If a Sunday, May 19 race is any indication of how NASCAR fans still feel about Bubba Wallace, the driver who many allege is at least somewhat “woke,” who has criticized NASCAR fans for not being sufficiently progressive in their views, and who embarrassed fans with his ridiculous attempt to fight with another driver over an on-track bump.
As background, Wallace first rose to notoriety when, in the summer of 2020, he alleged that he found a “noose” in his garage. That claim brought even more tension to an already tense national situation, and the more than a dozen FBI agents sent to investigate the supposed noose determined that really it was just a pull rope to close the garage door.
It didn’t end there, however. Wallace later alleged that fans dislike him because they are not willing to “change” and embrace diversity and inclusion rather than the traditions they like celebrating. In his words: “I’ve always said there’s three types of people: the ones that will accept change, the ones that are on the fence about change and the ones that will never change. You can never get to the minds of the people that will never change, so we don’t really focus our energy on those people. We try to convince the ones that are on the fence about change. ‘This is what can happen. Stick with us, and let’s ride it out to the end.”
Continuing, he went on to say that those tradition-minded folks are bad because they don’t like inclusivity as he defines it but then vowed to “continue to march forward,” saying, “And the ones that are OK with living life on the edge and accepting change right away, let’s do it. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t like changes that we’re doing as a sport to tap into different demographics and make the sport more welcoming and inclusive, and that’s on them. They have to live with that. For us, we continue to march forward.”
Wallace has also done things that infuriate fans, like making vulgar gestures and making calls to ban the Confederate flag from NASCAR races. When fans complained about his vulgar gesture, he alleged hypocrisy, saying, “People think that I love to stay in the headlines for different reasons and I actually hate it. The finger’s become such a big thing when Bubba Wallace does it. But you have guys that get wrecked and they walk on the track and shoot one bird or shoot the double-bird and we laugh about it and move on. But when Bubba Wallace does it we gotta shut the whole state down, shut the whole series down, kick him out, suspend him.”
In any case, NASCAR fans apparently haven’t gotten over their disdain for him, as he was loudly booed at a recent race. That is what happened during the Sunday, May 19 NASCAR All-Star race in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. There, Wallace was introduced to the crowd and its response was, instead of being welcoming, a cacophony of booing.
Watch that here:
Wallace, to his credit, later posted a video to his TikTok account of the cacophony of booing while he was on the stage, and jokingly captioned it “Guess who lost the fan vote.” So he’s able to joke about his unpopularity, but apparently not able, or not willing, to do much to change his perception amongst and reception from NASCAR fans.