Bubba Wallace reacts to winning Sports Emmy for Netflix docuseries

NASCAR Cup Series driver Bubba Wallace took to Twitter Tuesday to give a collective thank you after he took home the Sports Emmy for “Outstanding Documentary Series — Serialized” for his Netflix documentary series “Race: Bubba Wallace.”

A Sports Emmy winner!? Unreal. Who would’ve thought! Endlessly thankful to all the people that made this happen👇🏾 pic.twitter.com/pQ95rhepfh

— Bubba Wallace (@BubbaWallace) May 24, 2023

“Wow, wow and wow,” Wallace said. “I don’t know what to say — an Emmy winner for our Netflix doc ‘Race’ — I don’t even know where to begin. Thank you to all the fans that tuned in and watched and all the people that are new fans just because of this Netflix series. Thank you for making this happen. This all happened because of you. All the people that were involved in making this idea come to life, thank you. I was inspired by the Netflix F1 [Drive to Survive] docuseries, and we went up against it and we beat it.

“I’m speechless. An Emmy winner — never would have dreamt it. Huge shoutout to my wife — she was skeptical about just having cameras following us. We had been in this scenario before and it was super stressful, and the team we had surrounding us from the Netflix team, the production team — they turned this into a masterpiece.”

The six-episode series takes viewers behind the scenes of the 2021 NASCAR season through the eyes of the only Black driver at the top level of the sport, and explores Wallace, 23XI Racing, and NASCAR’s efforts to advocate for inclusion and equality in racing and beyond, Netflix states.

Wallace’s documentary series won out over Prime Video‘s “Coach Prime,” Netflix‘s “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” HBO‘s “Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Detroit Lions,” and Netflix‘s “Last Chance U.”

Bubba Wallace picking up momentum on the race track

Wallace, 29, is coming off a P2 finish in this past Sunday’s All-Star Race at the revived North Wilkesboro Speedway. He finished as the runner-up to Kyle Larson, who led 145-of-200 laps and pocketed the $1 million prize.

After an up-and-down start to his 2023 campaign, Wallace notched top 5s at Kansas and Darlington heading into the All-Star Race. Though the P2 result won’t help in the points standings, Wallace said he’s “excited” about where he and his team are.

“He could attack hard and have something there in the end,” Wallace said of Larson after the race. “If this was a normal race, something to be excited about – but this was for a $1 million… You come up short and walk away with nothing. Tail tucked between our legs, but all-in-all, just continue to ride the momentum train. We came up one spot short. Congrats to Larson. He’s been on a rail lately.

“Now we show up to our home turf. We have to keep the momentum rolling there and get ourselves deeper into the playoffs. I’m excited to be where we are at right now.”