The Breakfast ClubINTERVIEW: Bubba Wallace On Responsibility As A Black NASCAR Driver, Robinhood, Scrapping On The Track + More
The Breakfast Club Sits Down With Bubba Wallace On Responsibility As A Black NASCAR Driver, Robinhood, Scrapping On The Track. Listen For More!
Wake that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club Morning.
Everybody is DJ en Vy, Jess Hilarious, Charlemagne to God. We are the Breakfast Club. He got some special guests in the building. We have Bubba Wallace and Steve Quirk. Welcome fellas another.
Day man, Bubba, How does it feel?
And I know you get this all the time, but how does it feel being the first black NASCAR drive?
I wouldn't say the first, the first in a while? Okay, oh you aren't the first, No, When of Scott.
Was the he opened the door for all of us, and so I've been the first to win since him got yeah.
Along it with him?
It was the sixties, okay.
Right, So it's it's been a really cool journey, lots up and downs. Uh, you know, being a being in a Cup series for eight years now has been I've learned a lot, I've grown a lot. I've got a couple of gray hairs in my beard from from I guess every year that I've been in that. I'd say every race I've been in the Cups. But it's a it's humbling no one that there's not many of us there, but you know I'm leading the way for a generation that that is paying attention. You have a following and a demographic that wants to be a part of the sport.
It's it's cool to be at the front of that.
How did you get into race?
Card?
Driving?
Started when I was a kid in go karts. My dad had to go cart and he raced a couple of times. He flipped all three times. I have yet to flip in my careers.
H knock all.
But my dad got us started and he invited to come out. He told us to come out and watch a family friend of ours, and just sitting in the stands, became a fan.
That way, I want to go kart.
And went racing.
Where the name Bubba come from?
My sister, Yes, we don't know why she won't. She said she didn't have a speech impediment. She just decided to call me Bubba. So she's five years older than.
Me and it's stuck ever since.
Well, it was confusing at the racetrack, right because I'm a junior. So hey, Darryl, my dad would turn around and they were trying to get in touch with me. So we were just like, let's let's go with Bubba. It makes it easier and it's fun. Everybody's a bubble, especially now, so a lot.
Yeah, what's yeah, do you so you embrace the responsibility of being you know, the I guess, are you.
The only black man drive at the cup level?
Yes?
Yeah, so you embrace the responsibility of being that person at the forefront generation.
Yeah, yeah, we got we got some youth coming up.
We got Rajah Caruz coming up through in the truck series, and it's it's fun being a mentor to him and the others coming through. And yeah, I sense a responsibility there to you know, carry myself the right way but also show that, you know, I'm here to stay and and and make a name for myself as well.
So uh, you know, the only way to.
Create boundaries is to cross them and figure out, you know, what to do what not to do. So I've made some mistakes along the way, but it's shaped me and helped me to become who I am today.
M hm.
And so, you know, off track, on track stuff has been phenomenal.
I could say this this whole year.
Are out really really strong force and nothing nothing's better than winning. So it's been a while since I've been in victory lane, but it's not for a lack of effort.
How difficult? I'm sorry? What got in North Carolina? Are you from Charlotte? Big? That was big?
Growing up like racetar?
Yeah, so like I grew up fifteen minutes from the racetrack, so all the race teams were all within the thirty minute radius of each other.
Wow.
I was going to ask, how difficult was it because coming up there wasn't too many of us in the stands. I'm sure there's not too many of us in the stands now, but there was way less in the stands, So how difficult was it? I'm sure you had to face racism of the drivers of teams, and how difficult was fighting through that?
Honestly, my my mom was my parents, both my parents, but my mom was, you know, the driving force behind of just never given.
The media any negative to talk about. Right. Well I failed at that a couple of.
Times, but she was always just keeping me aware of the said scenarios, right and and for me, though I grew up in a well diverse community and did it and see color still don't and it just didn't didn't matter to me. So when I jumped into it, there was I think two of us that that were of color. And Benny Mingo he actually works at our race shop now, so it's crazy how he works on a race cars.
But it was just the two of us and didn't bother me one bit.
