Bubba Wallace to win the Cup Series championship is the first bet placed by Greg Olsen after North Carolina legalized betting

Former NFL tight end Greg Olsen has gambled money on 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace for winning the NASCAR Cup Series championship this season.

The #23 Toyota driver accelerated through the ranks during the first two races on the 2024 Cup Series calendar. By securing a P5 finish at both the season-opener Daytona 500 and the Ambetter Health 400 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, the Alabama native showcased his superiority on the ovals.

However, the next two races- the Las Vegas Motor Speedway race and the recently concluded run at the Phoenix Raceway didn't end on a satisfactory note for Bubba Wallace. During his stint at the former track, a stuck lug nut on his left front wheel forced him to pit again and slashed his prospects of a promising outcome. The following 312-lap race at PIR saw him taking home the P16 spot.

Regardless of his current footing into the season, former NFL player Greg Olsen, believes Wallace to be a championship material who could clinch the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship. In fact, the former Carolina Panthers tight end placed a bet on the 30-year-old to do so after North Carolina State legalized online betting.

Motorsports reporter Jordan Bianchi posted a video on X (formerly Twitter), showing the former NFL star placing a $4100 bet on the two-time Cup Series race winner:

"I'm putting $4100. [It's] a really good bet and just so you know I'm not lying to you, here it is- Bubba Wallace is [the] first pick to win the Cup Series championship."

Bubba Wallace voices his disappointment with the short-track package

The previous week, several drivers were given the opportunity to test out the new short-track package designed for the Phoenix Raceway, and many expressed concerns about it being awful in traffic and not generating enough speed.

One among them is Bubba Wallace, who came forward after his practice run and criticized the indifference to the new package despite spending months in Research & Development. The 23XI Racing driver voiced his concern, saying (via Frontstretch):

"Feels like ‘23, there’s your answer…it felt like Phoenix and maybe the more I think about it now, like the tires are falling off more but it doesn’t feel any different. It feels kind of the same to me so hopefully it will fall off even more throughout the race. The grooves will widen out a little bit, we’ll see but right now it feels the same."