Darrell Wallace Jr. sits in his car during practice for the Denny Hamlin Showdown.
At the ripe old age of 19, Darrell Wallace Jr. a/k/a "Bubba" is one of a handful of young guns - or maybe just young 'uns - who form the most promising class of new blood in NASCAR in a long, long time.
With four of 22 races down in his rookie season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season, Wallace is eighth in points and has run well in his No. 54 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota Tundra. Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Wallace will go for his first Truck Series victory in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200.
And while he's comfortable busting off laps of 180 miles per hour at the track, on the street his main ride is a whole lot slower, but every bit as cool as his race vehicle.
Darrell Wallace's 1967 Volkswagen Beetle
That's because Bubba is the proud owner of a very trick, black-over-red 1967 Volkswagen Beetle. Wallace credits fellow racer Marc Davis with turning him onto the joys of Beetlemania.
"He (Davis) had one and had it pretty much slammed to the ground," said Wallace. "It looked pretty cool and I was like, 'Man I want to get one.'"
And get one he indeed did.
"I found this one three hours from here in Asheville (N.C.)," said Wallace. "And it was pretty cheap. So I went out a few days after I saw it and went and got it."
Wallace admits some of his peers didn't get it at first.
"I love it," he says. "A lot of the young guys, they're like, 'What the heck?' But now it's kind of grown on them."
