[ad_1]
TALLADEGA, Alabama (AP) – Bubba Wallace had been waiting for a rainstorm in his campervan in the infield of the Talladega Superspeedway for almost 16 months when NASCAR informed its only full-time black driver that a noose had been found in his garage. stall.
Wallace never saw the noose, never even set foot in the garage. It wasn’t Wallace who called the FBI – NASCAR did – and from what he was told, Wallace was led to believe he had been the victim of a hate crime.
When the FBI later decided that the noose had been shaped to the end of a garage door handle during NASCAR’s visit to Talladega nine months earlier, so it was only a coincidence that Wallace was awarded this stand, he was subjected to a barrage of online vitriol that came spread to the stands of several tracks thereafter.
Wallace is now used to being booed, and on the biggest day of his professional career, the trolls returned for him when he rushed to the front of the field to win. Monday’s race shortened by rain and rescheduled in Talladega.
It was rigged, many cried, claiming NASCAR only called the race because it would benefit Wallace. This claim was one of the softer spikes against Wallace, the first black driver since Wendell Scott in 1963 to win at the sport’s highest level.
Even at this key point in his career, Wallace couldn’t escape the skeptics who somehow believe he concocted the noose as a hoax in June 2020 to gain support in the national racial calculation after George’s death. Floyd.
Wallace was not the victim of a hate crime, but hate has followed him ever since he spoke out in social justice and successfully called on NASCAR to ban the display of the Confederate flag at his events. .
Denny Hamlin, another driver and now Wallace’s boss as part-owner with Michael Jordan of the 23XI Racing team, encouraged Wallace to quit social media for his own sanity.
“People don’t automatically like me because I hired Bubba Wallace,” said Hamlin, also a freshman team owner, who scoffed at the idea that the race was rigged.
“I’m spending way too much money and these teams are spending too much money to fix it,” he said. “Whenever there are unique circumstances, it’s settled. When a team is about to win a football match, it gropes around the yard line, that’s it. It’s just (the review of) someone having a bad day.
Wallace said after Monday’s race he took Hamlin’s advice several months ago and stopped reading social media.
“It helped a ton. I would go read the comments (and) after a bad race I would become one of those haters who know nothing. I would become one of them. Just start telling me a bunch of dark thoughts, ”Wallace said. “In high school, I was always worried about what other people thought of me. I finally gave up.
“I’m not going to be able to please everyone. It doesn’t matter if I won by a thousand laps or won a race shortened by the rain, not everyone will be happy, ”he said. “It’s okay because I know someone who is happy and it’s me because I’m a winner and not them. “
It’s unclear what this win, Wallace’s first Cup Series start in 143 starts over four seasons, will do for his own confidence. Wallace admitted to having had previous bouts of depression, and on the eve of Talladega’s rescheduled run, Hamlin revealed that teaching “emotional regulation” to Wallace would play a central role in Wallace’s development.
“Dealing with adversity, and these are things he would probably tell you, it just gets too high, too low, having very high expectations and when things don’t go perfectly as planned, how do you react?” ? Hamlin said Sunday. “Every driver goes through some kind of adversity in a race and how you react to it is what usually dictates how you finish. I just think he needs to learn that emotional regulation because he really, really wants it badly.
Hamlin did not know that he would celebrate with his driver the very next day the first victory of 23XI Racing, a team which did not even exist until last November but which was built around Wallace and the eight figures of the sponsorship he had picked up. as companies new to NASCAR rushed to support it last season.
Wallace said he knew he would win at Talladega and has witnesses he said in advance he would take the checkered flag. But when the race was rainy on Sunday and he sat down in the infield the same way he had 16 months earlier, Wallace admitted it was “just like, man, dude. already seen”.
He considered contacting NASCAR President Steve Phelps, who came to Wallace’s RV last year to inform him of the noose.
“I was about to text Steve Phelps to say ‘I don’t want (another) phone call’,” Wallace said. “Essentially the same thing happened. Delayed rain, called the race, will run on Monday. You think of these things when you come to this place.
Wallace works on the challenges of being black in a predominantly white sport with a rooted past in the Deep South. It can be difficult: Last year President Donald Trump falsely accused Wallace of catching the noose, and the four racing weekends in Talladega since the flag ban have been marked by a convoy of vehicles parading past the main entrance to the track with their own Confederate flags.
Wallace, who turns 28 on Friday, thanked his mother and new fiancée, Amanda, for helping him cope. Neither was on the run; Amanda had returned to North Carolina for work Monday, Wallace’s mother started a new life in Atlanta.
His mother sends him daily encouragement, he said, from the scriptures and “always holds that positive light.” When he finally got his mother and fiancee on the phone after his victory, tears flowed.
“I was one of those people who thought I didn’t win. It’s hard to get out of that mentality, ”said Wallace, who admitted that the record of the past two years has led to“ sleepless nights ”that have led him to seek help.
“Talk to professionals to help me stay focused on the task at hand. Really listens to my family. Amanda being there to push me, ”Wallace said. “I take part in some of these races and I just have a negative attitude. She tears me apart … to get me in shape and show me positively.
“It’s my family that pushes me and knowing that as I’m a down-to-earth person – sometimes pessimistic – they keep the optimism for me and help me get back to the track with a good frame of mind.”
___
More AP auto races: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
[ad_2]
Source link