uh, when you really look at it, there are certain sports that are kind of cost prohibitive,

especially for minorities. You look at golf, you got green fees, you got clubs, uh, you look at tennis, you got green fees, you got clubs. You look at tennis, you need to normally be a club. There's not a whole lot of public tennis courses and racing. Cars, go-cars, even at every level, gas is expensive. Parks is expensive. How do we get it so more minorities can get involved? Because it might be a little cost prohibitive for a lot of minorities.

It is, and that's the guy's honest truth. And those are the phone calls that we've constantly from, not even minorities. This is Coach Gibbs. This is going to be Denny Hamlin, Michael Jordan calling up NASCAR and being like, this is way too expensive. Lower the price on this stuff. So it's all of us coming together as a collaborative group to figure out how we can be more cost efficient from all aspects on the race

car i mean every every part and piece is x amount of dollars that adds up to a multi-million dollar bill and uh you know even getting into the lower ranks you know for me i got back into the go-kart stuff about four or five years ago and i was dropping 3,500 bucks to five grand uh just to get in the go-kart stuff and then spending 1,800 bucks on tires every week like people don't have that and so it's like man how do we how do we you know cut the cost down a lot the supply and demand is is crazy right now when you go to a racetrack and you see people that look like Bubba Wallace what are you feeling uh proud for sure because you know some I've seen though don't even know who I am and that's totally fine they got on some other gear and I'm like hmm I wonder if they know that there's an African-American out there you know, some I've seen, though, don't even know who I am. And that's totally fine. They got on some other gear.

And I'm like, hmm, I wonder if they know there's an African-American out there. You know, I need to be like, yo, look here. But I think it's super cool. There's been a lot of people coming up through the ranks from drivers to just fans that are minorities from African-American background, from all backgrounds, really, that want to be a part of the sport or are tuning into the sport. So it's super cool. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunities that I've had.

And looking to further that, looking to further those relationships and just make my name more of a household name on the racetrack. I remember you showing up to the track and you driving the all black black lives matter car yeah i can't breathe t-shirt yeah there's there there's just something about look you're there differently you can have a yellow car you can have a green car but there's something about

a black car there's just something about black maybe maybe because dale earnhardt and the intimidator maybe he made it cachet he had the guy gore glasses on and, you know, he would bump you and he'd pitch you to win. Maybe that's what it is. But there's something about a black car. When you showed up in that car and what was going through your mind, what made you decide and say, OK, today is the day that I'm going to do this? Well, listen to the irony that you say man black is so sharp black cars are so sharp black people are so sharp too yes yes people don't want to accept

that um but that day that i think it was like a week and a half before that that race um i was it was brought to me like hey this race is unsponsored this was right around blackout tuesday when that movement was going through and i thought my instagram feed was broken because it was just a bunch of black squares i'm like what's going on right now and then i finally understood what it was uh it was that day uh it's like hey what about a blackout car for martinsville and i'm like that, that'd be pretty badass. That's cool. Let's do it. You know, all black car, no sponsors. And then we got to toss around some ideas. It's like, well, instead of a black car, let's, let's figure out an organization or something to kind of give back. Yeah. Cause to, uh, to give to and, and, and make it that I'm like, okay. And so it

took me about 10 minutes and I was like hey let's just put hashtag black lives matter just put that on there don't have to call directly to somebody and ask for permission just put that on there and so that was that was that that was it and then uh richard petty was like well let's put the peace symbol here let's put some something on the hood and i'm like right okay let's make this a a love compassion and understanding car that you know everybody can rally behind well obviously you put that hashtag on the car then you are everybody ain't rallying behind it oh yeah it's like oh you you stand for this you stand for that i don't know that it's not i'm like man dang i should have put black lives matter too on the race car t-o-o just

to be like hey my black my black live matters you know just as much as yours does like hey just want to put that out there but now it was it was a very controversial deal but ended up being one of the best races of my career for sure a ton of fun that night at martinsville and just uh just an incredible moment for for sport for the nation, for the world, really. You mentioned about your encounter with the police. You got pulled over. Talk about what happened and what was going through your mind because you know how sometimes encounters with police officers and African-Americans doesn't always end with a friendly outcome. Yeah, not for sure.

I was going to my friend's house in Virginia on the first occasion and got pulled over for not using my turn signal and going down 77 there. And I was like, okay, my bad. And comes back, hands me, I think i got a ticket for that and he he does the old here's your license and registration back wait a minute i guess it's a nice car you got guns drugs or weapons in here i was like no i sure don't um and he was like well mind if i search a vehicle and i was like no go ahead and I was just like not really understanding the moment there until I talked to my family after and and uh I was once I

realized I quickly realized they asked me to get out of the vehicle I stood about 20-30 yards away had three other cops show up and went through my whole car didn't find anything i just got my car cleaned that morning before i left so it was spotless and um and so that was they were like well we didn't find anything have a good day and it was like yeah i told you that before this 30 minute ordeal and so when i went up on my way that was 2010 fast forward to about 2017 2016 um going to the golf course i believe and uh and i'm going down highway three here right here in canapolis and a car pulls out right in front of me and so race car mentality you pull out right in front of me you got you got a couple seconds before I I want to hit you but I'm not going to

hit you because then it's obviously insurance and stuff but I'll get I'll get this close and if my girlfriend's riding with me she she hates that she freaks out I'm like chill I know what I'm doing but I got right up on the bumper of this car and i'm like what the hell go so i slammed on my horn to go because i was going it was 55 so i was going probably 16 and 55 and this car pulls out going 20 and so i slam on brakes and everything so honk on the horn throw on their hazards so i'm like okay obviously this person is struggling with something their car car is a beat. It was an old beat or two. So I look, nobody coming, double, the yellow lines, hazards on. So I go around them, pull up to the stoplight.

Three cops get out, guns out of their holsters. Not pointed at me, not pointed at me. They're like, pull over here in this parking lot. And I was like, oh, undercover car. And they were like some bounty hunter type people right and so i'm like okay so i'll pull over here and i'm like pissed off at the whole situation like it's like you guys pulled out in front of me and it was like well you passed us on a double y'all line well you pulled out in front of me well you pass us on it's like all right i ain't gonna win this

argument and so they come over and it's like, I'm driving a Lexus at this time. And he walks over, and he was like, man, this is a nice car. Can you afford it? What do you do? And I'm like, what kind of boy job is that? Yeah, and I said, doesn't matter what I do, and yes, I can afford it. And I was like, yeah, yeah. And I just, because I wanted to wanted to say yeah i can have you on

here tomorrow too big boy but i didn't because then because then that would have been another hashtag so that's that's you know what i hate i hate when they do that when you pull me over and you get look you can either write me a ticket and tell me to slow down but i'm not gonna let you lecture me and give me a ticket now you're gonna be able to do one or the other and whatever you do don't patronize me man this is a really nice car bro just go ahead and write the ticket and let me be on your way because i ain't got a whole lot of conversation for you i ain't got anything i just want to get on my way yeah but you did you i'm reading that you had a cousin that lost his life at the hands of the police.

Yep. Yep. I was eight years old, I believe. However old you are in fourth grade. I remember fourth grade. And we were in somewhere. We may have been here. I want to say we were in Indiana or something at a basketball tournament for my sister. And I remember running through.

I remember eating one of those big remember those big fat but you still get them the big fat pickles in the packages the spicy yeah i don't i don't mess with pickles no okay all right well i remember having one of those and running around the gym whatever and i'll never forget this day we were in the parking lot and i just hear the most terrifying scream from my mom and i'm like eating my pickle like what's going on what happened and it was our cousin uh sean uh was shot and killed uh the night before and or maybe early that morning i think it was early that morning two or three a.m that morning but they said um they said that they were at the uh gas station there in knoxville at a Weigel's there in Knoxville, and they were playing of the car and there was one officer at the back. And they said, my cousin wants to go reach for a gun.

But there wasn't. There was a gun, but it wasn't on his side of the car. And that was that. He was shot in the back. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So that had a lot to do with your perception of how the unfair treatment and how police look at Black motorists as opposed to how they look at our counterparts.

