“Holy s***, I didn’t ask for this!” Bubba Wallace spills the beans on emotional impact of noose controversy

23XI Racing veteran Bubba Wallace has shared his thoughts on the impact of the 2020 noose controversy had on NASCAR and himself.

“Holy s***, I didn’t ask for this!” Bubba Wallace spills the beans on emotional impact of noose controversy

Bubba Wallace (Via IMAGO)

June 21, 2020 was one of the most dramatic days of Bubba Wallace NASCAR career as well his life. As NASCAR only African American driver was getting ready for the Talladega race, a noose was found in his garage. Initially everyone in the community thought it was a racist attack and Wallace received massive support.

But later an FBI investigation into the incident found that the noose was actually pull-down rope with a loop used in the 2019 Talladega race. This resulted a huge set of fans turning on Bubba Wallace, with some even accusing him of staging the incident. The negative reaction hurt Wallace and he recently discussed the emotional toll it had on him via The Breakfast Club.

A year or two after that was rough. I went from being one of the most favorable drivers, but now it’s just been the boos and stuff. That’s okay because it’s sports.

Bubba Wallace said via The Breakfast Club.

He went onto discuss how he understands the passion towards the sport from fans, as he is huge fan of Tennessee college football and basketball games. But he thinks it is childish for the supporters to turn on the athletes and boo them, just like some of the NASCAR fans has been doing to him over the years.

I love going to college football games, Tennessee and college basketball games. I’m not a person that boos other teams because I’m kind of in the sports world myself, and it just kind of seems childish.

Bubba Wallace added.

He went onto admit that the booing is part of the sport regardless of what he thinks. Wallace highlighted how he went from a beloved racer to someone who is getting booed left and right quickly over the controversial incident, which was just a huge misunderstanding that hurt everyone involved.

But fans do what they want, so booing is a part of sports in general. The next week after Talladega was like, a light switch. It was like, whoa! Holy s***, I didn’t ask for this. Now they’re making noise.’

Bubba Wallace highlighted.

Did NASCAR learn anything from the noose drama?

Earlier talking about the situation, Bubba Wallace pointed out that the incident was huge coincidence as there was a one in a million chance of him getting allotted the only garage with the alleged noose. He sees it as a wild situation that thought the stock car racing community a few things.

Bubba Wallace
Bubba Wallace (Via IMAGO)

It was just a coincidence that I had that garage. It’s wild. It’s still a topic of discussion. You should see my Twitter mentions. …It’s wild that it’s still going about it. But it was there before we even got there, and just the one in a million coincidences that I had that garage stall.

Bubba Wallace said.

He pointed out that NASCAR learned who they are as a sport, teams learned who they are as competitors and Wallace sees it as a huge positive from the whole drama. Everyone has already moved on from the controversy hoping for better days.

It is what it is. We’ve moved on from it, and it sucks that the sport was put in that situation, that I was put in that situation, our team was put in that situation. But we’ve learned a lot about who we are as a sport and who we are as competitors, and that’s all you can ask for.

Bubba Wallace added.

The controversy around the noose revealed some issues with the sport that has went unanswered for many years and gave them an opportunity make a positive impact. Though Bubba Wallace was impacted negatively, at the end it also allowed him to speak up more on the issues and influence NASCAR.