NASCAR’s Bubba Wallace unveils Black Lives Matter race car

Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. will be racing in a car with a Black Lives Matter paint scheme when NASCAR returns to Martinsville Speedway in Virginia Wednesday.

Wallace’s Black Lives Matter paint scheme will be on his Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Chevrolet.

“I think it’s going to speak volumes for what I stand for,” Wallace said in a Twitter video. “We knew the Martinsville race was open. We did not spell sponsorship for that, and it sparked an idea of why not run a blackout car?”

The message is simple for Wallace: “All lives will not matter until black lives matter.”

Last Sunday, Wallace wore a black T-shirt with the words “I Can’t Breathe." He seized the moment and issued his most compelling comments yet on the topic of race and racing: “My next step would be to get rid of all Confederate flags.”

Wallace, who is the lone black driver in NASCAR, wants the stock car series with deep ties to the South to ban the flag at its properties and formally distance itself from what millions see as a symbol of slavery and racism.

“There should be no individual that is uncomfortable showing up to our events to have a good time with their family that feels some type of way about something they have seen, an object they have seen flying,” Wallace told CNN. “No one should feel uncomfortable when they come to a NASCAR race. So it starts with Confederate flags. Get them out of here. They have no place for them.”

Wallace, though, conceded he rarely gave the Confederate flag much thought.

“What I’m chasing is checkered flags, and that was kind of my narrative,” Wallace told CNN.

Wallace is silent no more. He has emerged as NASCAR’s outspoken leader in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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