Participation of Bubba Wallace in NASCAR is historic on its own merits. Moreover, his win at the Talladega Superspeedway marked the first African-American driver victory in the top division of stock racing since Wendell Scott. In fact, with Wallace’s protests against the confederate flag in NASCAR events, the sport found a new way of becoming more inclusive and diverse.

However, things haven’t been easy for Wallace. As the host of Extraordinary Tales, Seb Coe, points out in his recent podcast episode, Wallace struggled a lot in terms of sponsorship. During his conversation with Bubba Wallace, Seb Coe said that one of the enormous signs of progress for Wallace is the number of commercial opportunities available to him now.

Further, he explained how interesting it is for him to see Wallace’s ambition of promoting greater diversity bring about a positive outcome in the commercial aspects of the sport. Agreeing with Coe’s observations, Wallace said, “Yeah, it’s definitely interesting to look at how much has changed over the last three years.”

Moreover, he explained, “You know, when sponsorship was an issue and a part of your everyday life. And now, you look at things and it’s like ‘Man!’ Sponsors are beating down the doors to be a part of our team. So, you are very grateful for the opportunity. And you just have to continue to make the most of that.”

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However, irrespective of the changes, the podcast host questioned him about the long duration it took for things to change.

Bubba Wallace on the changes in the sport

The 23XI driver referred to his skepticism as the reason it took so long for sponsors to see his potential. However, he was quite happy with all the opportunities he has now. As a response to Coe’s question, Wallace said,

“I don’t know. If I could call every CEO or every CMO of every company that we called, and asked ‘Why?’ I am not sure what the answer would be. Take a massive risk on a kid, inside of a very expensive sport that might have a little bit to do with it?”

Later, he spoke about not dwelling on the past. And hence, he was just happy that he and his team formed a brand new racing unit from scratch.

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Talking about his founding sponsors, Wallace said, “We were able to have the founding sponsors of our program at 23XI that have continued to grow and do massive things for the team, but also for the sport and diversity and inclusion to make that better. So, it’s been really cool. To continue to grow with them, to make this better for everybody that comes in.”