NASCAR: Bubba Wallace ignites a firestorm with controversial tweet

NASCAR Cup Series driver Bubba Wallace was blasted on social media throughout Friday after writing and publishing a racially-motivated tweet.

23XI Racing NASCAR Cup Series driver Bubba Wallace took to Twitter on Friday afternoon to share his thoughts on the “not guilty” verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial.

Wallace’s racially-motivated tweet ignited a firestorm of controversy and led to thousands of replies from fans, the majority of which slamming the 28-year-old driver of the #23 Toyota for needlessly worsening the racial divide.

Here is Wallace’s tweet.

Some have speculated that he may later delete it, so here is the text.

"“Ha, let the boy be black and it would’ve been life…hell he would’ve had his life taken before the bullshit trial.. sad”"

Take a look at some of the replies to Wallace’s tweet, including many blasting the Mobile, Alabama native for “race baiting” and essentially promoting what he claims to be fighting against — and using a situation in which race was not a factor (Rittenhouse and all of those shot were white) to do so.

https://twitter.com/TommyPa24053859/status/1461839849238016004

https://twitter.com/GillConstruct/status/1461772248193376261

https://twitter.com/lbates702/status/1461778121540214785

I won’t share all of them; the tweet has more replies than it does likes, with an overwhelming majority sharing the same sentiment as the above, and one reply even has far more likes than Wallace’s original. So you get the idea.

But there were a few lighter-hearted ones, as Twitter never fails to disappoint…

This is, of course, in reference to the fact that Wallace earned his first career win in a race at Talladega Superspeedway that didn’t even make it beyond the end of stage two this past October due to rain. The win came in his 143rd Cup Series start.

Others pointed out the apparent hypocrisy by NASCAR in requiring other drivers to attend sensitivity training and even suspending them indefinitely for making statements that are deemed offensive, while nothing official has been said about Wallace’s hypothetical skin color-based remark.

Bottom line, it’s not pretty.

Interestingly, this whole situation comes shortly after NASCAR president Steve Phelps stated that “We [NASCAR] do not want to associate ourselves with politics, the left or the right.”

His statement came amid the viral spread of the “Let’s go Brandon” movement, and it was seen by many as NASCAR simply trying to deflect attention away from the fact that the politically-driven movement started at a NASCAR event and hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down since then.

NASCAR has previously allowed individuals and sponsors to use the sport to garner attention for causes championed by both sides of the political aisle, ranging from “Trump 2020” to “Black Lives Matter”, so the idea of “not associating with politics” was seen as kind of a head-scratcher.

Wallace himself even piloted a “Black Lives Matter” car last June at Martinsville Speedway, and it was he who led to the ban of the Confederate flag.

Whether anything will come of Wallace’s tweet (beyond the inevitable social media wildfire) remains to be seen, though you do have to wonder what is going through the minds of many individuals within NASCAR right now — and that includes some of the other drivers — that they may not be willing to say out loud.