Making It - Bubba Wallace

We hope you’ve been enjoying the new podcast series that we created with our friends over at BibRave, called Making It: an AfterShokz Podcast Series by BibRave. Throughout this five-part series, we are exploring what it takes for athletes to “make it” to the highest levels of their sport. 

In previous episodes, we featured Jim Knous, the last PGA golfer to earn a TOUR card in 2018. We also heard from Chaz Davis, a runner who lost his sight as a teenager and is now training to represent Team USA at the 2020 Tokyo ParaOlympic Marathon.

This month, we’re talking to Bubba Wallace, driver of the #43 Chevrolet in the Monster Energy NASCAR series, and one of the few African-American NASCAR drivers in the field. He didn’t realize it at the time, but Bubba’s racing career actually began when he was just nine years old and his dad talked him into racing go-karts. Now, seventeen years later, he’s a driver in NASCAR’s most elite cup series. But Bubba’s story is not a straight line from childhood dream to success. 

In this podcast, we learn the ins and outs of the NASCAR world, how most drivers get their start, and what it takes to stay behind the wheel. Bubba shares his personal journey of how he made it to NASCAR, including the year that he almost quit driving and the frustrations he still faces when he gets on the track.

We also hear from Bubba about the obstacles that have threatened his chances at success. He talks openly about the financial insecurity, professional setbacks, and mental health struggles he has faced; but also about how his positive attitude, along with patience and dedication, helped ensure that he was in the right place at the right time when opportunities came his way.