Hamlin hired Wallace for the team’s inaugural season in 2021.
It wasn’t until mid-summer last year that he noticed a positive change in the Mobile, Alabama, native.
Wallace notes that putting family first makes everything easier.
When NASCAR Cup driver Denny Hamlin and basketball Hall of Fame member Michael Jordan began forming 23XI Racing Hamlin believed in Bubba Wallace’s capability and understood his potential long before the driver won this year’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Hamlin hired Wallace for the team’s inaugural season in 2021, but it wasn’t until mid-summer last year that he noticed a positive change in the Mobile, Alabama, native. Hamlin witnessed a transformation in Wallace’s attitude and work ethic. He says Wallace’s peaks and valleys were shallower, his valleys weren’t as low as in previous years.
“It seemed like on the bad days he was able to compartmentalize that and then think about the positives versus everything sucks all the time. That’s a tough way to live,” says Hamlin, who drove his backup Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to a third-place finish in this year’s Brickyard 400.
“We’re in a business where if you can win 5 percent of the time, you’re a Hall of Famer. You’re going to lose. This is a losing business, and you have to find happiness in some other way other than actually winning. (Former JGR crew chief) Mike Ford told me that early in my career, and that was the best advice I’ve ever been given. It’s something that certainly needed to be told to Bubba that you’ve got to find these little goals that you feel good about because it’s tough out there. It’s up to you to put in the work and it’s up to you to want it and then let your abilities go from there. It just seems over the last 12 months the performance is definitely better.”
Wallace’s third-career victory snapped a 100-race winless streak and made him the first Black driver to win a major race on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s oval. Not only was it Wallace’s first victory in one of NASCAR’s four Crown Jewel races, but it was also the inaugural win for first-year crew chief and army veteran Charles Denike.
Wallace said this year started “way different than any other year.”
“The biggest thing that gets lost is believing in self,” Wallace says. “We’re all human and we’re all super hard on ourselves. You guys know how hard I am on myself.”
In Sunday’s race in the closing laps, Wallace kept telling himself he knew he could do it, while at the same time knowing that he might not have enough fuel in his Toyota to get him to the checkered flag.
“It was kind of the angel and devil on your shoulder,” Wallace says.
“That all went away on the restarts because it was time to really focus and get the job done.”
Wallace notes that putting family first makes everything easier.
“It gives you something to kind of focus on,” Wallace says. “The racing stuff is kind of secondary now, and you have to go through a mental shift to say that, especially for me.
“I remember when Amanda and I first started dating. I was like, ‘Hey, racing is everything, right?’ I knew I made a mistake saying that. It took me all these years to realize this isn’t always going to be here. So, I think it’s better to enjoy the moments like this, but nothing can overcome the joy, the times that you have with your family at home in a private setting. Then you just happen to be a race car driver on Sundays. I’m enjoying life.”
Comments