{"id":638027,"date":"2026-04-30T06:38:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T06:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/638027\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T06:38:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T06:38:24","slug":"bubba-wallace-on-life-with-two-young-children-and-wishing-for-more-time-12-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/638027\/","title":{"rendered":"Bubba Wallace on life with two young children, and wishing for more time: 12 Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. Up next: 23XI Racing\u2019s Bubba Wallace, who enters this week\u2019s 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

1. Do you typically arrive for things early, late or on time, and why?<\/p>\n

Right on time. I could get there five minutes early, but I\u2019m not walking in until the minute of. I\u2019m not a big small-talk person \u2014 I just want to get in and get out.<\/p>\n

I think about production days. If my call time is 10:30, I\u2019m walking in at 10:29. That\u2019s just how I am. You could show up five minutes early and get started earlier, but that\u2019s never the case because your call time doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re actually starting \u2014 it\u2019s like 30 minutes after that. So I show up right on time.<\/p>\n

2. What is the pettiest thing that annoys you during a race weekend?<\/p>\n

What\u2019s annoying is the mad dash at short tracks when it\u2019s choose time (on the lap before the race resumes, drivers pick a lane to choose where to restart the race). At Martinsville, we\u2019re rushing to get all the cars through. Why not do two laps to go? Bristol, same thing. Why are we rushing?<\/p>\n

And then the choose cone being so close to the start\/finish line at road courses \u2014 COTA, Sonoma \u2014 there are different straightaways we could use. We wait until the last little bit, and that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re right, because from the press box, you\u2019ll see the first few guys kind of take their time, and then all of a sudden everybody\u2019s speeding up, rushing to catch the back of the field, and then it\u2019s going green.<\/p>\n

Yeah, like when we\u2019ve had to restart in the back, I\u2019m in third gear, fourth gear going into (Turn) 3 just trying to catch up.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t talk about adding more caution laps though \u2014 people don\u2019t like that.<\/p>\n

We already run 15! Jesus Christ, at least do something productive inside those 15. (Laughs.)<\/p>\n

3. What is something you\u2019ve learned to stop explaining to people?<\/p>\n

My feelings. I\u2019m dealing with this or that, whether it\u2019s inside the race car or whatever, but I don\u2019t need to explain it. It\u2019s just like \u2026 whatever. Move on.<\/p>\n

4. If you could go back to the early days before you reached NASCAR, what is one different decision you wish you had made?<\/p>\n

The first thing that came to mind was not going to Roush (for the O\u2019Reilly Series). So it was either seven (O\u2019Reilly) races with JGR or full-time at Roush. And we went with Roush.<\/p>\n

But if I didn\u2019t go to Roush, then I wouldn\u2019t fill in for (Aric) Almirola when he broke his back (in 2017) because of the Ford connection, and that sparked my Cup career.<\/p>\n

But if you had stayed at JGR \u2026?<\/p>\n

Who knows? Because they were really hell-bent on Erik Jones.<\/p>\n

\"Bubba<\/p>\n

\n With five top-10s this season, Bubba Wallace is currently 12th in the Cup Series standings. (David Jensen \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

5. What is it like to be in a debrief after a bad race?<\/p>\n

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\u2019s happy. The mood\u2019s just down. Especially when none of our cars run well in that race.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not fun, but you still try to be as productive as you can. The overall feeling \u2014 it\u2019s almost like you can cut the tension with a knife. But it\u2019s not tension between each other, it\u2019s just the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

6. I\u2019m 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?<\/p>\n

It was crazy. With 20-something laps to go, Bootie (Barker, his crew chief) said we needed to save fuel to start the run \u2014 and then it was just like, \u201cAll right, you\u2019re good, go ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But I vividly remember that moment \u2014 it was like the handcuffs were off, go ahead. We went from like 20th to the lead like it was nothing.<\/p>\n

Of course, I couldn\u2019t win it in a normal fashion (since it was rain-shortened). Had to be rain delayed and all that. So it\u2019s kind of fitting for me.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Holy s\u2014. That was weird to hear. That\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve heard someone say that.<\/p>\n

She is a lot. She\u2019s hard to settle for whatever reason. Obviously, she\u2019s super attached to mama right now and breastfeeding and all, so I\u2019m not much help.<\/p>\n

Last night, she was up for three hours in the middle of the night. She always has one rough stretch where she just can\u2019t go back to sleep. She fights sleep a lot.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s definitely different. (Son) Becks was just not sleeping through the whole night, but Cameron is like \u2014 one night she\u2019s fine, down in five minutes. But during the day, she doesn\u2019t nap. She struggles to take a nap.<\/p>\n

So we\u2019re 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\u2019 newborn photos and literally said out loud, \u201cWhose f\u2014ng kid is this?\u201d It didn\u2019t look like him at all.<\/p>\n

Then you go to the one-month photos, and both kids have my eyebrows, just mean-mugging the whole time. So that\u2019s fitting.<\/p>\n

8. If you could get any driver\u2019s helmet in the history of motorsports, whose would it be?<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton. I haven\u2019t reached out. I need to get to an F1 race, but schedules are crazy. Vegas would work, but I don\u2019t want to travel back out west after just finishing (the NASCAR season).<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve 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) \u2014 we talked about it. But other than that, I\u2019m good. I like (to keep) my helmets.<\/p>\n

9. When things are not going well, do you prefer people leave you alone or check in on you?<\/p>\n

Leave me alone. Big time.<\/p>\n

How long does that last?<\/p>\n

I wish it could last a lot longer, but basically a day. A day or two.<\/p>\n

10. What is something about yourself that would surprise people who think they \u201cknow\u201d you?<\/p>\n

People probably say, \u201cBubba\u2019s an a\u2014hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

But you\u2019re here to say no?<\/p>\n

I mean, I can be. We all can. I don\u2019t know. I can\u2019t answer that one.<\/p>\n

11. What is something you laugh about now that was absolutely not funny at the time?<\/p>\n

(Thinks for a while \u2026) I don\u2019t know. I\u2019m drawing a blank.<\/p>\n

12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next person. The last one was with Austin Cindric<\/a> and he wanted to know: \u201cIf you could add one zero to anything in your life, what would it be and why?\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019d say time. My first instinct was money, but that\u2019s a double-edged sword. Time \u2014 there\u2019s not enough time in the day.<\/p>\n

I hate how my kid is starting a job tomorrow and has a 730 credit score right now. It\u2019s nuts. Everyone says everything happens fast once you have kids, and it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

If you have more time, you have more time to live. Right now, I\u2019m up at 7 a.m. every day, it\u2019s me and Becks, we\u2019re man-to-man coverage. He goes down around 11 for his nap, wakes up, then you\u2019re just clock-watching until the next part of the day when bath time is coming up. It\u2019s like a cycle.<\/p>\n

It used to not be like this, obviously. So yeah \u2014 more time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. Up next: 23XI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,12716,634,82],"class_list":["post-638027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-motorsports","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}