NASCAR: Bubba Wallace talks ‘unfair advantage’ over other drivers

NASCAR Cup Series driver Bubba Wallace recently discussed the importance of sleep and his partnership with Chilisleep and their resident sleep guru Tara Youngblood.

23XI Racing NASCAR Cup Series driver Bubba Wallace recently discussed his partnership with Chilisleep and their resident sleep guru Tara Youngblood.

Being a professional race car driver, Wallace knows that quick reflexes and mental toughness are just two of the many things that are needed to have success behind the wheel of his #23 Toyota, and the simplest yet most important way for him to achieve those things is by getting a good night’s sleep.

The 27-year-old Mobile, Alabama native prides himself on figuring out the best ways to maximize his opportunities to get the very best night of sleep possible, and he recently spoke with us about what he believes is an “unfair advantage” over other drivers: the OOLER sleep system, which is available to anybody and trusted by many, including the roster of the MLB’s Cincinnati Reds.

We caught up with Wallace and discussed some of the things he has learned and done differently through this partnership to create the perfect atmosphere for the best night’s rest.

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“Being able to get an OOLER sleep system!” he told Beyond the Flag when asked about one of the top advantages of this partnership. “Controlling how hot my body temperature gets when I’m in a deep sleep has been the biggest thing. I’m a hot-natured person. I sweat, I’m sweating now talking to you; just a hot-natured body.

“So being able to figure out what my temperature setting is, which is right around 68 to 70, is good. It keeps me cool. I don’t have to worry about waking up in the middle of the night because I’m sweaty and icky.”

But it goes beyond comfort in the middle of the night, especially considering the conditions in which he must operate as a professional NASCAR driver.

“Getting a good night’s rest, that’s super important, especially before races, to make sure I’m mentally and physically ready to go and compete,” he said. “And it’s also a good recovery tool as well after races. You’re mentally and physically drained after the race — long hard day at the track. Get home, turn the OOLER on and pass out like a baby. So it’s been really nice to be able to be partnered up with them and learn about really how important sleep is.”

While the system is designed to create the best external sleep environment possible, that can, in turn, make it a lot easier to get to sleep when there are other things on your mind that may make it a bit more difficult.

“I think for me it’s just, my mind’s always racing, figuring out how to shut your mind off,” he explained. “It’s easy for me to kind of control things, and when it’s time to go to bed, it’s like, ‘Okay, shut the lights off, put your phone away, turn your OOLER system on, and then close your eyes and go to bed.’ And usually once you feel the cold temperature, like up to 68 to 70, turn on, then it’s like, ‘Alright, I feel good, I feel like I’ll be able to go to sleep.’ Then you wake up and you do that process again when it’s time to go to bed again the next day.”

Wallace was quick to note that he would never blame a poor performance on a bad night’s sleep, even before the partnership, but he knows that the importance of a good night’s rest cannot be stressed enough, especially with a sleep schedule that isn’t always consistent — and that goes for anybody.

“I don’t know; I think there are a lot more variables to a bad race when you get a bad night’s sleep,” he said. “So I don’t ever place the blame on a bad night’s sleep! Mine [sleep schedule] gets changed up a lot, just from busy schedules, but it’s just kind of how you manage it, how you manage your day. Me, if I have a chance to take a nap, I’m going to capitalize. But if I get a good night’s rest, then say you don’t need a nap and you kind of get more stuff done throughout the day. So it’s just kind of up to the person how they manage their sleep and their time.”