Bubba Wallace

Mobile native William Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. (1993- ) is a professional stock-car racing driver who began his NASCAR career in 2010. He currently competes as a full-time driver in the NASCAR Cup Series. His 2021 win at the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega County made him the first Black person to win at NASCAR’s top-level race since Wendell Scott in 1963. He is also the first Black person to win the Rookie of the Year Award for the NASCAR-sponsored K&N Pro Series East regional racing series. Wallace is one of many professional stock-car drivers associated with Alabama, including Neil Bonnett and NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees Bobby and Davey Allison, Charles “Red” Farmer, and Tim Flock.  

Wallace was born in Mobile, Mobile County, on October 8, 1993, to interracial couple Darrell Wallace Sr. and Desiree Wallace. He has one sibling. Bubba was raised in Concord, North Carolina, near Charlotte, a national car-racing center. Wallace started racing at around nine, and by age 12 had won 35 races in the entry-level Bandalero Series.

In 2010, Wallace began competing in the K&N Pro Series East, a regional stock-car racing association, operated by NASCAR. His first auto racing team was Revolution Racing, and he was later signed as a developmental driver for Joe Gibbs Racing. This team debuted in the early 1990s after Gibbs left a very successful coaching career in the National Football League. Wallace won Rookie of the Year and became the first African American to win the award. The following year, Wallace won three races. In total, Wallace won six times over 37 races. In 2012, Wallace started racing in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series. Driving a Toyota, Wallace finished in the top ten for his first Xfinity Series race. His first victory was at the Dover International Speedway in Dover, Delaware. Racing in the Xfinity Series for seven seasons, Wallace completed 88 races with 36 top-ten finishes.

In 2013, Wallace began racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series. Wallace’s first victory came at the 2013 Kroger 200 at the Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia. In this series, Wallace has competed in more than 50 races so far in his career and won numerous times. In 2014, he finished third in the series standings. On June 5, 2017, Wallace joined the prestigious NASCAR Cup Series with the Richard Petty Motorsports team, which debuted in 2009. Driving the team’s No. 43 Ford, which had been Petty’s number, Wallace became the first African American to race in the series in 11 years. His Cup debut took place at the Pocono 400, at the Pocono Motor Speedway in Pennsylvania, where he finished 16th.

During the 2019 season, Wallace had good showings at the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the 2019 Federated Auto Parts 400 in Richmond, Virginia. Wallace also garnered negative attention during the season, however. In the Charlotte Roval, he made obscene hand gestures toward driver Alex Bowman, who had spun out Wallace. The enmity between the two continued after the race and into the future. On November 9, 2019, Wallace received a $50,000 fine for manipulating the outcome of a November 3 race in Fort Worth, Texas, in which he intentionally interfered with other vehicles by spinning his car on the track after having a tire failure.

During the 2020 season, a member of Wallace’s team reported to NASCAR officials that he discovered a noose in Wallace’s garage stall prior to the Geico 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway. NASCAR condemned the act, and Wallace expressed sadness about the incident being a painful reminder of persistent racism. Other drivers showed support for Wallace prior to the race. Federal law enforcement, however, determined that it was not a noose but rather a pull-down loop that had been on the garage’s overhead door since 2019. Despite Wallace’s garage being the only garage that featured a pull-down loop with a hangman’s knot, the FBI concluded it was not a hate crime, and subsequent criticisms have led to people claiming the event was a publicity hoax. Wallace believed that it was a noose. He further contended that even if it was not intended to intimidate him, the style of knot was still racist and meant to offend someone. NASCAR responded to the incident by requiring a stronger commitment to sensitivity training for all employees.

Wallace remained with Richard Petty Motorsports until 2021, when he joined 23XI racing, owned by decorated NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin and NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan. Changing his number to 23 to honor Jordan, Wallace won his first NASCAR Cup Series race at the YellaWood 500 at Talladega on October 4, 2021. It was the first time someone of African American descent won a Cup Series race since 1963. Notably, YellaWood is a product of Great Southern Wood Preserving, a lumber company founded and headquartered in Abbeville, Henry County, by native Jimmy Rane.

During the 2022 season, Wallace failed to qualify for the NASCAR Cup playoffs, but he did come in first place at the 2022 Hollywood Casino 400 in Kansas City on September 11. On October 16, Wallace competed in the South Point 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. After driver Kyle Larson caused Wallace to scrape against the outside wall, Wallace retaliated, which led to both cars wrecking and a shoving match between the two following the race. Because of the incident, NASCAR suspended Wallace for one race. Despite the suspension, Wallace finished the season ranked 19th, which was his best finish at the NASCAR Cup series at the time. Wallace married Amanda Carter, on December 31, 2022. The following season, Wallace made the playoffs for the first time after having five top five finishes and earning enough points based off of his finishing times to qualify. He made it into the top 12 before being eliminated at the Charlotte Roval on October 8, 2023. On July 27, 2025, Wallace became the first Black driver to win Brickyard 400 race in Indianapolis.

During Wallace’s career, some of his actions on and off the track have received negative attention. Since 2019, Wallace has been fined for altercations with other drivers. Several of his infractions and penalties include deliberately interfering with race results by impeding other drivers with his damaged vehicle, purposely slamming his car into another race car, and throwing water at a competitor.

Outside of racing, though, Wallace is an active philanthropist and activist. In 2017, he founded the Live to be Different Foundation, which operates out of North Carolina to help financially and medically disadvantaged individuals. The foundation has helped sponsor toy drives and educational scholarships. In 2020, he received the Comcast Community Champion of the Year award for the work of the foundation. Wallace helped the Christian non-profit organization Motor Racing Outreach by auctioning off a wrecked front bumper from his vehicle. Also that year, Wallace became an outspoken advocate for progressive activism. He was instrumental in leading NASCAR to ban the display of Confederate battle flags at racing events, and at the 2020 Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500, Wallace’s car featured a Black Lives Matter paint scheme, with support from his motorsports team. In 2019, Wallace revealed that he has lived with depression for much of his professional career. Along with driver Cody Ware, Wallace helps bring attention to mental health and is an advocate and representative for mental health awareness.