Bubba Wallace Reiterates Condemnation of Confederate Flag: 'Take That S— Down'

NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace has drawn plenty of attention in recent weeks after calling for racing's governing body to ban the Confederate flag at events. He recently reiterated his support of the move in an article for The Players' Tribune. Wallace said, "take that s— down" while explaining how the flag upsets members of the African American community.

Wallace explained in his article that he had experienced more run-ins with racist people in recent weeks than he has in his entire life. He cited his decision to speak up about the flag as the reason. Wallace did clarify that he has seen the Confederate flag so much throughout his life that he "has become numb" to it. This situation changed after hearing how the flag hurts members of his community.

"It just alienates people. I'm still educating myself on these issues just like everyone else," Wallace wrote. "If you dive back deep, and read about the Confederacy — which I'm still learning about as well — you understand what those people were fighting for. People will say anything to defend it. But make no mistake: It was a war over slavery. It was about the South trying to keep their slaves. And you know what? They LOST! It's the loser's flag, is what's funny."

Wallace also provided further details about the garage door rope pull that prompted an investigation by the FBI. This rope had a noose tied into the handle, which one of Wallace's race team discovered ahead of the Geico 500 at Talladega. Thousands of people on Twitter have said that this incident was a "hoax" and that Wallace is the new Jussie Smollett despite his lack of involvement in the initial discovery. The driver of the No. 43 explained that he wasn't in the garage when the crew found the rope, but he had some knowledge about what happened.

"My crew member was just sitting there talking with some guys in the garage stall," Wallace wrote. "Usually, work might be happening, but at the time, there wasn't much work to do. Guys are allowed to just show up and race now, so you're not thrashing on the cars all day. At that time, they were all just kind of standing around talking, and I guess that's when he saw it. The way he described it, it was just kind of like, Oh, wait a minute, what is that?"

As Wallace explained, no one pays attention to the rope pulls on regular days due to focusing on the car and work to complete. He said that looking at the rope is not on his mind when he climbs out of his car—not having work to do changed the situation and opened up opportunities for the crew members to look more closely at the surroundings.

Now that the investigation is complete, Wallace is frustrated with the backlash. He said that he knew speaking out about the Confederate flag would prompt this type of response and "put a target" on his back. He anticipated this, as well as the people "looking for any little thing" to discredit him.