Bubba Wallace returned to Talledega this past weekend for the first time since winning the YellaWood 500 there in October 2021. The historic victory was not only Wallace’s first in the NASCAR Cup Series but also the first win for an African-American driver in the Cup Series since 1964.
However, the victory was marred by negative comments and criticism by some on social media over the race being shortened due to rain and the perception that NASCAR used it as a PR opportunity.
We’re back. pic.twitter.com/f2AX8VRwP2
— Bubba Wallace (@BubbaWallace) April 23, 2022
Wallace discussed the rain-shortened race during his return this weekend for the GEICO 500, noting that it’s not uncommon for the weather to affect the outcome of a NASCAR event.
“There’s been plenty of instances where those have happened, and teams have capitalized on it,” he told Autoweek. “The people that aren’t fans of yours and are just going to continue to carry that to the grave that it was rigged, or we only won because it rained. All of the 40 drivers in the field knew it was going to rain. Why didn’t they win?”
Bubba also discussed the negative comments that continue to appear on social media, saying that he does tend to read a lot of comments and reactions.
“You can’t spend too much time on there and feed into that, although I do go back and read the comments,” he said. “Every post that I click on there—I just go back and read the comments because it’s like ugh, no, still dumbasses today.”
It’s an unfortunate aspect of the social media world that “dumbasses” get the chance to make comments like those. Hopefully, Wallace can continue racking up victories and shutting them up the best way possible.
[Autoweek]