You know, growing up, you know, the higher you you got in the rankings, the better you got, you know, the faster the cars.
You know, I was the only one and still didn't bother me. I all I cared about was winning.
And it sounds like a very just cliche, typical, straight line answer, but I didn't give a damn right and I still don't because at the end of day, we're all human beings and that's that's how I view each other. And we just happen to be a little bit darker than others, and that's okay. But if you treat each other with respect, then you demand that respect back and and if they can't give that back, then they're not the people for you. So that's how I've kind of viewed life and have enjoyed life no matter what's thrown at us.
I agree with that.
You know, when you would you being a by racial right, whenever you feel when people come at you for being black, do you ever be like, well, I'm white.
Too, halfway in yeah, I mean you have to kind of balance both hats really, you know.
You know, I have a black side in my family, have a white side in my family.
And so.
That's a good question.
Where do you go for Thanksgiving?
That's a good I like to stay home. Now. I ain't got to do nothing.
Damn, you put me on the spot. You know, you know I have to go with my sister.
I have to go with my sister.
The black side of family.
Is definitely good.
No, I think just you know, trying to just walk both past and can be tiring it sometimes because I just want to walk down the middle.
But it's just never that easy.
Sometimes, before we get to you're dealing with Steve, I want to ask how many people come up to you and try to race you in the street when you have a drive And that happened a lot.
No, because I have tent on my windows so you can't see who's yeah, and you able.
To get crazy on the street. Sometimes you just like, no.
I don't waste time though, So if we got to drive to the grocery store, I'll I know how to get to the grocery store, but I'll plug it in the GPS to see which ways the fastest way and to see if I can get there faster of course.
Really, actually it's been.
A long long time and I can say I've I've been I've been pulled over, you know, twenty twenty somethingtimes.
It only gotten like three tickets.
It's the white side.
It was because you recognize that's what I was going with Steve Coirk with Robin Hood.
So what's your relationship with Robin Hood.
It's just starting out so excited for the partnership that we just announced to be a part of twenty three eleven and sponsoring myself and Corey him and a couple of Cup races this year.
So you know, hats off to.
Everybody at Air Speed on the marketing side of the things to bring in new sponsors to the sport. So let's be the first time that Robin Hood is a part of our sport and this sort of capacity and it's special so it's fast paced so they can keep up.
Yeah, it's our first national sponsorship of sports. We have a couple NBA teams that we sponsor.
The people that don't know what Robinhood is and what they do. Yeah, yeah, let me let me quickly explain.
So Robinhood Basic we have about twenty five million customers and Robinhood is a it's an investing app, and what we've been largely credited with is bringing twenty five million young, very diverse, first time investors into the marketplace. So in the US we're sitting close to sixty percent of US households now are invested in the market. That's that's the envy of the world. It's like twenty percent in Asia or Europe or other places. And what we did is just remove the friction. So if you have five dollars, if you have ten dollars, you can invest.
We removed all.
The friction, made it very easy for people to have access to the greatest wealth creation vehicle in the world. So as important as it is for you to make money, you have to put that money to work, and we've made that really accessible for young people.
My kids have Robinhood and it's very accessible. They know how to use it, they invest in it. They're not investing a lot of money, but five dollars and dollar it's a start for them at a young But it used to.
Like the whole system used to be kind of really kind of inaccessible for young people because you had to wait till you got you this amount of money to be able to do it, and so really by the time you got around to investing, it was a little bit too late. The second component that we're really really strongly focused on is it's one thing to give them access, but it's another thing to make sure that they do it in a way that's going to be sustainable and that they're going to have a good investing career. So we do a lot in the way of education, both within our site and the app, but also we go out to universities. We have a bunch of university programs where we help people understand the importance of doing this in a suitable manner, and then we give them access to all of this and provide them with curriculum. And then we have a newsletter that goes out every morning to we have forty million people subscribed, basically describes the day's news and then if there's something within that news that could be an investable opportunity for them.
What's your vetting process?
But when it comes to like who you choose to take on as.
The sponsor, I was just willing to pay, let's go what happened? I mean, hey, I come.
From I remember, man, we were doing about anything just to get anybody to spend a buck, right.
