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NASCAR Driver Bubba Wallace Receives A 2-Word Nickname

Originally posted on The Spun | By Andrew Gould | Last updated Mar 4, 2025 5:02 PM ET

Bubba Wallace salvaged something from his Sunday at Circuit of the Americas.

Before finishing 20th at EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, Wallace picked up a Stage 1 win. It marked his first Stage victory on a road course.

On Monday, Tommy Baldwin discussed Wallace's race with his spotter, Freddie Kraft, on the Door Bumper Clear podcast. The NASCAR owner joked about Wallace's feat.

"Does he know what I call him?" Baldwin asked. "Emerson."

Baldwin confirmed that he was referring to Emerson Fittipaldi, the legendary Formula One driver. He recalled monitoring Sunday's Cup Series race alongside Corey LaJoie.

"We spent the race together analyzing all the data and working on everything," Baldwin said (h/t On3). "He was like, 'How about Bubba?' I'm like, 'I don't know where he came from, but I'm sure Emerson's coming back some part of this race, and there he was."

Kraft said Wallace "put a lot of effort in" and felt the race "went really well" despite an early penalty.

"We planned on getting stage points in that first stage," Kraft said. "He obviously made a mistake and got a course cutting penalty running second. It only dropped us back to about eighth or ninth and we cycled back to the lead, won the stage. We were in position where we pitted on that last yellow, put tires on, we were 20th or 21st. And I think we probably easily would have drove to the top 10."

Kraft said picking up 30 points in the Cup Series standings represented "a good day" for Wallace. The 31-year-old is sixth with 94 points through three races heading into Phoenix Raceway this weekend.

"I think we had top-10 points throughout the day, so a good day for us," he said. "But it could have been a lot better for sure."

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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