Bubba Wallace becomes 2nd Black person to win NASCAR Cup Series

Wallace is the primary Black person to win the Cup Series since 1963, when NASCAR Corridor of Fame driver Wendell Scott led the race.

“Talladega, we’re winners,” Wallace stated in a video posted on the Twitter account of Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway, the place the race occurred. “What an ideal weekend, or weekday, I ought to say. I simply knew one thing about it.”

Wallace was born in Alabama. And final yr on the similar observe, a noose was present in his storage stall, prompting an FBI hate-crime investigation.

Simply after the race, Wallace thanked his workforce and the house owners, sports activities legend Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, for the chance.

“It is fairly becoming that it comes right here in Talladega,” he stated.

The FBI decided Wallace was not a sufferer of a hate crime, for the reason that noose had been within the storage since at the least 2019. However Wallace later stated throughout an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon that that was inappropriate.

“It was a noose,” Wallace stated. “Whether or not tied in 2019 or no matter, it was a noose. So, it wasn’t directed at me however anyone tied a noose. That is what I am saying.”

Requested on Monday what it meant to turn out to be the second Black driver to win the Cup Series race, Wallace turned emotional.

“I by no means take into consideration these issues, and if you, if you say it like that, truthfully it brings a number of emotion, a number of pleasure, to my household, followers, buddies. It is fairly rattling cool.”

This was Wallace’s first yr driving for 23XI Racing. The victory can also be the primary for Jordan as an proprietor.

Correction: An earlier model of this story recognized the incorrect person who discovered a noose final yr in Bubba Wallace’s storage. It was a crew member.