Bubba Wallace, who fancies himself to be the “woke” Colin Kaepernick of the NASCAR world, came unglued this week as he went off on those who hate on him on social media.
Let’s go for a repeat. @McDonalds | @23XIRacing | #TeamToyota pic.twitter.com/W9O3Dl8scO
— Bubba Wallace (@BubbaWallace) April 24, 2022
Wallace Sounds Off On His Haters
When Wallace scored his 2021 Cup Series win at Talladega back in October, some fans complained that the race had been shortened by rain. These fans suggested that NASCAR had wanted Wallace to win because it would make him the first black racer to do so since 1963.
Wallace fired back this week by saying that many races have been shortened by weather in the past few years.
“There’s been plenty of instances where those have happened, and teams have capitalized on it,” Wallace said, according to Autoweek. “The people that aren’t fans of yours and are just going to continue to carry that to the grave that it was rigged, or we only won because it rained. All of the 40 drivers in the field knew it was going to rain. Why didn’t they win?”
Related: NASCAR’s Bubba Wallace: ‘I Get Booed A Lot’
“You can’t spend too much time on there and feed into that, although I do go back and read the comments,” he added. “Every post that I click on there – I just go back and read the comments because it’s like ugh, no, still dumbasses today.”
Wallace Discusses His Success
Wallace also recently talked about the success he’s had in the NASCAR world as of late.
“We’ve had fast cars but didn’t really get the finishes, but then these last three speedway races, man, things have just clicked,” Wallace told NASCAR.com.
“So, a little bit of luck involved in all that, too, but I’ve just got to go out and continue to do what we do,” he continued.
Related: Bubba Wallace Had A ‘Hard’ Last-Lap Crash Hot On The Heels Of Leader William Byron
Wallace Gets Praised
Mike Wheeler, 23XI Racing’s competition director, was quick to heap praise on Wallace.
“To say we’re watching Bubba mature in front of us, you know, is an understatement,” says Mike Wheeler, 23XI Racing’s competition director. “I think he came in with a lot of insight on how to speedway race. I like to think we gave him a better car to do it in. I really can’t say that, because he definitely excelled pretty early on.”
“I’ve seen that, I’ve seen Bubba work on not just worrying about the car in front of him or the car behind him, but cars multiple rows behind or in front of him,” he added. “I think that takes a special set of skills that is hard to quantify. But the moment you know you’re working with two guys behind you or three guys behind you to make a run. It shows the maturity and confidence you have in your ability and your equipment, but that you can have to look that far beyond your windshield and the rearview mirror to make stuff happen.”
Wallace became a household name when he made NASCAR ban the Confederate flag from all races. Perhaps if he had focused a little more on his racing, and a little less on his “woke” activism, he would have found success sooner.