The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Racial barriers fall as Wallace grabs wheel
Daytona 500 hasn’t had black driver in field since 1969.
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 third-place finish in a Daytona 500 qualifying race, setting off a celebration for Richard Petty Motorsports almost worthy of winning NASCAR’s mar- quee 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,” Wal- lace 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 oldschool 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-se- ries “Behind the Wall: Bubba Wallace,” on the Facebook Watch show page.
Wallace, the son of a white father and black mother, has openly talked 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, and that’s the best thing I can do.”
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 Bet- hea, 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.
Wallace, raised in Concord, North Carolina, has the full support of the black drivers who came before him. Lester sent him encouraging tweets. Wallace met some of Scott’s children.
But none of the black drivers who raced before arrived with this kind of full-blown promotional push, acceptance in the garage and a solid ride that got him a seventh-place start in the Daytona 500. Wallace went 196.954 mph on Saturday to top the speed chart in the final practice for the Daytona 500.
More commonly known by his childhood nickname “Bubba,” the easygoing Wallace handled the spotlight with ease.
Wallace wants to show ‘em all — black, Hispanic, kids, any race fan — that he’s worthy of becoming a driver to root for and can live up to the lofty pressure heaped on him this season.
Though Confederate flags still dot the infield, Wallace said racism in all forms was nonexistent in NASCAR’s developmental series. At the grassroots level, Wallace heard racial insults and ran into ignorant views.
The rise of social media has made it easier for hate to spread, and a high school football coach in Wisconsin resigned last year for a
series or racist tweets aimed at Wallace.
Wallace tweeted in response:
“There is only 1 driver from an African American background at the top level of our sport. I am the 1. You’re not gonna stop hearing about “the black driver” for years. Embrace it, accept it and enjoy the journey.”