Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. Up next: 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, who enters this week’s race at Texas Motor Speedway ranked 12th in the NASCAR Cup Series standings. This interview has been edited, but the full version is available on the 12 Questions Podcast.
1. Do you typically arrive for things early, late or on time, and why?
Right on time. I could get there five minutes early, but I’m not walking in until the minute of. I’m not a big small-talk person — I just want to get in and get out.
I think about production days. If my call time is 10:30, I’m walking in at 10:29. That’s just how I am. You could show up five minutes early and get started earlier, but that’s never the case because your call time doesn’t mean you’re actually starting — it’s like 30 minutes after that. So I show up right on time.
2. What is the pettiest thing that annoys you during a race weekend?
What’s annoying is the mad dash at short tracks when it’s choose time (on the lap before the race resumes, drivers pick a lane to choose where to restart the race). At Martinsville, we’re rushing to get all the cars through. Why not do two laps to go? Bristol, same thing. Why are we rushing?
And then the choose cone being so close to the start/finish line at road courses — COTA, Sonoma — there are different straightaways we could use. We wait until the last little bit, and that’s it.
You’re right, because from the press box, you’ll see the first few guys kind of take their time, and then all of a sudden everybody’s speeding up, rushing to catch the back of the field, and then it’s going green.
Yeah, like when we’ve had to restart in the back, I’m in third gear, fourth gear going into (Turn) 3 just trying to catch up.
Don’t talk about adding more caution laps though — people don’t like that.
We already run 15! Jesus Christ, at least do something productive inside those 15. (Laughs.)
3. What is something you’ve learned to stop explaining to people?
My feelings. I’m dealing with this or that, whether it’s inside the race car or whatever, but I don’t need to explain it. It’s just like … whatever. Move on.
4. If you could go back to the early days before you reached NASCAR, what is one different decision you wish you had made?
The first thing that came to mind was not going to Roush (for the O’Reilly Series). So it was either seven (O’Reilly) races with JGR or full-time at Roush. And we went with Roush.
But if I didn’t go to Roush, then I wouldn’t fill in for (Aric) Almirola when he broke his back (in 2017) because of the Ford connection, and that sparked my Cup career.
But if you had stayed at JGR …?
Who knows? Because they were really hell-bent on Erik Jones.
With five top-10s this season, Bubba Wallace is currently 12th in the Cup Series standings. (David Jensen / Getty Images)
5. What is it like to be in a debrief after a bad race?
Oh, it sucks. You go to Martinsville, you make a bonehead move (when he wrecked Carson Hocevar and himself out of anger), you set the team back, you set yourself back, and no one’s happy. The mood’s just down. Especially when none of our cars run well in that race.
It’s not fun, but you still try to be as productive as you can. The overall feeling — it’s almost like you can cut the tension with a knife. But it’s not tension between each other, it’s just the atmosphere.
6. I’m asking each driver a pair of wild-card questions: One about the past and one about the present. Looking back at your first career win at Talladega (in 2021), what stands out now about that memory and that day?
It was crazy. With 20-something laps to go, Bootie (Barker, his crew chief) said we needed to save fuel to start the run — and then it was just like, “All right, you’re good, go ahead.”
We jumped to the top and went to the lead like it was a video game. It was weird. No one really pulled up to block us.
I had Kurt (Busch) behind me helping, and then I dropped down behind Ricky (Stenhouse Jr.) because I thought the run had died out, and then we fell back and got back up there.
But I vividly remember that moment — it was like the handcuffs were off, go ahead. We went from like 20th to the lead like it was nothing.
Of course, I couldn’t win it in a normal fashion (since it was rain-shortened). Had to be rain delayed and all that. So it’s kind of fitting for me.
7. In terms of the present, how has life been adjusting to two kids under the age of 2? Your daughter Cameron is now a month old.
Holy s—. That was weird to hear. That’s the first time I’ve heard someone say that.
She is a lot. She’s hard to settle for whatever reason. Obviously, she’s super attached to mama right now and breastfeeding and all, so I’m not much help.
Last night, she was up for three hours in the middle of the night. She always has one rough stretch where she just can’t go back to sleep. She fights sleep a lot.
She’s definitely different. (Son) Becks was just not sleeping through the whole night, but Cameron is like — one night she’s fine, down in five minutes. But during the day, she doesn’t nap. She struggles to take a nap.
So we’re going through it right now. It is interesting to see the differences. Last night at 4:30, I woke up wide awake and I went back and looked at Becks’ newborn photos and literally said out loud, “Whose f—ng kid is this?” It didn’t look like him at all.
Then you go to the one-month photos, and both kids have my eyebrows, just mean-mugging the whole time. So that’s fitting.
8. If you could get any driver’s helmet in the history of motorsports, whose would it be?
Lewis Hamilton. I haven’t reached out. I need to get to an F1 race, but schedules are crazy. Vegas would work, but I don’t want to travel back out west after just finishing (the NASCAR season).
I’ve traded with Scotty (McLaughlin, his friend from IndyCar), traded with (Ryan) Blaney, so this is a new thing for me. I want to trade with Jimmie (Johnson) — we talked about it. But other than that, I’m good. I like (to keep) my helmets.
9. When things are not going well, do you prefer people leave you alone or check in on you?
Leave me alone. Big time.
How long does that last?
I wish it could last a lot longer, but basically a day. A day or two.
10. What is something about yourself that would surprise people who think they “know” you?
People probably say, “Bubba’s an a—hole.”
But you’re here to say no?
I mean, I can be. We all can. I don’t know. I can’t answer that one.
11. What is something you laugh about now that was absolutely not funny at the time?
(Thinks for a while …) I don’t know. I’m drawing a blank.
12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next person. The last one was with Austin Cindric and he wanted to know: “If you could add one zero to anything in your life, what would it be and why?”
I’d say time. My first instinct was money, but that’s a double-edged sword. Time — there’s not enough time in the day.
I hate how my kid is starting a job tomorrow and has a 730 credit score right now. It’s nuts. Everyone says everything happens fast once you have kids, and it’s true.
If you have more time, you have more time to live. Right now, I’m up at 7 a.m. every day, it’s me and Becks, we’re man-to-man coverage. He goes down around 11 for his nap, wakes up, then you’re just clock-watching until the next part of the day when bath time is coming up. It’s like a cycle.
It used to not be like this, obviously. So yeah — more time.
