"We hated each other": Bubba Wallace calls out Richard Childress’ driver as fiercest early rival

Bubba Wallace named the driver he 'once hated' during junior stock car racing, and it was none other than Austin Hill, the renowned Richard Childress Racing driver. Wallace spoke about his relationship with Hill on the Happy Hour Podcast with Kevin Harvick.

Wallace and Hill raced against each other during the Bandolero and Legends car racing series in the early 2000s. As per the available statistics, Wallace often got the better of Hill, but the competition was no less between them.

In 2005, Wallace won 35 out of 48 Bandolero Series races and put Hill way behind in terms of competition. Speaking about this, the 23XI Racing driver stated how he had stiff competition against the RCR driver in those days.

"Yeah, I think it was I would have to say legend cars man," Wallace told Harvick. "The competition back then was super fierce. You know, I'm gonna go with Austin Hill. Man we hated each other. Yeah man, we hated each other and it was always kind of, I knew he was in Trucks and stuff when I was kinda in Xfinity and then, we were at Toyota together."

From there, Bubba Wallace moved to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series before switching to the Cup Series, the ultimate stock car racing competition. He currently races for Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan's co-owned team, 23XI Racing, in the Cup Series.

Austin Hill, on the other hand, moved to the K&N Pro Series, ARCA Menards Series, Truck Series, Xfinity Series, and then finally in the Cup Series. However, he currently races in the Xfinity Series for Richard Childress Racing, and recently won the controversial Marine Corps 250 at the Martinsville Speedway.

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Bubba Wallace addressed pressure on him after Tyler Reddick's recent success

In a conversation with Kevin Harvick in the Happy Hour Podcast, Bubba Wallace addressed how he was under pressure by Tyler Reddick's recent success in the Cup Series. Clarifying that it was not from a jealousy standpoint, here's what the #23 driver said:

"Seeing the success of the 45, not from a jealousy standpoint but it's like 'I have the same stuff', and I feel like I'm just as competitive as Tyler. I put all that weight on me, that pressure on me. So, I'm back in the gym and nobody's telling me 'Hey, you need to workout to run better, you need to be in more meetings to understand better', I took that upon myself as like 'I'm doing just enough to get by and that's not okay.'"

Bubba Wallace's last victory in the Cup Series came in 2022, whereas Tyler Reddick won three races for RCR in 2022, two races in 2023, and again three races in 2024. Moreover, he was the regular season champion last year and raced in Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway.