Bubba Wallace Declares He Is Capable of Being a Bigger Star Than Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney

23XI Racing star driver Bubba Wallace has shared his thoughts how much NASCAR needs a mainstream racing superstar.

Bubba Wallace Declares He Is Capable of Being a Bigger Star Than Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney

Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney (Via IMAGO)

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NASCAR is going through a massive lack of Superstar issue and among the handful of drivers that has the potential to be the face of the sport like once Dale Earnhardt of Jeff Gordon was, are close friends. They are Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace. The latter of the three believes he has an advantage over the others to build star power.

Bubba Wallace, the most accomplished African American racer in the history of the sport, in a recent interview with Jeff Gluck of NY Times, shared his thoughts on the biggest challenge the sport is facing while trying tap into new markets. He admitted that there is a star power issue in the sport, and the sport need that one personal that everyone wants to see.

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.

Bubba Wallace said via NY Times.

Then Bubba Wallace talked of himself and how he can become that one star the sport needs. He pointed out that if he can consistently win races, he gets more recognition that the rest of the drivers like Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney, both of whom are Cup Series champions. Him being the representative of the minorities is a big of part of this.

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.

Bubba Wallace added.

The veteran Toyota racer believes he has the ability to be one of the mainstream NASCAR stars the sport is looking for, unlike his close friends Elliott and Blaney, whose stardom is limited to the racing bubble owing to different reasons. But at the moment, winning a race in a couple of years isn’t helping him achieve this target.

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.

Bubba Wallace asserted.

Bubba Wallace takes issue with NASCAR’s dress code

In the same interview, Bubba Wallace addressed the lack of individuality issue in the sport, and highlighted the issue with the NASCAR dress code. The driver is limited to team/manufacture polos or official attire for racing events. This deprives racers the opportunity to showcase their personality.

Bubba Wallace
Bubba Wallace (Via IMAGO)

Wallace is someone who believes fashion is a great way to express a racer’s personality and though he isn’t someone that is into fashion, wants drivers to have that opportunity. The sponsorship-based dress code the sport is following at the moment isn’t benefitting the racers much.

For me, I just want to be myself… I didn’t have a stylist. My stylist is myself, so I dress myself. I feel like you can kind of see people’s personalities from, how they dress.  Our sport, as a whole, has I feel like a problem of, it goes back to sponsorship stuff, though. Everyone has to be in a black polo and look the same, just different… manufacturer logos, different team logos on there.

Bubba Wallace said.

The comments from the Bubba Wallace shows he and many of his fellow NASCAR drivers are looking for some independence to express themselves in a better way than they are doing at the moment. It will be interesting to see if the sanctioning body would listen to the 23XI Racing driver and how it might change the sport as a whole.

Also Read: Ross Chastain Declares Bristol Tire Wear ‘Didn’t Make Sense’