Chicago Street Race’s founding partner throws a playful jab at Bubba Wallace and his $210B sponsor over race mishap

Following the early exit of Bubba Wallace’s long-time ally, McDonald’s, at the beginning of the 2025 season, NASCAR added Arby’s as its third founding partner for the Chicago Street Circuit. The Georgia-based fast-food chain has an existing partnership with Cody Ware (driver of the No. 51) and Rick Ware Racing.

NASCAR had been looking for a new founding partner for the iconic street race since parting ways with Wallace’s $210 billion sponsor. Although it’s not clear exactly how much Arby’s is paying NASCAR for the deal, reports suggest that NASCAR was hoping to raise around $2 million a year when the event was first introduced.

Arby’s lodged a playful jab at Bubba Wallace and his sponsor following the driver’s disappointing P28 finish in Sunday’s 75-lap feature. Posting a picture of Wallace’s No. 23 car, stalled after a contact with Alex Bowman on Lap 70, Arby’s on X wrote,

“He had to do a McDoubleTake.”

Bubba Wallace is one of the drivers still chasing their maiden win of 2025. 19 races in, the Alabama native amassed three top fives and six top-10s. He sits 13th in the driver standings with 443 points to his name.

Alex Bowman, however, was able to salvage a P8, marking his 10th top-10 this year. Given that his finishing position was higher than that of Bubba Wallace, the Hendrick Motorsports ace will advance into the next round of NASCAR’s In-Season Tournament. Wallace will no longer be able to compete for the coveted million-dollar prize.

Next up for the drivers is the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. Scheduled for Sunday, July 13, the 110-lap race will be televised on TNT Sports (3:30 pm ET onwards), with radio updates on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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Bubba Wallace was happy with his efforts despite contacts with Alex Bowman and his HMS teammate

Alex Bowman was not the only driver that Bubba Wallace went up against during Sunday’s Grant Park 165. On Lap 25, the Toyota icon made contact with Kyle Larson, a former Cup Series champion and wheelman of the No. 5 Chevy Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports.

Despite starting the race 28th, Wallace was running 18th by the end of Stage 1. But the contact with Larson sent him spinning.

That being said, Wallace was happy with his run all day. He said in a release (via NASCAR),

“I’m just proud of the effort. You know, late call on the 5 that got us spun. Hated that. Just when you think everything’s going OK, but we were able to jump ship and switch up plans, put us right back in the race. So man, I was passing cars, having fun, showing that we keep improving and keep building confidence.”

“We’ll be fine. So hate to see it end that way. It was fun,” he added.

As things stand, Bubba Wallace has to win a race to make the playoffs. And he has just seven weeks to do that.