{"id":1575460,"date":"2023-07-29T15:01:54","date_gmt":"2023-07-29T19:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1575460"},"modified":"2023-07-29T15:03:39","modified_gmt":"2023-07-29T19:03:39","slug":"bubba-wallaces-spotter-freddie-kraft-miss-richmond-tragic-death-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/bubba-wallaces-spotter-freddie-kraft-miss-richmond-tragic-death-father\/","title":{"rendered":"Bubba Wallace's Longtime Spotter Freddie Kraft to Miss Richmond Following Tragic Death of Father\u00a0 \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/tag\/bubba-wallace\/\">Bubba Wallace<\/a> is well-known in NASCAR as the driver of the No. 23 <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/23xi-racing-verge-major-breakthrough\/\">23XI Racing<\/a> car. His longtime spotter Freddie Kraft has also become a personality of his own as a co-host of the popular weekly\u00a0<em>Door Bumper Clear\u00a0<\/em>podcast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sadly, the pair won't be working together this weekend at <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/most-nascar-cup-series-wins-richmond-raceway\/\">Richmond Raceway<\/a> after Kraft shared the news on social media that his father, who suffered a heart attack on Monday, tragically died Saturday morning.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-bubba-wallace-and-freddie-kraft-have-worked-together-for-a-dozen-years\">Bubba Wallace and Freddie Kraft have worked together for a dozen years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Door Bumper Clear Celebrates Bubba Wallace and Freddie\u2019s Victory at Kansas | 2022 Top 10 Moments\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9S3xQSgDwvM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For Bubba Wallace, Freddie Kraft has been there alongside him for much of his racing career, dating back to his teenage years more than a dozen years ago. Unsurprisingly, their relationship is stronger than most in the Cup Series garage.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I don't know, it's just a comfort level for him especially,&#8221; Kraft said on the <em>Racing Writer's Podcast<\/em> in 2021. &#8220;But yeah, if you listen on our radio, you can tell we\u2019ve been together for long. There's been a couple of times where either non-companion race when he was in Truck or Xfinity where I couldn't be there, or even there's a year where he had another spotter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;And he just said he wasn't comfortable, it's a trust factor. Like he kind of knows what I'm getting ready to say before I say it. I kind of know what he's ready to do before he does it.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-kraft-announces-death-of-father\">Kraft announces death of father<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Freddie Kraft&#39;s father died this morning (Kraft posted on FB a message of thanks for everyone&#39;s support this week). He will not spot for Bubba Wallace this weekend. Reddick spotter Nick Payne will do Wallace today since they are in separate groups. TBD for Sunday.<\/p>&mdash; Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bobpockrass\/status\/1685328053533032449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 29, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This weekend at Richmond will be another rare time when Wallace and Kraft won't be teaming together. That's because the veteran spotter announced on Facebook that his father, Tom, died on Saturday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kraft revealed earlier in the week that his dad, who was a multi-time champion at Riverhead Raceway in New York and a member of the track's Wall of Fame, suffered a heart attack on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;As some of you may have heard by now, my dad TK Kraft had a heart attack Monday morning,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;While prepping him for the catheterization Monday afternoon he suffered some respiratory distress and had to be intubated and sedated and moved to the CCU.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kraft provided updates throughout the week, including how his father had been moved to a different hospital. On Saturday, he delivered the tragic news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s with great sadness that we have to share our dad Tom Kraft passed away this morning,&#8221; Kraft wrote. &#8220;We know everyone would like to help any way they can. At this time we just need some time to wrap our heads around this heartbreaking news. We are thankful for all of your support throughout this long week. We will share the arrangements when they are made.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>To stay up to date on the latest happenings in NASCAR, including breaking stories you can\u2019t find anywhere else, follow Kyle on\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@BeatingandBanging\">YouTube<\/a><\/u><\/em>\u00a0<em>and\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/kdsportswriter\">Twitter<\/a><\/u><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bubba Wallace will be without longtime spotter Freddie Kraft this weekend at Richmond because his father tragically died Saturday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":1575465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[253795],"tags":[356353],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bubba Wallace&#039;s Longtime Spotter Freddie Kraft to Miss Richmond Following Tragic Death of Father\u00a0 \u00a0 - Sports7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bubba Wallace will be without longtime spotter Freddie Kraft this weekend at Richmond because his father tragically died Saturday morning.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/bubba-wallaces-spotter-freddie-kraft-miss-richmond-tragic-death-father\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bubba Wallace's Longtime Spotter Freddie Kraft to Miss Richmond Following Tragic Death of Father\u00a0 \u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bubba Wallace will be without longtime spotter Freddie Kraft this weekend at Richmond because his father tragically died Saturday morning.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/bubba-wallaces-spotter-freddie-kraft-miss-richmond-tragic-death-father\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-29T19:01:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-29T19:03:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Bubba-Wallace-3.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1334\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kyle Dalton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@kdsportswriter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kyle Dalton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/bubba-wallaces-spotter-freddie-kraft-miss-richmond-tragic-death-father\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/bubba-wallaces-spotter-freddie-kraft-miss-richmond-tragic-death-father\/\",\"name\":\"Bubba Wallace's Longtime Spotter Freddie Kraft to Miss Richmond Following Tragic Death of Father\u00a0 \u00a0 - 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