Bubba Wallace is making a victory lap for social justice.
The 26-year-old NASCAR driver, the lone full-time African-American on the elite-level Cup Series, wants to see the tradition of Confederate flags at racetracks die out like dinosaurs and nickel beer.
Hours before finishing 21st in Sunday’s Honor QuikTrip 500 in Atlanta, Wallace sported a black T-shirt emblazoned with “I CAN’T BREATHE,” the final words of Minneapolis man George Floyd, who died May 25 in police custody. Directly below the quote read: “Black Lives Matter.”
“There should be no individual that is uncomfortable showing up to our events to have a good time with their family that feels some type of way about something they have seen, an object they have seen flying,” Wallace told CNN host Don Lemon on Monday. “No one should feel uncomfortable when they come to a NASCAR race. So it starts with Confederate flags. Get them out of here. They have no place for them.”
Though NASCAR has actively moved toward phasing out the pennants by disallowing their use in official capacities and has begun urging fans as far back as 2015 not to carry them into the track, many are still doing so.
But with the proliferation of police brutality and Black Lives protest groups cropping up across the U.S., the optics of Civil War-era memorabilia splashed on TV in front of millions of viewers cast NASCAR in a negative light.
“Our sport has always had somewhat of a racist label to it,” Wallace told Dale Earnhardt Jr. during a recent podcast, according to Yahoo! Sports. “NASCAR, everybody thinks redneck, Confederate flag, racists. And I hate it. I hate that because I know NASCAR is so much more. I said, ‘Do you all not care about what’s going on in the world?’ That’s not the right way to go about it.”
On Tuesday, Wallace unveiled his No. 43 vehicle decked out in a black paint job with the inscription #BLACKLIVESMATTER that he will be driving during Wednesday’s race at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia, reported NASCAR’s official website.
