Wallace is ready to make history at Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Richard Petty rarely visits pit road after a race anymore and usually with good reason. The Hall of Fame driver’s eponymous race team has toiled for decades in mediocrity, with checkered flags all but extinct.
Bubba at Daytona changed the game. Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. had driven the iconic No. 43 car to a thirdplace finish in a Daytona 500 qualifying race, setting off a celebration for Richard Petty Motorsports almost worthy of winning NASCAR’s marquee race itself.
The King strolled to the pits and hugged Wallace. The 80-year-old Petty wrapped his arm around Wallace, and they walked off smiling toward what each side hoped was the start of a fruitful alliance.
“I just had a guard walk me from pit road to the media center. His name is Richard Petty. I’ve never seen him so excited in my life,” Wallace said.
That Wallace can energize Petty may symbolize as much a true passing of the torch as NASCAR could want: Petty and his deep kinship with old-school fans and the 24-year-old Wallace, a video game playing, social media darling about to make history as the first black driver since 1969 in the Daytona 500.
Busting down racial barriers in a sport long reserved for whites is heavy stuff for Wallace, and he’s keenly aware all eyes are on him. The rookie invites glare from his fans and haters, starring in his own eight-episode docu-series “Behind the Wall: Bubba Wallace,” on the Facebook Watch show page.
Wallace, the son of a white father and black mother, has talked openly of becoming the Tiger Woods of NASCAR — a black star who can transcend the sport and prove people of all colors can race and flourish in corporate America.
“There’s a lot of stuff that’s riding on this weekend. I know it. I pay attention to it,” Wallace said. “I follow a lot of people on social media, and it’s being put out there. But I’m doing my best at managing it, keeping it behind me.”
Wallace is one of at least eight black drivers in NASCAR’s 70-year history who reached the Cup level: Elias Bowie, Charlie Scott, George Wiltshire, Randy Bethea, Willy T. Ribbs and Bill Lester. Wendell Scott, who made the last start for a black driver in the Daytona 500, is the only one to win a Cup race, on Dec. 1, 1963. The next win at a NASCAR national event by a black driver came in 2013, when Wallace took the Truck Series checkered flag at Martinsville.
Xfinity Series: Tyler Reddick needed five overtimes, a brief red flag and the closest finish in NASCAR history to take Dale Earnhardt Jr. to victory lane.
Reddick won the season-opening PowerShares QQQ 300 by beating JR Motorsports teammate Elliott Sadler in a photo finish. The margin of victory was 0.000 of a second, breaking the mark set by Butch Miller when he beat Mike Skinner by 0.001 to win the Truck Series race July 15, 1995 at Colorado National Speedway.
The victory came in Reddick’s debut race for JR Motorsports, the team in part owned by Earnhardt Jr. This is Earnhardt’s first season in retirement from full-time racing and his presence at the race track is still strong through his team.