NASCAR’s only Black driver is making a big statement on Wednesday at Martinsville.
This is a major statement in that sport
NASCAR drivers’ cars are usually covered bumper-to-bumper in ads for everything from motor oil to home insurance. But Bubba Wallace’s No. 43 Chevy will promote something very different during Wednesday night’s race at Martinsville.
Wallace, NASCAR’s only current Black driver, and his team, Richard Petty Motorsports, unveiled a special “Black Lives Matter” paint scheme for the race.
The car features “#BlackLivesMatter” over the rear wheel, while the hood and back bumper have the phrase, “Compassion, Love, Understanding.” The top of the hood has an illustration of Black and white hands interlocking (you may recognize the image from Drew Brees’s apology Instagram post).
“We knew that the Martinsville race was open—we did not sell a sponsorship for that—and it sparked an idea of, why not run a blackout car?” Wallace said in a video posted on RPM’s Twitter page. “Our team brought that idea to me and I jumped all over it. ... Why not dive in straight to the root and put #BlackLivesMatter on the car?”
What makes Wallace’s statement especially powerful is that it’s not the safe thing to do. It goes much further than RPM’s vague statement about “recent tragedies” released last week. NASCAR fans, according to a 2011 Scarborough Research poll, are 80% white and only 9% black. Forty percent of them live in the south. Confederate flags are still flown by fans at racetracks, despite NASCAR’s 2015 request that they be left at home. (NASCAR refused to outright ban the pro-slavery banner at its tracks, but Wallace this week called for the organization to issue a true ban.)
If you want to kill a significant portion of your brain cells, click through to either of the tweets above (or this one from @NASCAR) and read the replies. Twitter isn’t the real world, but you can bet that the idiotic replies are reflective of at least a small part of the audience. There are some morons who will stop watching NASCAR because a driver dared to speak out in favor of equality. But there are surely also some people who had never heard of Wallace before, were impressed by his willingness to take a stand and will tune in to see how he does in the race.
The best of SI
Iowa’s football culture needs a major overhaul. ... NC Central basketball coach Lavelle Moton describes his experience of having a gun held to his head by a cop. ... Redrafting MLB’s loaded 2010 draft class. ... This ultramarathoner’s lies began to unravel with a portable toilet.
Around the sports world
A graphic designer made Disney versions of NBA logos for about half the teams in the league. ... The CEO of CrossFit resigned after saying some terrible things about George Floyd in leaked audio. ... Michael Jordan brought his $8 million yacht to a fishing tournament in North Carolina and his crew caught a 442-pound marlin. ... After 10 years, USC is set to welcome Reggie Bush back into the fold. ... UFC’s “Fight Island” has finally been confirmed. The island in Abu Dhabi will host four events in July.
LeBron gets it
MLB owners are risking the future health of the sport to save a few bucks this year
Do they think we’re stupid? Franchises only ever increase in value
Damian Lillard’s newest song is about racism
He’s not wrong
Don’t try to impress a woman by cosplaying as a GM
Now anyone can train like an Olympian
Not sports
The TV show Cops has been canceled after 32 seasons. ... The movie theater chain AMC lost over $2 billion due to the pandemic.
Wanna spend 17 minutes watching someone restore a rusted knife?
First trailer for the third Bill & Ted movie
What a country
A good song
Email dan.gartland@si.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.