NASCAR: Why an old Bubba Wallace tweet has resurfaced

Thanks to a 2014 tweet, NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace was selected as one of 12 celebrities who effectively “tweeted their dreams into existence”.

Earlier this week, Twitter launched its biggest celebrity/athlete campaign yet, highlighting success stories from a dozen celebrities, including a number of athletes, who manifested their dreams and effectively “tweeted their dreams into existence”. Among those athletes is NASCAR Cup Series driver Bubba Wallace.

The Mobile, Alabama native tweeted in 2014 that he dreamed of racing in the Nationwide Series (now Xfinity Series) “a few times” during the year.

Wallace, who had competed in four races in the series for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2012, competed full-time in the Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2013 and 2014.

He did end up getting the opportunity to compete in two more Xfinity Series races for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2014.

And it didn’t stop there.

Wallace landed a full-time ride in the series with Roush Fenway Racing in 2015 and 2016. He started off driving full-time for the team again in 2017, but his #6 team folded 12 races into the year shortly after it was announced that he would be making his Cup Series debut with Richard Petty Motorsports as the replacement for the injured Aric Almirola.

Wallace competed in four races as Almirola’s replacement. When it was announced that Almirola would be replacing Danica Patrick at Stewart-Haas Racing in 2018, Wallace was confirmed as Richard Petty Motorsports’ full-time driver. He stayed with the team through 2020 before signing with the Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan-owned 23XI Racing team for 2021.

In 2021, Wallace earned his first career Cup Series victory in a rain-shortened race at Talladega Superspeedway, and he is set to return as the driver of the #23 Toyota for a second season in 2022.

Among the other celebrities selected for this campaign were two Super Bowl champions in Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Leonard Fournette.

Seven years after this February 2013 tweet, Mahomes led the Chiefs to a victory in Super Bowl LIV against the San Francisco 49ers after overcoming a 10-point fourth quarter deficit. The 31-20 victory was the Chiefs’ first Super Bowl win in 50 years.

One year later, Fournette tweeted out something similar. And one year after Mahomes hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, Fournette himself became a Super Bowl champion. The Buccaneers won Super Bowl LV over the Chiefs by a score of 31-9.

https://twitter.com/_fournette/status/430131279364128768

The other nine celebrities chose include Diamond DeShields, Michaela Onyenwere, Megan Thee Stallion, Simu Liu, Issa Rae, Niall Horan, Demi Lovato, Steve Saylor, and Matthew Cherry.

As a part of this campaign, Twitter is honoring these 12 celebrities with nearly $1 million in charitable donations as well as more than three dozen billboards across eight cities to encourage others to manifest their dreams.

Some of the charities, which were chosen by the stars themselves, include Boys and Girls Club, Destination Crenshaw, The 3-D Foundation, and UNICEF Canada.

Wallace tweeted about his billboard, which is located in Los Angeles, California.

Tweets about manifestation are at an all-time high, with nearly 60 million over the last three years, and it’s not hard to see why. Fans, athletes, coaches and many others have been manifesting their dreams on Twitter in high volume in the hopes of becoming the next Wallace, Mahomes, or Fournette in terms of their own personal goals. More than 10,000 tweets have included #tweetitintoexistence OR #tweetintoexistence since the campaign launched.