During Black History Month, with the series 28 Black Stories in 28 days, USA TODAY Sports examines the issues, challenges and opportunities Black athletes and sports officials face after the nation’s reckoning on race in 2020.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Bubba Wallace was playing Call of Duty at home late one night last May, like it was any other night. Around midnight, he saw for the first time the video of two white men hunting and killing Ahmaud Arbery while he was jogging down a street in Georgia as a third man recorded it.
The NASCAR Cup Series’ lone Black driver had spoken publicly about racism and social issues infrequently. Still early in his career, trying to win his first race was an all-consuming effort.
Something about that video changed him, though. The arbitrary violence against a man because of the color of his skin deeply affected him. Arbery was 25 years old — just a year younger than Wallace was at the time.
The next day, his girlfriend, Amanda, asked if he was OK. He wasn’t. He felt a different kind of heartbreak, nothing remotely comparable to losing a race, he said, describing his immediate reaction in detail last year on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast.
Not speaking out about unarmed Black people being killed earlier was a huge mistake, he said, but he felt it wasn’t his place. By the time a white police officer killed George Floyd in late May, Wallace could not stay silent any longer.
“It was just kind of the breaking point,” Wallace told For The Win. “I’m seeing everything that’s going on in the world, the innocent killings, and it was just like, ‘Alright, it’s time for me to say something.’ People are asking for my opinion — not that my opinion matters — but they still want to know what the only Black driver has to say.”
He opened up about his anguish and grief. He didn’t mask his emotions when talking about Black people being killed and shared jarring personal stories of police brutality.
At Atlanta Motor Speedway in early June, he wore a shirt with “I Can’t Breathe” and “Black Lives Matter” written on the front of it. And then the next day — in a moment that ignited a long overdue change in NASCAR — he went on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon and called for the governing body to ban the Confederate flag.
Not two days later, NASCAR did. And just hours after that, Wallace hit the track at Martinsville Speedway with a #BlackLivesMatter paint scheme, creating the ultimate juxtaposition — one that seemed impossible for NASCAR before that.
Wallace becoming more vocal about racism and injustice propelled him into the national spotlight, intensified by some things beyond his control. He didn’t ask to be the possible victim of a suspected hate crime investigated by the FBI only a couple weeks later. And he didn’t ask to be defamed with lies on Twitter by former President Donald Trump.
But moments like that amplified his platform, and — with the help of his new team, 23XI Racing, which is co-owned by Michael Jordan and top driver Denny Hamlin — he wants to harness that attention to create change in and beyond NASCAR. The team brings together a young NASCAR talent, a legendary NBA player and owner and one of the best racers of his generation.
“I really became a household name off the race track,” Wallace said. “And it’s just like, all right, we need to balance that out with some on-track success. So, looking to do that here with our future moving forward with 23XI Racing.”
Wallace has clear goals in mind for himself behind the wheel of the No. 23 Toyota, with one of the greatest champions in sports history on his side. But with a brand-new team competing together for the first time in Sunday’s Daytona 500, he’s still an underdog. For now.
****
Hamlin first met Jordan at a then-Charlotte Bobcats game in 2009. They developed a friendship — one that includes playing golf with a good amount of money on the line sometimes — and eventually, Hamlin became the first Jordan brand NASCAR driver.
Jordan — who owns the Charlotte Hornets and grew up in North Carolina — told Hamlin that if he ever seriously considered fielding a car, the NBA legend would want to be a partner. It happened to come together last summer, just as NASCAR was more explicitly embracing inclusivity, and Jordan was sold on it, Hamlin said.
“This was during a very important time in our sport with social justice issues, NASCAR really making a lot of changes, and Michael wanted to be a part of that,” Hamlin said. “I think he saw it as an opportunity as well to expand his horizon and his following into a sport that, probably, [it] doesn’t know a whole lot about.”
