Tommy Baldwin, Freddie Kraft share nickname for Bubba Wallace

Tommy Baldwin has a nickname for Bubba Wallace and alongside Freddie Kraft, Wallace’s spotter, revealed it on Monday’s “Door Bumper Clear.”

Baldwin said he often refers to Wallace as Emerson Fittipaldi, the two-time Formula One champion. Wallace notably took home the Stage 1 victory in Sunday’s race at COTA, reminding Baldwin of why he has that nickname for Wallace.

“Emerson Fittipaldi — I couldn’t believe it,” Baldwin said. “I think it was Corey LaJoie… we spent the race together analyzing all the data and working on everything. He was like, ‘How about Bubba?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know where he came from, but I’m sure Emerson’s coming back some part of this race and there he was.”

Bubba Wallace better in fifth start at COTA

While Wallace ultimately placed 20th, it was still a step forward for a driver who had finished 37th or worse in three of his four starts at COTA. He picked up 30 points and a valuable playoff point. But Wallace’s run still included some mistakes that kept him and his team from having a better day, Kraft said.

“He put a lot of effort in, and he was pretty good last year. Tyler Reddick helped him a lot obviously, coming over there and just being somebody that you can gauge yourself against. It worked out in qualifying. I thought it was funny watching back the top of the TV broadcast of the qualifying laps and we’re following Reddick and he kind of blows Turn 1 a little bit and we get a little closer than we wanted to. [Kevin] Harvick is like, ‘Look at this guy, Bubba’s trying to follow him but now Tyler’s making too many mistakes and at this point, he’s hurting Bubba, and this is not gonna be what they planned on.’ Then they cross the line and oh, shit, they’re first and second.

“But our race went really well. We planned on getting stage points in that first stage. He obviously made a mistake and got a course cutting penalty running second. It only dropped us back to about eighth or ninth and we cycled back to the lead, won the stage. We were in position where we pitted on that last yellow, put tires on, we were 20th or 21st. And I think we probably easily would have drove to the top 10.

“Unfortunately, he hit the damn choose cone which I don’t know how the f*** that happens. He couldn’t see it I guess with the glare, then just kind of compounded with some mistakes and got behind, spun out on the last lap. Still a good day for us. 30 points, I think we had top 10 points throughout the day, so a good day for us. But it could have been a lot better for sure.”