This One Change, Bubba Wallace Says, Could Take Him Beyond the Likes of Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney

Bubba Wallace is steering through a season where, for the first time, he reached the playoffs on the strength of a win rather than points. And now, after the regular season, he has kept his foot on the gas, finishing P6 at Darlington in the opener and P8 at Gateway in the second race of the playoffs. Before heading to Bristol for the Round of 16 cutoff, Wallace joined Jeff Gluck’s 12 Questions and spoke about a change that he believes could catapult NASCAR’s popularity to new heights.

In his view, such a shift could even elevate him beyond some of the sport’s household names. Wallace pointed to Formula One stars like Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, noting that wherever they go, the spotlight follows.

NASCAR drivers, he argued, don’t enjoy that same recognition. Even fan favorites like Chase Elliott or Ryan Blaney may walk unnoticed in many places. For Wallace, the missing ingredient is “star power.” As he put it, “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.”

The 23XI Racing driver expanded on the point, saying, “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.”