Bubba Wallace is the first and only full-time Black American driver to compete across all three of NASCAR’s national series—the Cup, Xfinity, and Truck. He currently races full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 23 Toyota Camry XSE for 23XI Racing.
Alongside multiple racing wins, Wallace has also faced racism throughout his career as an African-American driver. Both of his parents come from different ethnic backgrounds, and his biracial identity has often been part of the conversation around him.
Still, none of it slowed him down. He’s learned how to turn slurs into motivation—and wins.
Off the track, Wallace has found stability with his wife, Amanda, who is white. Their relationship has grown publicly and proudly, and they now share a son together.
Here’s a closer look at his growing family with college sweetheart Amanda and the biracial parents who’ve supported him from the beginning.
Who Is Bubba Wallace’s Wife, Amanda Carter?
Amanda is a former financial analyst at Bank of America. She holds a degree in finance and banking from Appalachian State University. In April 2020, she left her corporate role and has since focused on creating art.
Known for her vibrant oil paintings, she regularly shares her work on Instagram at @mandyinthestudio.
The Couple Met in High School But Didn’t Start Dating Until Years Later
Wallace and Carter first met in high school. They were in the same Spanish class—he was a sophomore, and she was a freshman.
While Wallace was immediately struck by her beauty, Carter didn’t feel the same at the time. “She thought I was nice, but not attractive,” Wallace told PEOPLE. Carter recalled, “We were in Spanish class in high school, and we sat near each other. I don’t remember first meeting, but he would always try to cheat. We were friends.”
Despite the connection, they didn’t date while in school. “It never worked out. It never hit or landed in high school,” Carter explained.
After graduation, they kept in touch here and there. Years later, they reconnected at a college football game in 2015. That meetup turned into more time together, and not long after, Wallace invited her to one of his races in Las Vegas. By 2016, they officially began dating.
They Married on New Year’s Eve 2022—One Year After Getting Engaged
Bubba proposed to his future wife, Amanda, in June 2021 while the two were in Oregon, choosing a waterfall as the backdrop.
Afterward, the racing star shared the moment on X, formerly Twitter, writing, “Why I waited so long..we will never know. The wait is over!! Here’s to forever! Forever ever!”
Exactly a year and a half later, they tied the knot on December 31, 2022. The wedding took place in Charlotte, North Carolina, with 250 guests in attendance.
Bubba opted for a custom suit designed by Stitched by Mitch, while his better half, Amanda, wore a gown by Madam Burcu.
In the same year as their wedding, Amanda was also featured in Race: Bubba Wallace, a Netflix docuseries highlighting his NASCAR career.
Wallace and Carter Welcomed Their First Child in 2024
They became parents in September 2024. Their son, Becks Hayden, was born on September 29.
The couple announced their baby’s arrival through a joint Instagram post, writing, “Amanda and I would like to introduce you to Becks Hayden! We were blessed with his presence Sunday 9/29☺️ 9 months of waiting on this little guy, he’s made it all worth it! So excited for this journey!”
Earlier that year, in April, Wallace and his life partner, Carter, revealed the pregnancy with a series of ultrasound photos on Instagram. The caption read: “Spring has sprung. Summer will be rad. Fall is the first time, we’ll be mom and dad!”
Along with their newborn, the couple also has a dog—an Australian shepherd-poodle mix named Asher, whom they adopted before becoming parents in July 2020.
Bubba Wallace’s Parents: A Racing-Loving Dad and a Hesitant Mom
He was born in Mobile, Alabama, and raised in Concord, North Carolina. His father, Darrell Wallace Sr., ran an industrial cleaning business and had a deep love for motorcycles. His mother, Desiree Wallace, worked as a social worker and had been a track athlete at the University of Tennessee.
Desiree was familiar with the racing world—she had watched NASCAR for years and shared a love for Dale Earnhardt Sr. with her husband. Her brother-in-law had also raced in Nashville, so she’d attended events and understood the sport.
Still, she struggled with the idea of her son pursuing it professionally. The risks, combined with the lack of diversity in NASCAR, made it difficult for her to fully support it at first.
“It’s not that I didn’t like the sport,” she told Blavity.com. “But I wasn’t sure if that was what I wanted for Bubba… At the end of the day, Bub was committed to it. So here we are.”
He Has a Sister Who Gave Him the Nickname “Bubba”
Wallace has an older sister named Brittany, who was five years old when he was born. It was Brittany who gave him the nickname “Bubba,” and the name stuck from day one.
Their mother, Desiree, recalled how curious he was as a child. “He was always one of those kids who was trying to figure out how things worked,” she told GQ Sports. “He had one of those kind of minds. He could put stuff together at a very early age.”
Ethnicity
Bubba was born to biracial parents—his mother, Desiree, is Black, and his father, Darrell Sr., is white. Growing up, both parents emphasized the importance of fairness and speaking up for what’s right.
“My dad was an eye-for-an-eye guy,” Wallace once said. “He was all about being fair… But for me, it was always just doing the right thing.”
How Wallace Faced Racism—And Used It to Push Forward
Growing up in Concord, North Carolina, Wallace rarely thought about race. He was biracial, and his family was multiracial, but it wasn’t a frequent topic at home.
His days were filled with racing, his sister Brittany’s basketball games, and the family business. “From the day I was born, I never had seen color,” Wallace told GQ Sports. “I had all sorts of friends growing up… I didn’t care.”
His mother, Desiree, recalled the same kind of environment. “It never was ‘I got my Black-kid friends over here, I got my white friends over there.’ It’s just everybody was friends, no matter what the color.”
But there were moments when race couldn’t be ignored—especially on the track. At 13 or 14, Wallace was once called a slur by a group of men at a Virginia speedway after a racing mistake. Desiree pulled him aside. “Those are ignorant people,” she told him. “You don’t use violence, and you don’t fight them when they say that to you. You get them back by winning.”
His parents kept repeating that message, and over time, it sank in. “Whenever I was younger, I never would understand it,” Wallace told PEOPLE. “But my parents would always just be like, ‘You know what, don’t mind that BS that’s going on over there. Let’s come back next week and beat their tails.’ And that’s what we did. We’d come back and eventually shut them up.”
He carried that lesson for years, but in 2020, the weight of it all finally came to the surface. After the killing of a young Black man named Ahmaud Arbery, a video of the incident spread online. Wallace watched it again and again—stunned and heartbroken. Just weeks later, another Black man, George Floyd, was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. That moment eventually pushed him to speak publicly.
On June 7, 2020, Wallace arrived at a pre-race event wearing a McDonald’s cap, an American flag face mask, and a shirt that read “I can’t breathe.”
The next day, he called for NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag from its events. Within 48 hours, the organization made it official. Not long after, he drove with “#BlackLivesMatter” painted on his car.
His mother, Desiree, was caught off guard by how strongly he spoke out. “I was surprised when I heard about him speaking up on racial equality at the racetrack, inclusion and all of that,” she said. “I was like, ‘My son? Are we talking about the same Bubba?’ Not that he didn’t have an opinion one way or the other, but he really didn’t, as far as I knew, because all he wanted to do was eat, sleep, drink, race. That’s it.”