𝙃𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚. #23 pic.twitter.com/vuH3wKRa5M
— 23XI Racing (@23XIRacing) October 22, 2020
After three full seasons with Richard Petty Motorsports, Wallace — the NASCAR Cup Series’ first Black full-time driver since Wendell Scott in 1971 — was set to become a free agent. And “all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place,” Hamlin said.
Jordan’s level of involvement with 23XI Racing has been challenging to determine. He was not made available for an interview, and he has tended to operate silently behind the scenes in his post-playing-career endeavors. But Hamlin said that Jordan — who has, at times, been criticized in his career for not taking a stance on social issues — sees a chance to win races and create change within the sport.
For Hamlin and 23XI Racing’s leadership, Wallace has the qualities they were looking for in a driver.
Of course, he’s passionate about racing and determined to improve his on-track performance. But for a team that’s looking to shake up the hegemony of the mostly white male sport, 23XI could offer Wallace a chance to contend for wins — eventually championships, they hope — while boosting his platform to combat injustice.
Interim team president Steve Lauletta said he was impressed with how Wallace handled himself last year amid controversy and national unrest. He’s eager to see what Wallace can do with the top-level equipment — aided through the technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing — the support of Jordan, some big-time sponsors and a spotlight.
“What makes him special,” Lauletta said, “is how he handles himself by just being Bubba Wallace — being the only Black driver at the highest level of a sport, how he got there, how he developed relationships with partners and with people, the guys on this team.
“He’s just genuine, and that in an athlete at the highest level of their sport — to stay that way and to remain genuine but also dedicated to being the best they can be — is sometimes pretty rare.”
****
Despite 23XI announcing Wallace as its first driver back in September, Wallace still hasn’t met Jordan in person. They’re expected to meet for the first time this week ahead of Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500. But Wallace said they often text, and even if they didn’t, he knows what the six-time NBA champ expects.
“Everybody got a chance to watch The Last Dance, and it was able to show us who he is and how he is as a person and a competitor,” Wallace said last week during a press conference.
“At the end of the day he wants winning race cars, he wants a winning race driver and he took an opportunity to invest in me.”
23XI Racing appears to have the right pieces to be successful in NASCAR’s premier Cup Series, but it’s still unlikely a new team will hit the track and immediately win — though Wallace said winning the Daytona 500 in the middle of Black History Month would be drawn straight out of a “fairy tale” for him and his novel team. His best Daytona 500 finish was his first attempt at it in 2018 when he came in second, marking the highest finish by a full-time rookie driver in the race’s history. It was also the best Daytona 500 finish by a Black driver.
Jordan appreciates the building process here will take some time, Hamlin said. But that doesn’t mean his standards are by any means low. Riding around in the middle of the pack and earning top-20 finishes isn’t going to cut it.
Hamlin wouldn’t specify a specific number of wins 23XI expects in its debut season; he just wants steady month-to-month improvements throughout the nine-month schedule. Hamlin — who’s racing Sunday for what would be a historic third-straight Daytona 500 win — joked he hopes Wallace and the No. 23 team finish second to his No. 11 car every single week. Wallace said the same thing, but vice versa.
“Getting that first win out of the way is always tough,” said Wallace, who’s still looking for his first Cup victory. In his 112 total races for Richard Petty between 2017 and 2020, he earned just three top-5 finishes and nine top-10s.
“We know we’re gonna lose. We’re gonna lose a lot before we win that first one, and so we have to just go out and contend and just grow and show progress.”
For Wallace, that progress is about learning from his on-track mistakes and building upon his 2020 stats, which included a top-5 finish in Daytona’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 in August and a career-high five top-10 finishes on the year.
But he’s made no secret that his personal goal is two checkered flags in 2021. One win would automatically qualify him for the 10-race playoffs in the fall and give him his first shot at a championship.