Then, at eight years old, I was just like... No, not then, but now. Oh, yeah, now. Yes, for sure. sure for sure i got a total different understanding this when i was about 14 i was like oh i see why he was killed now you know uh then i was just like wow we just lost our cousin you know and that was that my parents everybody else knew but when you're that young you don't think about you just you just think about a loss in the family and my family still grieves over that to this day. You know, it's funny. I just passed through Knoxville for our Christmas break.

And you see Wiggles and all you can think of is that moment. And so, yeah, we've lost family to that. You know what? I've always wanted to know this because I go back and forth and I hear a lot of race car drivers say they are athletes what type of physical conditioning what type of shape i know you got to be in mental shape because you can't have an off moment you're going 180 miles an hour and you're two inches away from another car or the wall. So I get the mental. But what type of physical shape do you need to be in a race car for 500 miles or 600 miles?

Yeah, so back when, obviously, pre-COVID, you know, I'll tell you my little secret, what I was doing. I was sitting my happy ass on the couch every day, not doing a dang thing. I wasn't working out. I hate working out. It's just, I get so just sidetracked and unmotivated. And then, and so, but pre COVID we were there from Thursday to Sunday, every weekend. And you were getting your workout from driving the cars. They're not the easiest thing to drive. And so there's no power steering yeah there's power steering but oh you got power steering in those cars yeah yeah we got power steering yeah i thought you were getting i mean so what yeah any car any car does not have power steering okay okay yeah yeah i'm not sure about formula one but we have power steering but it's not it's not

uncommon for a power steering line to blow off and then next thing you know you that's when we need muscles like you to get around the racetrack. And so knock on wood that hasn't happened to me. So hopefully it doesn't. But now this year, like I said, my mentality changed after watching the last dance and watching, if you haven't seen it, the F1 documentary, I think drive to survive or something like that. Yeah. Watch that and seeing their mentality.

Those guys are obviously you got to be very lean and fit to be in those cars yeah just to fit in those cars yes you get slim those all everything every driver is super slim and tall either small and skinny or tall and skinny right um but you know it kind of changed my mentality it's like okay i can't sit here and just be lazy the whole time i actually got to get up and work out and so years prior it was probably the first three races i was sore and whatnot but then you get into a rhythm and you kind of start getting that workout back in well when covid hit there's no more practice you're jumping straight into the race for right four hours 400 laps whatever it is it's like damn i need to start working out so uh sign on with

toyota this year bringing that relationship back i was like hey i need to get a in the gym and be a part of the trd you know organization and facility that we have here in north carolina so it's uh it's been good i've been in the gym um a couple times a few times a week which is way more than i have been in the gym uh in the last three years so i will say that well i know carl edwards i i've seen him work out and i've seen him in men's health and i think jimmy johnson is a big is a big workout for that he's triathlon yeah he's running the ironmans and stuff yeah other than that other than that all of us are kind of like hey i'm doing some workouts yeah yeah it's it's more it's more of this kind of working out. Yeah, exactly.

All them Dr. Peppers I got to drink. So what is it like to, I mean, obviously you have all this equipment, you're strapped in, the doors are welded shut, but to hit a wall going 150 plus miles an hour? It's not the most fun thing that you can do. You know, I've had my fair shares of hitting the wall. Our breaks went out there at Pocono and I thought I was, I thought I was dead just the way the angle I was going to hit at.

And luckily at the last second, it turned a different way and was able to walk away from and climb back in the following week. But it hurts. It hurts for sure. The initial impact you brace for impact and that's it. But you know, it's, it's inevitable. It hurts for sure. The initial impact, you brace for impact, and that's it. But, you know, it's inevitable. It's going to happen. You just have to be able mentally when you're younger, know if you hit the wall, it's like everything's going to be all right.