And so it's a tough sport to be a.
Part of it and want to invest in two and for new companies to come into the sport and not.
Know which ways up, down, left or right.
I mean I would be hesitant as well, and so and taking a risk on a kid that's trying to find his way through the Cup Series. But I feel like now we've established ourselves, established our name, you know, within the race team, within the sport, it makes it easier for companies that want to be in part of our journey.
And yeah, you got you're associated with MJ.
So yeah, no, how was that? MJ is a coal owner, So how is he as a co owner? Do you speak much? Do you talk much? Do you I play one on one basketball?
How is it not the basketball piece?
He taught me if if I know I'm gonna go into something and lose and not don't compete at all.
So he won't jump into a race car, I won't jump on the basketball court.
And so m J is super involved.
Uh And and it might be a shock to a lot of people, and I think it was for me to start, because you think of somebody as as as big as MJ that he can be doing anything else that he wants with his time and his money. He has a strong passion for NASCAR. He's been a fan.
He's watched even before he became a team owner.
He was a kid going to the races Darlington, uh Talladega, Charlotte. He was going all these places with his family grown up, and so he's always had a strong knack for for NASCAR and what it provides. And so now him being invested, it's game over. He's he's watching each and every weekend, whether he's here or overseas, whatever he's doing. I have a text before and after the race every weekend.
What did he say? I lost some money betting.
No, it's always encouraging. He's always he's a glass half full guy. No matter how rough the day gets. He's always searching for the positives. And so it's helped me grow up a lot in a short amount of time.
What about you, Steve? What made y'all want to say? You know what NASCAR is where we want to spend that money?
Well, if we look at our customers, they're very into sports, but they're if we just look at a robin Hood versus a non Robinhood customer, they're four times more likely they're into motorsports, particularly NASCAR, and so this gives us broad exposure you know, nationally as well, which I think is very positive. And they just you know, they're as passionate about their sports as they are about their investing. So they tie together pretty nicely.
Got you with the har of you to get sponsitships buble, because you know, you always hear the stories about Serena Wiams. Even though she was dominant you know inten is full period of time her Aan Venus, it was hard for them to get sponsorships.
People just didn't feel like they were marketable. Was it the same for you?
Absolutely?
You know, we look at the sport and the personalities that you have within the side of our sport, and there's there's a select few, and I feel like I'm near the top of the list of just being uh personable and likable despite all the BS that goes on. You know, I'm gonna tell you how I feel, and I feel like a lot of us inside of our sport are very straight edged and cookie cutter, right, And that's that's okay. You don't want to show your true colors and show your cards. You keep that in your personal life, that's fine. But for me, I've always just been trying. I tried to be super relatable to everybody I meet, uh and and make a lasting impression, uh to to eventually have the investments come in and the funding come in. And it seemed like nothing we ever did would would work. And for whatever reason that is, uh, it was what it was. But it never stopped me from pursuing what I wanted to do and fighting hard.
You know.
Now I look at the people that potentially said no, we're good and just laugh because we're't a good spot.
Now, what does the sport have to do to increase, right, because it's I feel like it's been in that same spot for a long time and it hasn't really grown as I thought it would.
What do you think it needs to do?
I need to win.
M there you go.
I think that's the easiest way to go about it.
I need to win.
You look at I mean, golf didn't really change too too much, you know, but Tiger was dominant right uh, and created a lot of buzz. But I've only had two wins in my eight years and being in cups, so to me, that's unacceptable. So the way that we've been performing this year, uh, last year races finished in third, two spots away from from doing just that.
So I'll take full responsibility and helping that.
Fault is it?
Is it the car?
Because is it call driving?
As a driver, you never blame yourself, so it's always somebody else's faults.
So that's just how drivers operate.
But it takes a it takes a whole team to win races, and man, it's tough. You're the next level after cup level is retirement. So it's the hardest thing that you'll ever do in forms of motorsports, in the form of the path that we're on. And so the guys you're going against I have been doing it. Denny he won the second co owner or other boss he won Sunday, but he's been in the sport for twenty years and so I'm my eighth year.
So it's just experience takes over.
But it takes a car, it takes a crew chief, it takes the driver, it takes pit crew and just a lot of luck to get these things, you know, in the right way.
This could be a stupid question. I don't know.
How do you know that certain people on the on the team might not be sabotaging you though, just because for you know, it might be mad as you Yeah, the Confederate flag.
Yeah, we we have a good process and knowing like basically feeding out the bullshit, right and you know, you have to show up ready to work. And as simple as I think, you look at who the owners are, MJ and Denny. They care about winning, and they care about doing it with integrity, and if you don't have that, then it's it's it's it's game over for them. So we don't have to worry about that. And I never really have.
Who's the toughest driver?
You have a faced and why? And in Nascar is it like that? Like you know, as a basketball you can say this is the toughest opponent. In hockey, this is the toughest baseball, this is the toughest.
It's different. It's it's different in regards of the tracks that we go to.
You know, for example, Denny had won this weekend and this is in Martinsville, which is one of his best tracks, and so when you show up to said track, it's like who's the guy to beat? That's how you look at it. So it's always different throughout the throughout the circle, throughout the year, So I can't pinpoint it to one.
Who's the biggest asshole? That also changes to depends on.
The mood that we're in.
What's your what's your favorite track? Favorite track? Martinsville is one of them. So Bristol's coming up here in two weeks.
That's another good one.
Mostly all the short tracks, but also the ones we've won on too, So Tallada and Kansas are good.
Y'all get scrapping sometimes, y'all, y'all fight on that on those tracks.
Sometimes yeah yeah, And and it's you know, you feel like you're you're you're you're done wrong because I go back to the respect thing. You show up with respect, you you man respect and return and and sometimes you feel like you're shorted or you're done wrong. And for whatever reason. You know, when I'm done wrong and I retaliate, it's it's the world's end, and uh all I'm doing And when I when I was grown up, you know, being taught is you just get even.
So I'm just getting even, like, oh, okay, we're good. We can shake hands after the fact.
We're good now. But massive deal.
Y'all get suspended after y'all get into a fight, because I remember you got into a fight a couple of years ago.
Did you get suspended? Is there any penalties or anything?
No, Well, the the rules are constantly changing. You know.
I got suspended for right re're hooking somebody, which basically a pit maneuver, and rightfully so, because it's happened to me twice throughout my career.
And explain what that is. I'm lost like.
A pittmaneuver, like somebody turns into you on your right rear, spins you out and like it's a it's a the opposing car that you've done it too, is you just turned them right head on into the wall and it's a high rate of speed, Yeah, kind of, and so versus like hook them in the left rear, like they kind of just go spinning throughout the infield and kind of get it gathered back up.
So it's happened to.
Me twice in my career, and it's the most I'd say one of the most disrespectful things you can do. And I found myself stooped down to that level and commit the same deal. But the guy had just come up to me and run me up in the wall and was like, Oh, we're just gonna go on about our day.
No, no, no no.
They said that you did it on purpose.
That's what they say.
So people are gonna always talk and have their opinions and that it is what it is. But I regret doing that. I can say that truthfully, and we've moved on past that.
But as far as fighting, no, Because.
One, it's we're entertainment business and so it's good, good for entertainment. But you're quick to jump in, so you have to, uh have to be methodical about how you want to go about it.
Isn't it a matter of life and death? Whe you out there give one hundred plus miles for hour like it is.
Our safety has come a long way, so you don't think of it in that sort of fashion.
But you know, all it takes is one wrong move.
So do you want to raise Denny Hamley?
Do I want to?
Do you want to? Yeah?
Okay?
Because he was he was asked about you. He asked what you need to do to beat him. And when your first racing nearly two years and he said, you have a decision to make. If you need to make more speed on a corner exit, you must sacrifice something else somewhere. You can't just put the throttle down and get more speed on exit. It's an approach thing. Maybe you need to slow up your sensor a little bit more.
Do you agree with him?
Yeah? Do you know what that means?
No?
Right, you're here now you have to explain that.
So that's just attacking the corners.
Uh So the exit exit of the corner versus the center of the corner versus the entry of the corner. There's a there's ways to approach every corner differently. And you know, it goes back to the experience Den He's been at these racetracks for twenty years as to where I'm figuring it out still, so he kind of has a better feeling, uh for what to expect on entry in the center to set him up for a better exit as to where I'm just like, I'm gonna send it off in there and figure it out. So it's uh, it definitely takes a lot of time and a lot of seat time. A lot of just skill and management and having the right people around you.
Quote for you, Bubba, and to ask you too, what do you consider the most rewarding aspect of the work in the racing world, especially if if you not winning and you steve, what's the benefit of the invisibility of what was that win?
Yeah?
I would say the last three years I've really taken it upon myself of trying different things, but putting in the work and putting in the effort. And it seemed like the last two years, the previous two years, it didn't matter what I did it kind of ended up in the same results. And so this year I kind of didn't flip the script. I said, we're gonna you know, started working out better, started eating better, you know, doing all the necessary things, paying attention to my sleep, all these types of things, and the results are are starting to show up quicker. And so the rewarding thing is is knowing that you can pour your heart and soul into something and when it doesn't work out the way you want it, then a lot of self doubt creeps in because you take it for me, I take it up all my shoulders, like, well, damn, I guess I'm not good enough. But then you see others that are doing half the job but getting it done.
And so it's like, well, damn, what's the scenario I need to put myself in.
I think it comes down to just trusting the p and I've realized that, and I've said this recently a lot that your timeline is going to be either quicker or slower than mine, and that's okay, that's how we're built. We have to appreciate the scenario that we're in for ourselves and work on self and continuing to do that, because that's at the end of the day, that's that's all you got.
When you get into what about you, what's like what's the benefit of a like what's the rewarding aspect of the work that Bubba doing in the racing world if he's.
If he's not winning for robin.
Hood, I would say it, well, it starts really with the think about robin Hood and the mission. And you know what we're all aligned on, which is helping helping a younger, more diverse group of people have access to financial services in the in what that creates, and that's why we're very aligned with twenty three eleven. And of course this I can say this because I'm a little older. This is a very impressive young man here, I mean extremely impressive. And we're completely aligned in seeing success, not only from twenty three eleven, but of course from from Bubba.
I was gonna ask when you get into those car wrecks, right, you get a call from MJ.
And he's not like Bubba, another car.
How much of those calls costs to the place, and do you fix those calls?
You just totally get a new call.
It's uh, it's circumstantial.
Like if you cause the wreck and you're you know, and it becomes like a repeated offense, then it's like, all right, what are we doing? But a lot of the wrecks that you know, I've been a part of, like I can truthfully say it.
Hasn't been my fault.
Like we're just caught up in somebody else's mess. But at the end of the day, you do find yourself. If you do find yourself in somebody else's mess constantly, then it starts to deter to back to you because it's like quit putting yourself in that scenario.
Well, it's easy to blame like, well again it.
Wasn't my fault.
It doesn't matter like run better run, run closer up front, or or or try a different type better center for a better exit.
The corner, the corners, you know.
So it's it's it all comes back to self at the end of the day, and how you can do what you can do to be better to not put.
Yourself in said scenarios.
But but yeah, it can get annoying sometimes, but at least not for me because I'm not paying the bill.
How much of those costs to replace?
I don't know what we're up to five hundred six.
And how many calls do you have in the story?
Is just in case we're only allowed I think like seven to eight on rotation.
Now, I meany of you wreck this year, like two this year, twenty two years.
Yeah, that's a necessary expense, I would think, right like, it's.
A lot, and that's why you want to have good partners to foot the bill.
So thanks Robin Hood.
Yeah, you know I wanted to ask.
You know, you played a big role in getting the Confederate flag band from mass car events. How did other drivers who didn't want it band treat you after it?
I actually can't say that they didn't want it banned, so I didn't really know their their viewpoint on it. But I think we all came together and you know, as one as in unison and and I.
Think that's all you could ask for in sports.
But for the one that necessarily didn't want it banned, they've never come forward or shown their displeasure, so I can honestly say the sports has been way better without it.
So hold on, how do you know they haven't shown their displeasure because there was a news found in your garage back in twenty twenty with that before after.