Wallace’s new crew chief, Mike Wheeler, who’s also 23XI’s competition director, said aiming for two wins in their debut season is “not unrealistic,” but reaching that level of success takes time. However, he also said Wallace is among the drivers with previously “untapped potential” and just needed a solid opportunity with the right team and top-notch equipment.
Next stop: @DAYTONA!
Take a look at the paint scheme @BubbaWallace will drive in the #DAYTONA500 for @23XIRacing. pic.twitter.com/oaZzfCK5eJ
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) January 14, 2021
“Early on, when I met him, I asked about his goals, what he wants to do, what is what he thinks he can do,” said Wheeler, who also was Hamlin’s crew chief from 2016 to 2018, winning five races together.
“He just wants a shot in a good car. He wants to see if he can do it. He wants to have that opportunity to actually go shine and go win races. But if he realizes the car is fast and he can’t do it, so be it. And that’s a hard thing to swallow because everybody thinks they can hit the home runs and make the winning free throws. But you need to put yourself in that spot first. And so hopefully, I can do that for him, give him the best cars out there and then let him go to work.”
Jordan and his business team are taking more of a hands-off approach, Lauletta said, but they’re “learning the sport quickly from the business standpoint” and relying on Hamlin and the racing experts to lead.
But Jordan isn’t staying that far away.
“He actually texted me [two weeks ago] asking about some technical information about the car,” Wallace said. “So I thought that was pretty interesting. It wasn’t just like, ‘Hey, how we feeling?’ And it was like, ‘Hey, how’s these cars coming along? What’s the info on them?’ So I had to obviously go back and do my homework.”
****
As Wallace led the NASCAR garage last year in speaking out against racism and hate, the governing body followed, taking steps to promote inclusivity and welcome Black people, people of color and the LGBTQ community to the sport. And with new high-profile celebrities like Jordan and Pitbull — who’s a co-owner of the also brand-new Trackhouse Racing team — joining the team ownership ranks, it feels like change is happening in NASCAR.
Wallace and 23XI don’t just want to be part of that change; they want to lead it. While they’re devoted to pushing for equality and diversity in the NASCAR community and beyond, Hamlin said a “core value” of the team is leading by example internally with the team and shop.
Of course, the team is still in its infancy, so much of this work will take time. But internally, Lauletta said actively working to hire more women and people of color in a predominantly white male industry is a priority of 23XI Racing.
“Access in the garage so far has been fairly limited for people of color, so we want to work on expanding that,” Lauletta said. “As we move forward, certainly you’ll see a diverse organization and team and our pit crew.”
NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program helps people of color and women break into the sport through various avenues, and Wallace and Daniel Suárez — who’s driving for Trackhouse Racing — are program alumni. To encourage a broader impact, Hamlin said the team plans to work with the governing body — such as holding town-hall style meetings — to brainstorm further about how to be more inclusive.
Whether racism or injustices directly affect drivers and others in the garage or not, Wallace said everyone needs to find their voices to speak out. And the same goes for promoting diversity and inclusion on a smaller, grassroots level up to the top.
Wallace looks to Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton, the only Black driver in F1, who regularly calls out racism in his discipline and holds those in it accountable for their actions while also dominating the race track. He described Hamliton’s activism as “pretty powerful” and said he’s inspired by the seven-time F1 world champion’s determination to create positive change.
Even in a uniquely money-driven sport like NASCAR where maintaining the status quo could be seen as more profitable, Lauletta said there’s “absolutely” room in racing for activists among athletes. With the support of 23XI’s sponsors, the team feels it could help fuel NASCAR’s broadened future.
“We all have a role,” Wallace said. “Every team, every driver has a role in pushing for change and setting up to be the better man in our society today.
“We could definitely be the catalyst there. We could definitely take the forefront. I was the leader of the charge last year and had some drivers rally behind, and others kind of stayed silent. But we’re pushing to get everybody out there and be vocal.”
[jwplayer n7iiklHD-q2aasYxh]
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 tag=421393221]