Bubba Wallace to drive #BlackLivesMatter at Wednesday NASCAR event
On Tuesday, NASCAR's Bubba Wallace, the only full-time black driver in the Cup Series, told CNN he wants the competition to ban all Confederate flags in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and the subsequent protests that have occurred in the United States and around the world.
"No one should feel uncomfortable when they come to a NASCAR race," Wallace said. "So it starts with Confederate flags. Get them out of here. They have no place for them."
Later in the day, Richard Petty Motorsports announced that Wallace's car will have a #BlackLivesMatter paint scheme for Wednesday's Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia.
The race's broadcast begins at 7:00 pm ET on FS1.
"I'm excited about this opportunity to run the #BlackLivesMatter car for Martinsville, one of our best racetracks," he said in a video tweeted by Richard Petty Motorsports.
"With this statement that we have right here that we’re about to make running this race car, being on live television on Fox, I think it’s going to speak volumes to what I stand for, but also the initiative that NASCAR, the whole sport, is trying to push."
Wallace, who wore an "I Can't Breathe / Black Lives Matter" shirt on pit road ahead of last Sunday's event at Atlanta Motor Speedway, recently shared a video that featured he and other NASCAR personalities calling for improvements in race relations throughout the sport and the country as a whole:
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