The beer can came hurtling out of the stands as Bubba Wallace was about to start the final lap of his double overtime win in Sunday’s Brickyard 400, a reminder that, at its roots, NASCAR is still a southern sport and that old prejudices, while they are dying, die hard.
Wallace is NASCAR’s only Black driver at the Cup level. He doesn’t have it nearly as hard as Wendell Scott did when he became the first African-American to compete in NASCAR’s top series in the ’60s, but he is more outspoken, more visible and more competitive than Scott and so more of an irritant to the racist minority that still lingers on the fringes.
The most notable incident involving Wallace occurred at Talladega in 2020, when the pull rope on his garage door was found shaped like a noose. It caused a huge furor at the time, and in a strong show of support, all the NASCAR Cup drivers escorted Wallace’s car to its position on the grid before the start of the race.
It was later determined that the rope had been that way for more than a year, probably to make it more easy to grab when opening and closing the door, and that there was no way anyone could have known before hand what garage stall Wallace and this team would occupy.
Still, NASCAR had just banned the confederate flag from being flown at its events, and Wallace had been vocal about that.
“It’s sports, right?” Wallace commented after his Brickyard win according to NASCAR.com’s website. “You’re going to have people booing, people cheering. I had a guy call me a punk…It’s sports. Some different than others, but I definitely heard the cheers and I appreciated that.
“I know there’s a lot of Bubba Wallace fans out there and a lot of support,” Wallace continued. “They try to combat the naysayers and all of this stuff…It is what it is, but I do really appreciate the support.
“As a guy who used to struggle with the boos for sure, I’m just wondering why. Now I understand it’s just sports and people are going to have the drivers they like, the drivers they hate, the driver they want to see win, the drivers they want to see crash, and we just go out and compete.
“I will say I didn’t hear any noise (booing) today before the race. That was different. That was cool,” Wallace added.
Now in his eighth fulltime year in Cup, Wallace drives for Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s 23XI Toyota team. It has high profile owners and a working relationship with Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota’s flagship Cup entry, and there is pressure to win, especially after Tyler Reddick came on board, and before he won the Brickyard, Wallace had gone 100 races without seeing a checkered flag.
Reddick, one of the top young talents in the sport, has eight cup victories including five for 23XI and has generally been much more competitive than Wallace in the new NextGen car, although both drivers and the team have struggled mightily this season.
“When I hired Bubba, and certainly when we first started out, I believed in his capability. Not necessarily the results he had shown, but I understood his potential,” Hamlin said according to NASCAR.com.
Still, Hamlin remarked, he wasn’t sure how badly Wallace wanted to succeed, how much effort the was willing to put out. “I think, when we started the second team with Kurt (Busch), that pushed him a little bit. Then when we brought in Tyler Reddick (who replaced Busch), that pushed him a little bit more,” Hamlin said.
“I think he understands that this is a performance-based business,” Hamlin went on. “Michael and I want to win. We’re not out here to see cars going around in circles.
“We put a lot of resources into doing that (winning),” Hamlin said. “He’s (Wallace) felt pressure. I think he’s felt pressure not only from me and Michael but everyone. You want to perform better than your teammates.
“We’re going to give you everything we can for you to go out there and compete,” Hamlin said. “I’m going to give you the same car I’ve got week in and week out, but it’s up to you to put in the work and up to you to want it, and then let your ability take over from there.”
It seems like, at least in Hamlin’s mind, Wallace hasn’t always fully understood that, and maybe getting married and becoming a father last year has been a wake-up call.
“Something happened mid last year where I saw a change in attitude that then changed his work ethic,” Hamlin said of Wallace. “What I’m hoping he takes from this (the Brickyard win) is that hard work pays off, it really does pay off. “Hopefully,” Hamlin added, “we see more of this.”
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Iowa: 1-Denny Hamlin, 2-Kyle Larson, 3-Christopher Bell. Last year’s winner at Iowa: Ryan Blaney. Top Five at Iowa last year: 1-Blaney, 2-William Byron, 3-Chase Elliott, 4-Bell, 5-Ricky Stenhouse.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport Indy picks: 1-Blaney, 2-Hamlin, 3-Chase Briscoe. Indy winner: Bubba Wallace. OGS record after 18 races: 9-8.
OGS competition index top 10 after 18 races: 1-Hamlin 470 points, 2-Larson 365, 3-Bell 286, 4-Briscoe 266, 5-Byron 237, 6-Shane van Gisbergen 224, 7-Blaney 217, 8-Wallace 149, 9-Elliott 147, 10-Ty Gibbs 122.
OGS competition index top 10 on short tracks (tracks most like Iowa): 1-Hamlin 211 points, 2-Larson 135, 3-Bell 110, 4-Briscoe 62, 5-Elliott 50, 6-Gibbs 40, 7-Alex Bowman 34, 8-Wallace 30, 9-Josh Berry 24, 10=Blaney 15.