In spite of that, Wallace has been an inspiring voice in recent years, successfully getting NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag at races. When the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s did not sit well with people in the Piedmont South, home to NASCAR, flying Confederate flags became a perfect act of defiance for fans and cemented NASCAR’s identity as anti-authority. NASCAR’s identity has roots in the Prohibition era, where stock cars carrying moonshine were modified to outrun authorities, giving birth to NASCAR’s rebellious character that attracted many like-minded fans. When it was then repeated louder by packed stands on Sunday as Wallace was announced to have made it through last-minute qualifying, and then again as he was introduced for the race, it became a sobering reality that was hard to ignore. When I first heard it from a lone fan (see above) during qualifying on Saturday, I wrote it off as an isolated case. At every session Wallace was introduced, I could hear sharp boos and jeers from the audience around me.Ī fan jeers as Bubba Wallace sets his qualifying lap on Saturday evening at the LA Memorial Coliseum (Photo by Michael Chow) Yet what I saw as a photographer in the stands at the Coliseum was NASCAR being held back by its white-dominant audience. One expected the sport to have taken a step toward inclusivity.
In an act of poetic justice, Wallace would return to the Talladega Speedway in October 2021 to claim his first career win in the Cup Series.įast-forward to the inaugural Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum in South Los Angeles in February, home to a population with 61% with Hispanic or Latino origins and 30% as Black ( according to a 2017 LA City census). It was a historic act in defiance of racism. What mattered was that for a moment, in a white-dominant sport where there are only four minority drivers in a grid of 36, NASCAR came together to support its only Black driver. Never mind the FBI declared that it was not a hate crime and President Trump branded the incident as a hoax, demanding him to apologize to the grid. A day earlier, a noose was found in his garage right as the ban on Confederate flags at NASCAR races championed by Wallace came into effect. 43 to the front of the grid in solidarity against what appeared to be a hate crime toward Wallace.
On June 22, 2020, prior to the NASCAR GEICO 500, hundreds of drivers and crew members pushed Bubba Wallace’s Car No.
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