23X1 Racing’s Bubba Wallace nominated for the Sportsman of the Year Award


23X1 Racing’s Bubba Wallace nominated for the Sportsman of the Year Award

Bubba Wallace

Bubba Wallace who drives the No.23 Toyota Camry for 23X1 Racing as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver and also competes part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series driving the No.18 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing has made the headlines yet again after being nominated for the award of Sportsman of The Year for his contributions to the sport and humanity both on and off the track with other nominees being Aaron Donald, Ja Morant, LeBron James, and Stephen Curry along with Giannis Antetokounmpo.

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Bubba Wallace being just 28 years old is known for his exceptional driving skills behind the vehicle and also being the only active African-American competing in the sport across all the three National Series hasn’t had a pretty impressive year as he kept getting caught up in any one unfortunate incidents in most of the races this season. He has one Cup Series victory to his name at the 2021 Talladega GEICO 500.

He is the only African-American to win a Cup Series race after a long time since the 1900s after the famous Wendell Scott and he won the 2021 GEICO 500 he has also made so many contributions and also was part of the 2020 infamous ‘Noose incident’ at his garage entrance which involved a very long investigation later only to be proven innocent by FBI’s investigation and he was extremely saddened by the backlash he received.

In 2020, Bubba Wallace also drove in a ‘Black Lives Matter’ inspired paint scheme that honored the murder of George Floyd which led to the movement and to show his support to the cause in the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway and in 2022, he partnered with LEIDOS to announce his contribution to the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Development Program which will enable entry into the sport across various fields for people of color.

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How has the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series turned out so far for Bubba Wallace?

bubba wallace
Bubba Wallace celebrates his 2021 Talladega win

Bubba Wallace surely seems to be having a tough time after being involved in so many incidents and being collected in the big ones but he started his 2022 season in Daytona 500 with a second-place finish being his season-best so far and then went on to finish 19th in Fontana at Auto Club Speedway and then a P25 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the Pennzoil 400 followed by a 22nd place end in Ruoff Mortgage 500 at Phoenix Raceway.

Bubba Wallace then finished 13th in the Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway and he gets left out of the race for losing a wheel in the season’s first road course at Circuit of The Americas and then a P16 at Richmond Raceway in the Toyota Owners 400 succeeded by a 16th place finish at Martinsville Speedway in the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 and a P28 in the season’s only dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway followed by a P17 in the 2022 GEICO 500 at Talladega.

Bubba Wallace went on to finish 16th yet again in the DuraMAX Drydene 400 at Dover International Speedway and then his second DNF for the season at Darlington Raceway after being involved in a late-race crash and he then finished 10th at Kansas Speedway followed by a P16 at the NASCAR All-Star Race in Texas followed by a pile-up in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway leaving him out of the race and then a P26 in the inaugural race at World Wide Technology Raceway followed by another DNF at Sonoma Raceway.

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With just 10 regular-season races to go, will Bubba Wallace turn around his season with a victory in any one of those getting a direct ticket to the playoffs?

Also read: Daniel Suarez claims that the “Next Gen cars really came to the game to change everything” in the 2022 season

Also read: “I haven’t thought about the Playoffs yet there is still a lot of things to be done before that,” Daniel Suarez chooses to remain focused on the ongoing races including the Ally 400