Wallace is about to enter his seventh full-time season at the top level of NASCAR. In 2023, he went winless but made the playoffs for the first time, ending the year tenth in the championship standings.
However, Wallace, who has been very open about his personal struggles, revealed that he fell into a depression following the championship-decider. In an Instagram post after the Phoenix finale, the 30-year-old racer said he was “sitting here on the couch questioning everything and I have no idea why” at 3:42am. He described having “little to no emotion” after climbing out of the car, but ended the post with a hopeful message: “To my peeps out there starting at a blank wall, I’m with you. Tomorrow is another day. Another opportunity. Keep after it. ‘We gon be alright.'”
Wallace’s dramatic playoff run was on full display during Netflix’s new NASCAR docuseries, showcasing the roller coaster of emotions he and the 23XI Racing team went through before being eliminated in the Round of 12.
Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing, McDonald’s Toyota Camry
Photo by: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Images
But Wallace is in a much better place ahead of the 2024 season. “I’m really good,” he explained during Daytona 500 Media Day on Wednesday. “The best I’ve felt mentally. Physically I feel about the same. I’m lazy. I’m a bum (laughing). I need to go and work out. My wife [Amanda] tells me that, and lose a couple of pounds, but mentally, I have more appreciation. I have the confidence, and the awareness of where I’m at in the sport and having just a new appreciation or a different appreciation, just a different mindset going into this year, racing for something totally different. I feel good about it.
“Get through these first two weeks – Daytona and Atlanta – they are just about survival, and then showcase that you can run up front and get pushed, and be a pusher and all of that. I think you really start at Vegas. Good mile-and-a-half for us. There is a reason that Jimmie [Johnson] jumped into a Toyota and made all of his schedule mile-and-a-halves. Toyota is really good at mile-and-a-halves.”
Wallace joked that the positive headspace he’s now in is thanks to crew chief Bootie Barker’s bourbon collection (featured in the Netflix docuseries), before adding: “No, turning 30, celebrating my one-year wedding anniversary, celebrating life, just having fun with life, letting the little stuff go, focus on the big stuff. I find…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Motorsport.com – NASCAR – Stories…