Well, that's it's all we I think we're all human enough to you know, if in out of the driver's world, you know, if you have a problem with it, you just kind of keep it to yourself and move on. And I'm not treated differently or I just I don't speak to said drivers, But I haven't had any instances where the drivers have come at me for for you know, removing the Confederate flag. It's it's been everybody's been in support of it, and we've moved on, so it is what it is.
They ever gets to the bottom of the news thing and find out who did it or.
No Yeah, it was.
It was there before we got there, years before we got there, and it's just coincidence that I had that garage, so like it's it's wild. So you know, it is still a topic of discussion to this day.
It's it's wild.
You should see my Twitter mentions like Bubba finished third, what was there news?
You know, it's it's.
It's wild that that is still going about it. And but no, it was there before we even got there. And just the one in a million katrillion coincidences that I had that garaged all and in fact it was tied in a fashion like that. It could have been this small. It doesn't matter. And so it is what it is, and and we've moved on from it. And it sucks that the sport was put in that situation. That I was putting that situation, our team was putting that situation. But we've learned a lot about who we are as a sport and who we are as competitors, and.
That's all you can ask for.
Did he take a toll on you emotionally?
Oh, those those year or two after that was rough, you know, because you know, I went from being one of the most I wouldn't say the most like drivers, but favorable drivers, you know. But now it's it's just been the booze and stuff. And that's okay because it's sports. And I'm a big you know, I love going to college football games Tennessee in college basketball games, and I'm not a person that boos other teams because I'm kind of in the sports world myself, and it's just kind of seems childish. But fans do what they want. So booing is a part of sports in general. But it was, you know, the next week after Talladega, it was like a light switch and it was like whoa Wow, we're you know, like, holy shit, I don't asked for this. And and so now it's they're making noise. You know, I've always been told and I've read things, is when they stopped making noise is when it's worse.
So you still get do you get scared when you get in that call yout fear fear at all?
No, no fear.
I'll be free. I'll be afraid for you.
I appreciate that you drive fast on the roads.
Hell, no be afraid for you.
When I was younger, I was one of them stupid kids that was frying in and out of traffic.
I think we all wear it went to right, and so you know, you climb in and just do it, and that's that for us. If you have the fear that is that is seconds that you're that you're giving up, And I mean we're talking about fighting for thousands of an inch, giving up seconds for just being scared.
You can't have it.
I hate people who speed.
Whenever I gonna call somebody who's speed, I be like, are you an a rusted die?
It is?
It is, but I mean it's your job.
Yeah.
But on the roads it's different because you know, people's lives are at stake and the safety and I've always said, uh, you know, I don't speed on the roads because the safety of my race car is way higher than than a street car.
Right.
I have a nine to twelve point hardness whatever it is, and we got one seat belt in a car and that's it.
So I can take I can take multiple.
Wrecks on Sundays going one hundred and eighty two hundred miles an hour versus a.
Ninety miles per hour wreck here, and it's it's over, so lie.
But if I do see you in I gotta try you one time.
I mean, you know, I mean he just said he was a stupid but but y'all got one time everybody to do the dumbest everybody needs.
So that's fun. You can you could take that. You can take that.
And Steve shout out to Robin Hood.
Y'all made investments for financial literacy programs at Howard, Right, Yeah, are gonna do that TCU.
Yeah, we're at twelve universities and expanding, yeah, all across the country.
Why then, important for Robin Hood?
I think it's important because you want to make sure that people at the at a very young age, start to understand how to do it responsibly and suitably.
The younger.
I mean, everything shows that if you know just the power of compounding alone, you start at a young age, you know you're gonna you're gonna benefit at an older age. I'm one of those annoying fathers who has three twenty some year old daughters.
And and I pound on them.
You got to put that money to work, put that money to work, be invested in that, and uh, I said, one day you'll thank me.
Well, we appreciate you guys for joining us an episode. Thank you so much. Get up with.
Everything Bubba and the Steve. They appreciate you for joining us. It's the Breakfast Club. It's Bubba Wallace and Steve Kirk.
Thank you guys.
Wake that ass up in the morning for Breakfast Club.
