Who Was Bubba Wallace’s First Sponsor?

For each NASCAR driver out there, a sponsorship is a must-have. It goes a long way to decide a driver’s future with their team. Interestingly, 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace had his dad as his primary sponsor for nearly 7 years.

In a conversation with NFL reporter Lindsay Czarniak, the Alabama native revealed that his family business was the very first company that funded his run on NASCAR circuits. And it wasn’t just for Wallace. His sister, Brittany Wallace, too was sponsored by their dad on the basketball court.

Darrell Wallace Sr. was the one who had introduced his son, Bubba Wallace, to the sport of NASCAR. Bubba Wallace’s mom, Desiree Wallace, also played a significant role in molding his career through her constant support.

Wallace credited his mom with building his family business from scratch. “We have our own family-owned business; industrial cleaning,” he said, “And that’s still going on to this day and my mom built that up from the ground and they were able to support financially my sister in the basketball courts and me at the race tracks.”

“That was a family-owned sponsor on the race cars and still about 2002-2003 to 2009,” he added. Despite going through a divorce during Bubba Wallace’s formative years, neither Darrell Wallace Sr. nor Desiree Wallace let it affect Bubba Wallace’s career in any way.

NASCAR sponsorship history of Bubba Wallace

Back in the day when Bubba Wallace was driving for Richard Petty Motorsports, he had a plethora of sponsors investing their money in Wallace’s car. One of the very firsts was the renowned mortgage loan servicing company, Click n’ Close.

Besides Click n’ Close, STP,  and Air Force announced a few races with the then-RPM driver. Other sponsors include Smithfield and the Cosmopolitan Hotel, who sponsored Bubba Wallace during his Las Vegas run in 2018.

When Wallace exited the garage of RPM to join the Jordan-Hamlin-owned team, Wheaties came up with a multi-year sponsorship for the #23 Toyota team. And that led the path for McDonald’s, perhaps his biggest sponsor to this day, to enter the arena and shake hands with Bubba Wallace.

Major brands like DoorDash, Columbia Sportswear, and Root Insurance have also served as sponsors for Wallace.