Most people consider NASCAR to be one of the most niche American sports. It does not appeal to as many individuals as football, baseball, basketball, and hockey. These are the “Big Four,” with soccer, NASCAR, tennis, and golf lagging somewhere behind them.
Some people even question NASCAR’s legitimacy as a sport. What it boils down to is a few cars driving around and around in a circle. This is dismissive, though.
When you talk about NASCAR that way, you discount the skill it takes to drive a high-powered vehicle over a hundred miles per hour. You ignore the concentration it requires to safely navigate precision machinery while surrounded by other daredevils jockeying for position.
This year, a new NASCAR star emerged: Bubba Wallace. People who didn’t know the first thing about the sport heard about him earlier in 2020. We’re going to take a moment to examine the question of whether Bubba Wallace’s rise is a positive or negative for the sport, as well as where NASCAR goes from here.
Bubba Wallace’s Spotlight Moment
A NASCAR fan can immediately tell you why you don’t lane split if you’re going faster than 30 miles per hour. A non-NASCAR fan wouldn’t even know what that means.
This is the divide between the fan base and those outside of it. People who have contempt for NASCAR feel like:
- It’s just “a Southern thing”
- It’s a trashy sport, with an inherently racist history and fans
You can certainly debate whether those things are true or not, but that’s the perception among some Northerners. They probably learned more about NASCAR in 2020 than they ever previously knew, and Bubba Wallace was the reason for that.
Bubba is the only prominent African-American driver on the NASCAR circuit. People consider NASCAR to be competitive racing’s major leagues, the same as with MLB. There are the minors with racing just as there are single-A through AAA baseball teams.
Wallace’s Stand Against the Confederate Flag
The reason why many Northerners scorn NASCAR is that, before 2020, if you looked at the tailgating parties that sprung up around the Daytona 500 or other big racing venues, you’d see tons of Confederate flags. That’s not a good look.
While some people insist that flag is about heritage and Southern pride, most of the country knows and accepts that it means racism. Anyone who claims otherwise is deliberately obtuse.
As a black man, Wallace didn’t like to see those flags flying around the venues where he raced. You have to assume:
- They made him uncomfortable
- They reminded him of an awful time in American history
A Moment to Speak Out
Wallace’s moment to speak about what was bothering him came amid the protests and rioting following George Floyd’s death. Floyd died while in police custody when an officer knelt on his neck. The smartphone video showed his dying moments while he begged for mercy.
The Black Lives Matter movement rose again after a dormant period. People of all races marched and demonstrated, sometimes clashing with police and earning stern rebukes from President Trump and other high-ranking politicians.
Wallace chose this moment to speak out against the Confederate flag, and, to their credit, NASCAR agreed with him. Perhaps they did so purely to protect their image. They realized they could never expand to a broader audience if, every time they did big race lead-ins, you could see the Confederate flag flying all over the parking lot.
The “Noose” Incident
What followed NASCAR banning the flag was predictable enough. Some fans pushed back, bringing up the familiar arguments about Southern pride and heritage. Northern dwellers sneered.
Then, NASCAR employees found a “noose” in Bubba Wallace’s garage. The incident got national attention, and rightly so. However, it turned out that the noose was simply a rope that was in that garage for months.
Some claimed that Wallace staged the scene to gain sympathy for his cause, which he vehemently denied. The incident died down after a while, and now, as we near 2020’s end, you have to wonder about NASCAR’s future.
Where Does NASCAR Go from Here?
If you were someone who knew virtually nothing about NASCAR going into 2020, what would you take from this year’s events? Let’s say you’re already a sports fan. You like the “Big Four” that we mentioned earlier, sports with universal appeal.
If the reason you didn’t watch NASCAR is that you felt like it was just a Southern thing, maybe you’ve changed your mind. After all, NASCAR did listen to Wallace and banned fans from flying Confederate flags from their venues.
Also, there were few more powerful images this year than Bubba Wallace driving slowly down the track alongside all the other drivers and pit crews, who showed solidarity when they felt someone had hung up a noose in his garage as a threat. It turned out that was not the rope’s intention, but still, that was a compelling scene.
Have Some People Changed Their Minds?
It’s interesting to speculate about whether some people who wouldn’t give NASCAR a try will change their minds based on what they saw this year. Maybe racing still doesn’t appeal to them.
However, it’s worth mentioning that NASCAR handled Wallace’s protesting much better than the NFL did Collin Kaepernick kneeling during the National Anthem. Roger Goodell has since said he was wrong for statements that he made then.
You can’t deny, though, that it was NASCAR, that some people consider so niche, that reacted to a black athlete protesting better. They heard and understood his complaint, and they found it valid. They changed, and that’s great publicity and something that should have happened a long time ago.
Bubba Wallace seems to be a thoughtful young man, and he’s an emerging superstar on the national stage. He became a household name in 2020 for all the right reasons. Perhaps his ascendence represents NASCAR’s turning point as well, and the “Big Four” US sports could become the Big Five.
