The Wide World of Dirt

Bubba Wallace announced last Thursday that he will not be returning for a fourth season in Richard Petty Motorsports’ famed 43 car in 2021.

Some thought that after Wallace had a career year this season that he would stick with Petty to make them competitively viable in the near future.

Instead, the lone black driver in NASCAR’s top division hits the free agent market with a number of sponsors in his pocket and a number of rides at his choosing.

Here is a look at Wallace’s best options going into the 2021 season:

1: Hendrick Motorsports

In July, Fox Sports reporter Bob Pockrass tweeted that Wallace was one of a few drivers on the shortlist to take over 7-time champion Jimmie Johnson’s hallowed ride at season’s end.

Outside of most popular driver Chase Elliott, the Hendrick camp is averaging close to a 16th-place finish among its three other drivers: Alex Bowman, William Byron, and Jimmie Johnson.

With Wallace, in vastly inferior equipment to those three, only running four spots behind them on average, it isn’t difficult to see that bringing a talent like him into the organization can only lift them up.

Having said that, Rick Hendrick prefers clean-cut drivers who act and talk a certain way, and Bubba Wallace is going to be Bubba. Rick needs to let Bubba be himself in order for that partnership to work.

In addition, adding a fourth driver under the age of 27 might cause competition problems as all four drivers strive to establish themselves among the elite of the Cup Series. With no guiding veteran presence, issues could easily arise among them due to lack of experience.

2: Chip Ganassi Racing

This option is high on many people’s wishlist for a number of reasons. Jimmie Johnson just announced a partnership with Chip Ganassi’s IndyCar team with there being some speculation that he will be running select Cup dates next year for CGR as well.

The main reason is the poetic justice that would be served. Imagine: The series’ lone black driver stepping into a ride that was left vacant because its driver used the N-word and was subsequently fired. The hypothetical scenario alone makes David Duke’s head spin around like in Poltergeist.

Ganassi has fielded a good two-car team this year, with Kurt Busch solidly in the playoffs on points and Matt Kenseth showing glimpses of his glory days on occasion.

One has to wonder, though, if Wallace and Busch will succeed as teammates. Not only that, would a third Johnson team become a distraction? Would Wallace have to give up some of his personal sponsors to satisfy Chip’s team sponsors? Those are concerning questions to me.

3: Untitled Denny Hamlin Project

Reserve your opinions on Hamlin for someone that cares. Hamlin stated recently that he has been looking for ways to extend his involvement in the sport after his retirement.

With Wallace’s rise through the NASCAR ranks starting in Toyota Racing Development, a reconnection between the two could be just as fruitful as Wallace’s 2014 Truck Series campaign.

The main sticking point in all of this is the uncertainty. First, Hamlin was buying a stake in RPM. Then, he was buying Germain Racing. Now, he’s supposedly involved in a deal with Gaunt Bros.

No matter what team Hamlin pours his money into, who’s to say that the team will be competitive right away? I would think Wallace wants to be in a competitive ride at this point in his career.

As much as I would like this deal to go down in some way, there are a LOT of moving parts here that need to be put into place before next season, and it’s the middle of September. If something is going to get thrown together, it needs to happen much sooner rather than later.

4: Richard Childress Racing

I saw something on Twitter recently that said Daniel Suarez might have been putting a deal together last year to be in a third RCR car this season before signing with Gaunt Bros.

So, why not Bubba?

He’s got the sponsor support necessary, and he has been racing their engines longer than anyone else that is out on the market right now (except for Daniel Hemric, I guess.)

At the end of the day, I worry about this move the most because Pop Pop has already tried to silence Tyler Reddick for expressing his support of Bubba and disdain for the current president.

If he’s already got these hang-ups with Reddick, then it will only get worse with Bubba coming into the fold. It’s the same problems I have with the Hendrick situation, except more extreme and with worse equipment.

Final Thoughts

Bubba Wallace is a talented race car. I think he wins a race or two next year if he is given better equipment, and with the amount of sponsor money he has, the equipment he is in will be better.

Ideally, Bubba brings Gary Baxter with him wherever he goes because it’s clear those two have a dynamic chemistry, a chemistry that led them to wins in years past.

Wallace has proven this season that he is a skilled superspeedway driver, a great short track driver, and if the equipment is there, a good speedway racer. He just needs his cars to not fall out from beneath him in the process, and a team that believes in him as much as RPM did.