At the NASCAR All-Star Open, last Wednesday fans in attendance were openly hostile towards driver Darrell “Bubba” Wallace by booing him when he was introduced and then cheering when he crashed his car 17 laps into the race. Wallace has been at the center of controversy the past month when his team found what appeared to be a noose in the driver’s garage and it was mistakenly taken as a racially charged threat towards Wallace, NASCAR’s only African-American driver. After an investigation by the FBI, it was determined that this wasn’t a hate crime but it seems that this incident has stirred up some racial tensions under the surface in the NASCAR community.
Since the incident, NASCAR has been a bit of a firestorm with President Donald Trump tweeting at Wallace directly telling him to apologize for the misunderstanding and NASCAR banning all confederate flags at events. This likely won’t be the last time that Wallace will be booed this season with all of the controversies that the noose incident stirred up, but it does call into question the motivations behind this hostility especially that the noose was reported by Wallace’s team and not Wallace himself.
This does little to help advance NASCAR’s profile and only re-establishes, in some people’s minds, is a sport with a racist fan base who like to fly the Confederate flag at races and boo the only black driver in the sport.
Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter!
A week of sports news in your in-box.
We find the sports news you need to know, so you don't have to.
With their big three finally back in action Wednesday, the Philadelphia 76ers suffered another setback…
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tny--EWynOQ Nike paid tribute to Spanish tennis legend Rafael Nadal with a 10-meter-tall animated display…
https://youtu.be/dtJoJz9hC48 Tennis legend Rafael Nadal bid a heartfelt goodbye to his devoted Spanish fans as he brought…
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DQ9Rxhnuer4 U.S. Olympic fencer Eli Dershwitz shed light on the critical skills necessary in fencing…
Two offensive linemen for the Chicago Bears returned to practice, a massive step in the…
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/s2g9t_33Myw President-elect Donald Trump received a warm welcome from Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter Jon…