{"id":42961,"date":"2025-08-03T20:26:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T20:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/42961\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T20:26:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T20:26:15","slug":"bubba-wallace-reflects-on-controversial-tweet-airs-it-out-on-race-and-being-a-nascar-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/42961\/","title":{"rendered":"Bubba Wallace reflects on controversial tweet, airs it out on race and being a NASCAR driver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whenever Bubba Wallace secures another win or accomplishment, it almost always leads to talk about his skin color. He was most recently the first Black driver to win a major race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with his victory in the NASCAR<\/a> Brickyard 400. <\/p>\n

During his career, Bubba Wallace has been mentioned alongside Wendell Scott. Until Rajah Caruth\u2019s Truck Series win at Las Vegas in 2024, they were the only two Black driver to ever win a NASCAR national series race. Wallace and Scott remain the only two Black drivers to win at the Cup Series level<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But a lot of that talk, if not all of it, comes from the media. Wallace is not the one who touts his \u201cfirst Black driver to _____\u201d credentials. We know that he never shies away from his identity, but he\u2019s usually more focused on his job. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, for me, I\u2019ve always said from the beginning is I show up as a racecar driver first and let everything else settle in after that,\u201d Bubba Wallace told the media at Iowa Speedway. \u201cSo, for me crossing that start-finish line, the first thing I thought about, finally, no more \u2018days since Bubba Wallace\u2019s last win.\u2019 No more being on the cutline last race going into Daytona. Like, we\u2019re in the playoffs, you know, we\u2019ve done it, we\u2019ve won. After I\u2019ve told myself so many times, or I\u2019ve questioned myself, \u2018Can I do this again?\u2019 All that was gone in that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, how does Wallace view those accolades<\/a>? Well, like he said, he let\u2019s it all sink in after the fact. <\/p>\n

Bubba Wallace is a racecar driver before all else<\/p>\n

On the track, Bubba Wallace is a racecar driver. He is one of 36 full-time drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series. Now, he\u2019s a Brickyard 400 winner<\/a>. That is something that will be with him for his entire life. <\/p>\n

It had been 100 races, almost three calendar years, since his last win. So, that other stuff was secondary. Last Sunday, all that mattered was that he won. <\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t realize the African-American side until hours later, and it\u2019s still incredible,\u201d Bubba Wallace continued. \u201cI think what gets lost in translation, though. And a lot of people get offended and try to downplay it, and I get it. I am biracial, and I love both sides of who I am. So, at the end of the day, I am a racecar driver and enjoy where I\u2019m at in life and who I am as a person. And I know, I remember when I had a tweet pinned on my Twitter profile and it caused so much controversy, I\u2019m not surprised in today\u2019s world, but it was simply saying that you\u2019re not going to stop hearing about the Black driver. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not, I never lead off with \u2018I\u2019m the Black driver.\u2019 No disrespect to you guys [in the media], but a lot of the headlines you start off with that. That\u2019s what I was saying. Like, yes guys, I know it\u2019s out there every time I do something. Just embrace it, like you have to enjoy it. Of course, people flip it and say like, \u2018All he cares about is being Black.\u2019 And that\u2019s not what I was saying. That\u2019s neither here nor there. I love my Black side, love my white side. Love that I\u2019m competitive, and I\u2019m able to showcase that at the highest level in NASCAR.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bubba Wallace is always open about his thoughts and feelings. Answers like this are why fans like him and why the media likes speaking to him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whenever Bubba Wallace secures another win or accomplishment, it almost always leads to talk about his skin color.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-42961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}