“And Then Our Country..”: NASCAR Confederate Flag Saga Earned Bubba Wallace a New “Fan Base”

Bubba Wallace has become the center of attention for various people throughout the sport and beyond. Things even escalated back when he asked for the confederate flag to be removed from NASCAR events. Soon the 23XI Racing driver skyrocketed in popularity. However, most of this was not in a good sense. Wallace sat down with Seb Coe where he explained about all that went down and how he looked towards it.

In the podcast, Seb Coe told Wallace that he was obviously well-known within America. But he kind of became iconic on a global scale. Especially around the “awful aftermath of the George Floyd murder.” He further stated Wallace to be “incredibly brave” and “commendable in campaigning for racial justice.” He also mentioned the famous track walk at the Talladega Superspeedway. Calling it an “incredibly brave” gesture.

He further asked, “Your efforts with the Confederate flag, I mean, you also took Donald Trump on so. That’s an immediate fan base to start with, right?”

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The 23XI Racing driver then responded, “Yeah. I guess you gain some fans who lose the fans. That’s all part of that sport. And that’s what you sign up for. But yeah, 2020 was a year that I think the whole world wished they could forget because of Covid. Right? And then our country just gone through all the racial injustices. That would just turn this place upside down.”

He further mentioned that one would have to deal with that and weed out such people. He said that following the incidents of 2020, did “not shape and mold me, but, people started to make their own assumptions of who Bubba Wallace is.”

Bubba Wallace explains how people feel about working with him

Wallace mentioned that he apparently had a word with somebody a day prior. He asked them what it was like to work with him. Wallace then elaborated, “People probably go into that conversation a little bit reserved because you know, however they feel about me, that which is fun. But you know, it’s always that you can’t judge a book by its cover.” 

“And that person’s like, Man, he’s awesome. He’s a great guy, he’s fun, he’s competitive. And he cares about everybody around him. And that’s who I am,” Wallace concluded.

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Most of the limelight surrounding Wallace has been rather negative among the NASCAR fan base. However, there still are a good number of people that applaud him for everything he has done. He still has a long career ahead of him and we hope that he can slowly edge out most of the negativity with his talents on the racetrack.