Dale Earnhardt Jr. declares ‘fatherhood slows racers down’ while accessing Bubba Wallace’s 2025 season

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has shared his thoughts on Bubba Wallace’s performance improvement in 2025.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. declares ‘fatherhood slows racers down’ while accessing Bubba Wallace’s 2025 season

Bubba Wallace and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Via IMAGO)

The 2025 NASCAR Cup season so far has been impressive for 23XI Racing star driver Bubba Wallace. From the first nine races of the season, he has secured two top 5s, three top 10s, leading 98 laps and placing him P8 in the championship table. Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the recent episode of his podcast, shared his evaluation of the TRD drivers’ performance so far.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. highlighted that Bubba Wallace is really competitive in the new season and how he is as consistent as his teammate Tyler Reddick, who has been outrunning his teammate since joining the team from RCR. Junior believes the excitement the No:23 team had from with the crew chief has been the difference maker for them.

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Now he’s competitive, and matching, if not beating, his teammate [Tyler] Reddick at times. More consistently, Reddick was outrunning him every week. But now they’ve had a crew chief change. Some new ideas, new energy, new excitement around what could be. Sometimes you can change the crew chief, not even putting a better, smarter guy in there…

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said via Dale Jr. Download.

Many pundits, and even Wallace’s teammates have claimed becoming a father ahead of the season might have been the reason for the impressive performance. But Junior doesn’t think that was as he believes fatherhood makes the racers take less risks and make the slow, instead of the making them faster as some be lives.

I don’t think that really matters. Fatherhood slows you down. If anything, becoming a father takes a lot of your risk assessment away. You start thinking about, ‘Man, I don’t need to shoot for that gap.’ Fatherhood, becoming a father does not make you two-tenths quicker.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

Bubba Wallace wins Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s eye test in 2025

Earlier talking about the star Toyota drivers’ performance, Dale Earnhardt Jr. pointed out that the stats doesn’t do much justice about how impressive it has been so far. He highlighted that the eye test for him proves they are having a better year.

Bubba Wallace and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Bubba Wallace and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Via IMAGO)

The statistics don’t do it justice. The eye test, to me, says that Bubba is having a better year.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.

Further talking about the point, Dale Jr. highlighted how Wallace has some tracks where he has been strong on the track and some where he is average. But now he has been able to perform consistently on the top level regardless of the tracks.

Bubba always, in my mind, before this year, Bubba had that handful of tracks where, ‘Okay, he could have a good run here. He does have some history of running good at Kansas, Talladega, Daytona,’ you know, he has certain places where it’s like, ‘Alright, not surprised to see him win or run in the top five.’ Now he’s doing it almost every week.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added.

The comments from Junior shows Bubba Wallace have been one of the best drivers of the season and seems to be on the right track to end his two-year winless streak. It would be interesting to see how long it will take for him to secure a win and secure the playoff spot.