Polarizing NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace admitted to feeling “miserable” at the track for years due to personal and professional struggles.
This admission came after NASCAR fined him $50,000 for retaliatory contact against race winner Alex Bowman on the cooldown lap of the Chicago Street Race.
Bowman won the race while Wallace finished 13th.
Defending him for his actions was Bowman himself, who advocated against Wallace being punished and admitted the retaliation was warranted due to his having spun the driver of the number 23 car earlier.
Wallace though, says the fine helped him realize he wasn’t acting like the driver he wanted to be and even joked about the fine, asking reporters, “Anybody got any money?”
“The penalty was probably the best thing that’s happened to me,” Wallace added. “I’ve been miserable for years.”
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Bubba Wallace Is Miserable
Wallace has been public with his bouts of depression and anxiety, according to the Associated Press, who says he “hasn’t been a beacon of joy at the track” since his last victory some time ago.
Bubba Wallace’s last NASCAR Cup Series win was at Kansas Speedway in 2022.
The mercurial driver said that his ‘misery’ has been amplified in an attempt to portray a particular persona to the public.
“It’s a pressure-cooker being at the Cup level. And the last four years I’ve been miserable just trying to walk around like everything’s OK,” he told Fox Sports.
Wallace added that he “need(s) to apologize to a lot of people” for being “frustrated and trying way too hard and not focused on the right things.”
Discusses Race Incident
Bubba Wallace also addressed some things from his past that have led fans of NASCAR to not be very big fans of his.
Wallace famously took part in promoting reports that a “noose” had been found in his garage stall in 2020.
The AP says he has been “an agent of change in NASCAR”. Particularly to those fans who “have longed for a black driver to shake things up in a predominantly white sport.”
“For the last four or five years, people have been wanting me out of the sport, right?” Wallace complained. “People don’t really understand.”
Going forward, Wallace promised fans that he would be a changed man.
He wants to “show up and be the fun-loving guy that I am throughout the week.”