You just got to get back in and keep doing it. What's Bubba Wallace's personal car? Personal car right now, I got my new 2021 Toyota 4Runner on the way. So right now I'm in a loaner 4Runner right now i got uh i got my new 2021 toyota 4runner on the way so right now i'm in a loner 4runner right now what's your favorite car of all time of all the cars that bubble wallace is owned what's his favorite my dream car has been an audi r8. Okay. And I may not have treated myself to my dream car in recent weeks. If you could have any car, old school, new,

if you could have any car, I mean, from a 68 Mustang or, you know, whatever it may be, 250 GT Ferrari, whatever it may be 250 GT Ferrari whatever it could be if Bubba Wallace can have you get one car what you taking? 1960s

Porsche 356 A little speedster those things are going for about 200-300,000 so I got to win a couple races for that but that's that's my next car since you you you're a race car i'm assuming most of you guys have lead feet and you have a problem with speeding does bubble wallace have a problem with speeding from time

to time you take the old outie out you know it's yeah for sure um but honestly I look at it from a standpoint of the safety of the race cars is right way better than a street car oh I can get out I can get out after hitting the wall at 200 miles an hour I ain't getting out if I hit the the barrier or a tree at 200 miles an hour in a street car so i know my limits and i'm good obviously in north carolina you drive for brand jordan now do you get an opportunity to go to get the very many hornets game and what do you think about lamello ball thus far uh so i've been to a few in my uh. I'm more of a collegiate football. I'm a Tennessee fan, obviously.

Hold on. Tell me about it. You were born in Alabama. You grew up in North Carolina. How the hell are you a Tennessee fan? It took you that long to ask that question. Yes, for sure. All I know is Tennessee.

My mom's from, obviously, Knoxville. My dad's from Nashville. My family's a big UT fan. So mom's from, obviously, Knoxville. My dad's from Nashville. My family's big UT fans. So I was kind of just thrown into it. But I am Alabama over Auburn. I will say that. But, yeah, I think, you know, obviously my Charlotte Hornets days will go up a little bit more.

And then I'm watching what LaMelo Ball is doing. And it's good. I've seen some of his stats today is doing, and it's good. I've seen some of his stats today, actually, for the rookie stats, so that's pretty cool to see. And I think there was talks about a little crossover happening with him and myself, so we'll see. What's your favorite team sport, your favorite team? Favorite team sport?

Professional? Yeesh. I mean, Charlotte doesn't have too good a reputation of professional sports. Because I already know you're a Tennessee football fan. Yeah, Tennessee football fan. Oh, man, professional? I kind of just have certain people that I've got to meet and respect and grow from.

I will say right now I'm pulling for the Saints because of Alvin Kamara. And he was from Tennessee. Badass running back. He's going up against TV2. Well, you know, he's originally from Georgia. He went to Alabama also. So I just throw that out there. We're all just messed up.

See, we're all just in Tennessee. He was in there somewhere. We're all messed up. So I'm pulling for them. Other than your boss,ael jordan your favorite your favorite basketball player um man i was always an mj fan um right now that's tough i'm a big lebron fan so i know that's right up there with you so yeah yeah yeah you know you know what I'm reading here that you're a big Drake you know Drake is your favorite artist

anybody ever call you Drake do you guys I've gotten that a lot a lot I'm like man I've gotten Drake and Russell Wilson so it's just I guess it's the hair I don't know we got to so so what before race what are you listening to? Are you listening to something to get you up? Are you listening to something to chill? Sade, Jill Scott, something mellow. I like some Jill Scott. I like some Anthony Hamilton, some Alicia Keys, stuff like that.

But I am a metalhead. I am the heavy metal, screamo, death metal, metalcore. That's me. And as crazy and loud and screaming that is, that's what calms me down. If I'm listening to some Anthony Hamilton or something, I am jamming. I am pumped up. I am just in a total different vibe. And as to where it's the metal stuff, it's okay let's mellow out here let's enjoy this let's

let's get ready bubba thanks for the time bro i really appreciate it good luck this year we need about we need at least we need at least four wins we get i'll tell you what win daytona and i don't care what you do after that just i said i said two year two wins this year we'll start there we'll start there if one daytona we If it wasn't Daytona, we good. We good. That's right. Yes, sir. Thank you, brother.

Thank you. Thanks for coming on with me, bro. Good luck this year. Thank you, brother. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee.

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