“I witnessed it with my own eyes”: NASCAR insider silences Bubba Wallace’s 'pretentious haters' with his “the man’s famous” remark

Kenny Wallace has shunned the fans who pretend to be Bubba Wallace's hater. The NASCAR insider said the 23XI Racing driver is popular in the sport and he has witnessed that in person.

Wallace is running his seventh full-time Cup Series season and fourth for the Huntersville-based outfit. He joined Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan's co-owned venture in 2021, at the Daytona 500. With that, the Alabama native became the first driver of the then-newly formed team. During his time with 23XI, he bagged two Cup wins - at the Talladega Superspeedway and the Kansas Speedway - and has 18 top-5s and 33 top-10s, thus far.

Wallace has been subjected to scrutiny from the fans in many instances. One among them is his wreck with Kyle Larson in 2022 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Though the 23XI Racing driver said he didn't deliberately wreck the HMS rival, his maneuver painted a different picture in the fans' minds.

According to Kenny Wallace, many people pretend to hate the Alabama native, while in reality, he is loved by many fans and is popular in the NASCAR community. The former NASCAR driver addressed the situation and expanded on what he witnessed about Wallace's popularity.

"When Bubba Wallace came in, everybody was like Bubba was going to say something unbelievable. When Bubba Wallace left, everybody dispersed to try to get his autograph. Nobody left, but as Bubba walked off the stage, everybody went around each corner of the stage," he said [at 04:42].

"I know there's a lot of people that pretend to not like Bubba, they pretend to boo because they must think it's the 'in' thing. I'm here to tell you, the man's famous, I witnessed it with my own eyes," he added.

Wallace failed to make the playoffs even though his recent string of runs has produced comparatively better results, with a sixth-place finish at Daytona.

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"I got to do better job doing that": Bubba Wallace reflects on his dismal Atlanta run

Bubba Wallace was the polesitter at Darlington but fell to a 16th-place finish. However, as Harrison Burton won the Daytona race and Chase Briscoe emerged victorious in Darlington, the playoff spot was secured by two new drivers. As a result, the 23XI Racing driver dropped below the cutline. On the other hand, his teammate, Tyler Reddick aced the regular season and advanced to the playoffs with flying colors.

Wallace didn't have a good day at Atlanta. After starting 24th and posting a 33rd-place finish in both stages, he crashed during the final lap chaos birthed by Chase Elliott and finished 29th.

“All you can ask for is just to be competitive, and that's where we're at. So, it's fun having the pressure of figuring it out when the weekend starts, because you know that the car's capable of winning... So, obviously I got to do better job doing that, but no, all in all, you just move forward these next 10 weeks and see what we can do," he said about his Atlanta run. [00:41]

While Wallace isn't fighting for the championship, Reddick is placed fourth in the playoffs.