After sitting idle for most of the NASCAR season, Darrell Wallace Jr. will compete full-time for Richard Petty Motorsports in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, the team announced Wednesday.
Wallace, 24, succeeds Aric Almirola in the iconic No. 43 ride after making four Cup start in his place earlier this year when Almirola suffered a fractured vertebra in a crash at Kansas Speedway in May.
Almirola now likely bound for Stewart-Haas Racing next season has driven for Richard “The King” Petty since 2012.
“This is pretty special,” said Wallace. “I’m excited for the opportunity. “I can’t thank Richard enough and everybody at RPM for giving me this shot.
“I believe in what Richard Petty Motorsports is doing and their desire to win races. I believe this team; its partners and fans are ready to see some great things again. I’m humbled that they have chosen me to take that next step with them.
“I’m ready for next season to begin and to prove to people that we can compete at the level we all expect to be at.”
Wallace, a native of Mobile, Ala. made his Cup debut at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway and despite an array of speeding penalties, he logged laps and finished 26th. At that time, he was the first African-American driver to compete in a Cup race since Bill Lester drove for Bill Davis Racing in 2016, 11 years ago.
In the three remaining races, Wallace showed extreme improvement, earning a career-best 11th place Cup finish at Kentucky Speedway in July.
Petty who holds the NASCAR record for the most Cup career victories at 200 believed Wallace needed to be a part of the team’s program next year, especially after what he proved during this spring into early summer.
“He really impressed me,” said Petty. “First race he ran, he got caught four times for speeding down pit road. We finally got him to speed on the racetrack. So, he kept getting better for every race, wound up 11th I think the very last race. Just repaved the Kentucky track, it was completely different to everybody. He learns real quick.
“After seeing him operate with our crew chief and all the guys at the shop, with the sponsors and stuff like that, we want to have a whole new look at Richard Petty Motorsports for 2018 anyway. So, we said, let’s just look at Bubba and see if we can put him in the car. Just thought a new page in the Petty deal.
“So, it was pretty easy when it came down to saying, Okay, this is what we want to do. Me and Bubba got together, we said, Okay, this is what we’re going to do. Had to get the lawyers involved. Took us a while to get that squared away. But we always knew what we was going to do.”
Petty did not elaborate which manufacturer the team would align with for next season, “We’ll let you know later on,” he quipped.
Petty, however, did offer some insight as to how many race-team alliance options are on the table for the organization next season.
“We’re still working on really where we’re going to wind up next year,” he said. “We’ve got a couple, three options. We just going to sit down with Bubba and the crew chief, our sponsors and stuff, say, Okay, where do we think our best move is?
“What do we need to do? When it does come to be, we’ll let everybody know about it.”
Wallace’s Cup opportunity arrived after his three-year tenure at Roush Fenway Racing came to an abrupt halt after 79 NASCAR XFINITY Series starts aboard the No. 6 Ford. At the time, the NASCAR Next alumnus sat fourth in the driver championship standings.
Though unable to earn a victory in NASCAR’s second-tier national series, he did earn two poles, six top-five and 35 top-10 finishes in 85 starts since 2012.
The Alabamian is a graduate of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program. After three seasons competing in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East for Rev Racing, Wallace moved to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2013 where during two full-time seasons he earned five victories in 44 starts.
His first career Truck Series at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in Oct. 2013 was the first triumph by an African-American driver in any of NASCAR’s national series since NASCAR Hall of Famer Wendell Scott scored his lone Cup victory in 1963. Scott lasted compete on the tour full-time in 1971, earning four top-10 finishes in 37 races at 49 years old.
In addition to Cup and XFINITY Series competition this year, Wallace returned to Trucks in a one-race deal with MDM Motorsports, where he won the race after leading the final 11 laps at Michigan International Speedway. He qualified ninth. The truck failed post-race inspection, but Wallace kept his sixth career victory intact.
Wallace doesn’t have any current plans to compete in any of the remaining races across all three of NASCAR’s national series, “Bubba” as he’s known to fans wouldn’t rule out a Truck race in the season finale at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway on Nov. 17.
“I’m still working on that, figure out the details on that, just to keep the seat warm for me, go out there and hopefully get us another win,” Wallace sounded.
While Drew Blickensderfer will lead the team as crew chief for 2018, RPM says additional announcements including sponsorship is forthcoming.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
Welcome to the team, @BubbaWallace. #NASCAR #R43KIE pic.twitter.com/99RngthsL8
— RPMotorsports (@RPMotorsports) October 25, 2017
