The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bubba Wallace deserves spot in NASCAR All-Star race today
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bubba Wallace deserves a spot in NASCAR’s All-Star race, a $1 million exhibition designed for race winners and previous champions of the event. Wallace doesn’t qualify under those conditions, though he has four chances to make the 20-driver field tonight at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee.
There are 22 drivers entered in the “open” event in which the winners of each of the three stages earn an automatic berth into the show. The fourth slot goes to the winner of a fan vote, and Wallace was leading that poll when results were last updated a week ago. Voting closed Tuesday.
Plenty will argue that an allstar race is for the very best in the sport and Wallace needs to earn his way in on the track. He and his Richard Petty Motorsports team will certainly try that route but the competition is steep: Aric Almirola, Clint Bowyer, Chris Buescher, Austin Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — all previous race winners driving for larger teams than RPM — are among those Wallace must beat for an automatic berth.
That doesn’t mean Wallace doesn’t have a chance to race his way into the main event, which he did last year. Overlooked in a season in which he has dominated offtrack news, Wallace and the No. 43 team have been much improved. Through 17 races, he has equaled a career best with three top-10 finishes. He’s 19th in the Cup Series standings, 60 points outside the bubble to qualify for the playoffs.
Those stats are not that impressive, but it’s important to recognize RPM is a single-car team lacking the heavy sponsorship money required to compete with NASCAR elite. An alliance with Richard Childress Racing helps, but finances are not there for Wallace to contend for wins each week.
Money equals speed in racing, whether its new parts, more people or the ability to spend time on research and development. RPM gets by with what it can afford.
So apply perspective to Wallace’s results. His ninth-place finish two weekends ago at Indianapolis was better than former champs Joey Logano, Kurt Busch and former Brickyard winner Ryan Newman. And for an RPM team that hasn’t won a race since 2014. So a top10 finish at Indy is pretty close to a moral and emotional victory.
Statistics aside, the strain Wallace and his team have been under the last two months is enormous. Wallace is the only Black driver at NASCAR’s top level and has been at the forefront of NASCAR’s racial reckoning. The 26-year-old has tried to navigate his new role as a spokesman and leader — a position he never before had as a mid-pack racer — and has weathered death threats, scorn and mockery with grace.
His performance has not suffered and his team has not given up on its quest to improve. That alone makes Wallace a worthy candidate for the All-Star race.