Jeff Gluck

USA TODAY Sports

Our series of weekly NASCAR driver interviews continues with Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr., who is currently ninth in the Xfinity Series standings for Roush Fenway Racing.

Q: What is an errand or chore in your daily life people might be surprised to learn you do yourself?

A: I have a cleaning lady, so I don’t do much. (Laughs)

Does that include laundry?

I do laundry, but my bags from the last race will sit there until the very last minute that I have to do laundry again.

Q: If you could do any race over again, which race would you choose?

A: Maybe Auto Club last year — we were running second, right behind (eventual winner Kevin) Harvick. I barely hit the wall, but that killed us. Finished 12th.

Or the Truck race at Kentucky in 2013, I spun out with Ryan (Blaney) and destroyed it — and we were the fastest truck. Or Texas in 2014 — we were faster than Kyle (Busch) on a restart and was trying to pass him and — KABOOM! — it blew up.

Q: The longest Cup race of the year is 600 miles. How long of a race could you physically handle without a driver change?

A: I don’t know how far I could make it. I know I could do the Cup race for sure. I think a lot of people could go 1,000 miles.

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Q: Let’s say president of NASCAR was an elected position voted on by the drivers — and you decided to run. What would one of your campaign promises be?

A: Better scheduling on a race weekend. Just how the weekends are mapped out, there’s a lot of sit-around-and-wait time. So I’d work on that.

Q: At the start of this year, exactly 1,160 drivers had ever raced in the Xfinity Series. Where do you rank among those 1,160?

A: That’s tough. Behind all the ones that have a win — somewhere in that area. Maybe the better side of that portion of the non-winning drivers.

So you wouldn’t put yourself above a single driver who has won an Xfinity race?

Nope.

Q: What do you think your reputation is — and is that reputation accurate?

A: Who knows? (Laughs) Hell, some people think I’m a punk kid. I get respect from others. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what other people think. You’re out there running your own race and you want to run everybody as clean as possible.

I am sarcastic, so maybe some people think I’m a (jerk). But I try to be friendly to everybody.

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Q: A famous chef wants you to invest in the new restaurant he’s opening, but he wants you to pick the cuisine. What type of food would your restaurant serve?

A: I’d go with Japanese food.

Like a sushi restaurant or a hibachi-type place?

Sushi and hibachi, man. You’d have the sushi bar up front and the hibachi in the back.

“Bubba’s Japanese Restaurant.” Sounds good.

Exactly.

Q: What is the most daring thing you’ve done outside of racing?

A: Nothing too extreme. I’ve done the Stratosphere stuff in Vegas, but I haven’t skydived or anything like that.

Q: In a move to generate more excitement, NASCAR decides in an upcoming race it's going to require every driver to have a passenger in the car. You get to pick the passenger. Who do you choose?

A: Kevin Hart.

For entertainment purposes?

Yeah. I’d give him a radio and then I’d scare the hell out of him. (Laughs)

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Q: How often do you talk inside the car without hitting the radio button?

A: A lot. I’d say 75% of the time. Either singing, pissed off about something, just talking. On the radio usually we’ll either crack jokes or we’ll be pissed off at each other.

Q: Who will win the Sprint Cup in 2021?

A: Who will win the Cup? Me. Although the way Chase (Elliott) is running, he’ll probably win it. Heck, he’ll probably win it this year. Dude is fast.

Q: I’ve been asking each driver to give me a question for the next interview. Last week was Kevin Harvick, and he wanted to know if you’re afraid of the dark.

A: Yup!

Did he already know the answer and it was an inside joke?

No, he doesn’t know that. But I am. Like at night, I’ll play Xbox until like 2. I’ll have my two lamps on in the living room and there’s a light in the kitchen. Well once I turn out all those lights, there are no lights on in the house until my bedroom lamp, all the way at the end of the hallway.

So I turn my stair light on, then go turn off my lamps, walk up to the top of the stairs, turn the hallway light on, turn the stair lights off, walk to the bedroom and turn the hallway light off. (Laughs) I watch too many scary movies.

And you don't like spiders either, right?

Oh, well there’s no contest there. Spiders are here (holds hand up high) and the dark is here (puts hand down by his knees).

And do you have a question for the next interview? I don’t know who it is yet.

Get back to me when you find out and I’ll come up with something.