NASCAR held its Cup Series race on Monday as it was postponed on Sunday due to inclement weather. And in the rain-shortened YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Bubba Wallace claimed the victory, becoming the first Black driver to win a Cup Series race since NASCAR Hall of Famer Wendell Scott did it in 1963.
“This is for all the kids out there that want to have an opportunity and whatever they want to achieve, and be the best at what they want to do,” Wallace said after the race, per ESPN. “You’re going to go through a lot of (BS). But you always got to stick true to your path and not let the nonsense get to you. “Stay strong. Stay humble. Stay hungry. Been plenty of times when I wanted to give up.”
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Wallace led five of the 117 laps of the YellaWood 500, which was stopped 71 laps shy of full distance due to rain. His win denied the playoff-eligible contenders to clinching an automatic berth to the Round of 8. Denny Hamlin, who won last week’s Cup Series race, already secured a spot in the next round. Hamlin also owns 23XI Racing with Michael Jordan, the team Wallace drivers for.
Wallace was in the news a lot in 2020, becoming the voice of NASCAR during the Black Lives Matt movement. In June, Wallace spoke to PopCulture.com about making NASCAR more diverse. We just had a text a message chain pop up with our diversity and inclusion team that I’m a part of that inside NASCAR’s four walls,” Wallace told PopCulture. “And seeing what they’re doing even for this month being pride month is, is huge. And there’s a long list of things that they are taking initiative and being a part of so super proud of that. It’s been quite the year since everything has gone down, but it’s made me comfortable with who I am as a person who I am as a racer, a comfortable with my own voice, my own skin.”
Wallace also talked about how he has performed this season. “Giving ourselves a B minus, keeping ourselves humble with a lot of room for improvement,” Wallace said to PopCulture.com. “These last couple of weeks have definitely shown signs of improvement. “The Coke 600 was a good race for us, [but] made a couple of mistakes there at the end of the race. It cost us a good finish, but we clean those up, man. We’ll be a top 10 continuing team in a matter of no time.
