NASCAR’s Bubba Wallace Booed, Crashes As Confederate Flags Fly In And Around Racetrack

NASCAR’s Cup Series All-Star Race was not a good one for Bubba Wallace. Appearing at a qualifier held on Wednesday in Bristol, Tennessee, Wallace was booed, then crashed into a wall.

It was the first time a significant number of fans were present at a NASCAR race since the Confederate flag was banned. Several thousand fans were on hand – and so was the flag.

Wallace made an appearance on Thursday night’s episode of Showtime’s Desus & Mero talk show and defended his role in NASCAR’s efforts to ban the Confederate flag. NASCAR banned the flag on June 10, the same day Wallace drove a car supporting the Black Lives Matter movement at Martinsville, Virginia.

“We always want to pay attention to the negative, but the narrative that’s been out there now is saying all NASCAR fans are racist, and whatnot, and that’s totally not true,” Wallace said on the show, “I’ve gone down … in the infield at Talladega, wherever it’s at, Daytona, Texas, Michigan, and I never knew if people were flying the Confederate flag. We would go there and drink beer, have a good time and hang out. It wasn’t like they don’t want you there.”