Bubba Wallace highlights All-Star Race's $1 million prize money as a crucial career incentive

Bubba Wallace opened up about the prestigious NASCAR All-Star Race and revealed its importance as a crucial career incentive. Wallace, the 23XI Racing driver, has not qualified for the main race on Sunday, May 18, as he has to go through the Open race to qualify for the All-Star Race event.

Every year, NASCAR hosts a non-championship Cup Series race at North Wilkesboro Speedway (the go-to track for the last couple of years) where race winners in the past and ongoing season participate for $1 million glory.

The winner of the All-Star race gets $1 million and can participate in the race for the next 10 years. This is something Wallace holds important going forward in NASCAR when it comes to a non-championship race like this.

“You’re putting on a show for the fans,” Wallace said (via Charlotte Observer). "Even if it’s $1 million, for those guys, $1 million to NFL players is nothing. But for us, it’s another race. It doesn’t matter if we’re at Martinsville, North Wilkesboro, Daytona, where the speeds can vary. We still give it our all.”

“We always have that ‘give it your all’ factor,” Wallace added. “It’s the same thing we do every weekend. You just so happen to take points away, it’s not like we lay over. We’re still racing. We want to win $1 million. You win the All-Star Race, you’re locked in for the next 10 years."

Wallace did not clinch automatic qualification to the main race as the 23XI Racing driver was winless in the last couple of years. His last race win in the Cup Series came at the 2022 Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

As a result, Wallace, who finished the last two All-Star races in second and sixth place, will start Sunday's All-Star Open race from 14th place. Shane van Gisbergen of Trackhouse Racing starts the open race from pole.

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NASCAR insider called out Bubba Wallace's team amid a stark performance decline

NASCAR Cup Series drivers Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace - Source: Imagn

Renowned NASCAR journalist and insider Jeff Gluck called out Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan's co-owned 23XI Racing amid its sharp decline in performance. The team led by Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, and Riley Herbst has failed to win a race in the 12 outings in 2025.

"23XI, they’re weird, man. They’ve fallen off," Gluck said via On3. "What’s up with that? I don’t get that at all. Reddick might’ve had the fastest car at Texas, but he just never got the track position. But then he told me at Texas, 'Oh yeah, I feel like what happens, the speed we’ll have at Texas will translate to Kansas, even though they’re different tracks,' and then they just didn’t really show anything."

23XI Racing has been winless since October last year, while Bubba Wallace is battling a three-year winless streak. New recruit Riley Herbst also failed to show enough potential to win a race.