Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. Up next: 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, who is on the verge of clinching a Round 2 playoff spot entering Saturday night’s elimination race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Wallace is currently 50 points up on the cutoff line. This interview has been edited and condensed, but the full version is available on the 12 Questions Podcast.
1. What was one of the first autographs you got as a kid, and what do you remember about that moment?
I was running around with (Ryan) Blaney at pole night for the (Coca-Cola) 600, and we were in the (driver/owner motorhome) lot. I remember getting my shirt signed by a few drivers. One of them was Greg Biffle, and it was some racing t-shirt.
That was when I was 9 or 10. Fast forward to eighth grade, and I was wearing that shirt when I had my 4-wheeler accident — that’s the scar between my eyes. I was not wearing a helmet; wear your helmets, kids. I ran into a chicken wire fence. You couldn’t see it throughout the woods. That shirt got ruined; it was ripped and bloody.
Oh, I always thought that scar was like a birth thing.
No, eighth grade. It was the day of my sister’s high school graduation. I didn’t go to that. All the family was in (town) but I was embarrassed because I looked f—ing horrible. It was bad.
2. What is the most miserable you’ve ever been inside of a race car?
Remember when swine flu was a thing? At 2010 for the Drive for Diversity Combine at Motor Mile (in Virginia), I was sick. I was done, I was out. One of the people on Rev Racing’s team had a bus there, and I slept in the motorhome until 5 o’clock, and I was the last person to go out, then went to the top of the board.
I honestly can’t even say I was miserable inside the car, because when I got in the car, I felt fine. I did what I needed to do. But before that, it was horrible. For some reason, you feel better in the car.
3. Outside of racing, what is your most recent memory of something you got way too competitive about?
Nothing really stands out besides the boring answer of “everything.” Me and my bus driver, photographer and manager, we all play video games. There’s no ranking order, but I know who is on top, and it’s frustrating that sometimes they don’t see the same things I see. So I have to remember that and calm down. (Wife) Amanda will game with us too, and she’ll be like, “Dude, calm down. It’s just a game.” But I take everything super serious.
4. What do people get wrong about you?
The stuff that I see is, “I don’t like his attitude.” Like they took our interview (from Playoffs Media Day), and they’re like, “Look at him. He’s so arrogant.” What the f— did I have to be arrogant about in that situation? Because I said, “Get the white piece of paper away from me?” It’s crazy how if you don’t like somebody, the minute they say something good, it goes right over your head and you hate them for saying it.
It’s mind-boggling how people can get to that level. There’s not a person in the world that I hate to that level. Five or six years ago, I would be so focused on “What the f—? Why do you think that way about me?” Now, I really don’t care.
Your sarcasm is an easy target for people.
They already are on the fence or they already don’t like me, so they take my sarcasm and they’re like, “Yep, see? Told you he’s an a—hole.”
Bubba Wallace’s victory at the Brickyard 400 in July snapped a 100-race winless streak and put him into this year’s playoffs. (Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
5. What kind of Uber passenger are you, and how much do you care about your Uber rating?
Don’t care about the rating. I don’t think I’m any type of passenger, just “Thanks for the ride” and go on about my way. But I will say, if you’re the Uber driver (and I say), “Hey, how are you?” and you respond, “I’m good,” that’s cool. If it’s, “Hey, how are you?” and no response — dude, what the f—? It’s not even small talk. It doesn’t even need to go past that. It’s just, “Hey, are you good today?”
6. This is my 16th year doing these 12 Questions interviews, so I’m going back to some earlier questions and re-asking to see how the answers compare. In 2013, I asked you your three favorite apps. At the time, you said: Snapseed (photo editing app), Twitter and Instagram. I’m guessing that has changed, so what are they now?
Instagram is still on top. Twitter (X), I don’t even have right now. I’ll put YouTube second, for sure. And then I’ll go Lightroom for editing photos and stuff.
That’s not too far off. You’ve still got a photo editing app, you’ve still got Instagram and just YouTube instead of Twitter.
I’m pretty heavy on YouTube. The third one could be a toss-up, just between apps you rotate through. I could easily put it as the music app or the Whoop band app.
7. Another question from a previous 12 Questions series: What is a run-in you’ve had with a driver that TV or the media missed?
You already know about the Aric (Almirola) stuff. I haven’t had any other run-ins, honestly.
Last year, Denny Hamlin answered this question during his 12 Questions interview and spoke at length about the 2018 altercation you guys had.
There you go, that’s one. Denny still says I blew his tire (at) the finish in the (Daytona) 500, but I told him, ‘Man, it looks very reminiscent of you just destroying Blaney at Martinville the year prior in the fall race.’ Remember that big pile-up on the frontstretch? He just hooked a left. It looked very reminiscent of that.
So I took it and ran with that, and I tried to tell him that. But he mentioned something about Adderall. Remember that whole Adderall thing? I got a call from a sponsor, like, “Hey, are you on it?” It was something that snowballed into something much bigger. So I’m like, “Dude, what the f—? You’re putting us in a bad spot because you said 90 percent of the drivers are on Adderall. Not cool. I don’t appreciate that.”
He said, “You think I need an f—ing PR lesson from you?” Typical Denny. He would probably still say that today. Then we get to Atlanta to talk it out, and we did the opposite of that. And here we are now (with Wallace driving for the race team Hamlin co-owns).
8. Other than one of your teammates, who is a driver you’d be one of the first people to congratulate them in victory lane if they won a race?
Blaney, that’s easy. But let’s go with the non-winners. The first one who comes to mind is Todd Gilliland. Super good kid and a lot of fun to be around. I knew Harrison (Burton) for a few years, and I indirectly met Todd through him. He’s just super nice, and he can dish out the sarcasm right back. We race each other really hard and really good.
9. How much do you use AI technology, whether for your job or your daily life?
I could go weeks without using that thing, so not really. Unless it’s a funny joke with your friends. Like you’re in a group chat, and you start just firing off these random thoughts and put them in ChatGPT. Like you’re talking about a topic, and then it’s like, “Oh, I need a picture for this.” Then you give the prompt (for a meme or funny photo).
10. What is a time in your life that you thought was really challenging, but you’re proud of the way that you responded to it?
Man, you can go multiple routes with this one. The first thing that came up was obviously 2020 — all of that.
I’m going to pick (his stretch of) 100 races without a win (until he won the Brickyard 400 this summer). Your teammate just straight kicking your a—, you go through it, you have a kid, and all the stuff we’ve been talking about for the last six months, then finally getting that win. So from a year and a half until Indy, that Sunday, all up through that. It was not pretty. I was pissed off, depressed — and then here we are. Life is good.
11. What needs to happen in NASCAR to take the sport to the next level of popularity?
We are very inside of our own four walls, and that’s it. I’m not sure on that, because you can take (Formula One drivers) Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen and drop them anywhere in the world and people go crazy, right? You drop myself or Chase Elliott or Ryan Blaney in London and no one knows who we are. You drop us in New York City and maybe we get one or two people, right?
Obviously, a lot of people wish it was back to how it was in the heyday — but no sporting league, no sanctioning body, is the way it was 15 or 20 years ago. Everything has evolved and it’s changed. So I don’t know what the magic answer is to that. What do you think?
I think it’s star power, but I don’t know how to fix the star power. You need an athlete where people want to tune in and watch how that person does.
We have (Kyle) Larson. I think Larson is that person.
But same thing — if you put him in New York …
Yeah, no one knows. It’s tough, because Larson is getting the dirt crowd to watch. But homeboy, homegirl at the Pilot over here across the street doesn’t know who Larson is. They’re not like, “I want to see how he’s going to do.” I could be wrong.
If I could go on a hot streak here and win six out of the last nine … because I’m not tooting my own horn, but if you dropped the three names I just said — myself, Chase or Ryan — in New York, I’m getting recognized first.
You have the ability to go beyond our little bubble into the mainstream.
Yes, but it takes winning. I have to win to be able to do that, and not just one in every three years. I understand that, and I know that. But I guarantee a lot of people are going to take that comment and say, “Look, he’s selfish and he’s cocky and he’s arrogant, talking about himself.” I’m not saying that at all — I’m saying that I need to win more … I need to become more competitive, which is what you dumba—s are saying. I’m agreeing with what you’re saying. And I think if that happens, then you start to see a little bit of that.
12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next interview. The last one I did was with Richard Petty, but he did not have a question for the next person. So I’m re-using a question from Ty Dillon a couple months ago: What would 10-years-ago-you be proud of you for doing now?
Ten years ago is 2015, so that’s toward the end of my first Xfinity season. I don’t think the 2015 Bubba would see this and be like, “Damn, that’s pretty cool.” Because you’ve got to go through all the hard times to understand how to come out better. So I would think the 2035 Bubba would be really proud of the 2025 Bubba; the 2015 Bubba has no idea the hardships you have to go through to get where you’re at.
The next interview is with Brad Keselowski. Do you have a question I can ask him?
What is his continuing motivation factor? In the position he’s in now, why does Brad Keselowski continue to still race? Is it just the sheer ideology of competing? He’s the owner of the team, he’s got his manufacturing business, he’s got a beautiful family — he’s got it all, and he’s got a championship. Yes, that was 13 years ago. But is it just the sheer fact that he still has “it?” If that’s the simple answer, OK, cool.
(Top photo: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)