Wallace, Bubba (1993-…), is an American automobile racing driver. Wallace competes in the NASCAR Cup Series, supervised by NASCAR (the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing). The Cup Series is NASCAR’s top series. Wallace joined it as a replacement for an injured driver in 2017. He became the first African American to race in NASCAR’s top series since Bill Lester in 2006. In 2018, Wallace joined the series full time. He finished second at the Daytona 500 race in 2018 and third at the Brickyard 400 in 2019. In 2021, Wallace became the first African American to win a race in NASCAR’s top series since Wendell Scott in 1963. Wallace won the race at the Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama.
Darrell Wallace, Jr., was born on Oct. 8, 1993, in Mobile, Alabama. He grew up in Concord, North Carolina. He began racing at the age of 9. Wallace is a graduate of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, designed to help women and nonwhite drivers gain entry to the sport.
Wallace joined the regional K & N Pro East Series in 2010. He was named the series Rookie of the Year, becoming the first African American to win the honor in a NASCAR series. In 2012, he joined NASCAR’s second-tier Xfinity Series, finishing seventh in the series in 2015. He joined NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series (now the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series) in 2013. That year, he won the Kroger 200 race in Martinsville, Virginia.
In 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd killing, Wallace called on NASCAR to ban displays of the Confederate battle flag at its events, noting that the flag is seen by many as a racist symbol. NASCAR, which had been asking fans not to display the flag since 2015, quickly enacted a ban.
