Words matter. These are the best Bubba Wallace Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
People want to dethrone you from the pedestal that you’re on when you have a platform, when you have a voice.
You try to be the best you can and sometimes it ain’t damn good enough.
For me, it’s always been to be on your toes about everything no matter what you do – my mom and dad always stressed that to me.
The Ahmaud Arbery video was the final straw for me in being silent. That shook me to the core like nothing has in the past. Something flipped inside of me to be more vocal and stand up for racial equality and make sure we get a hold on that and change the face of this world and get it to a better place.
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.
It’s like Richard Petty always said, ‘Racing isn’t the job. That’s where we get away from our job.’ That’s where we go out and have fun and get away from the madness. No one can bother you in there. There’s no phones, no interviews – it’s just you, driving.
Black lives matter just as much as White lives matter, just as much as Hispanic lives matter.
It’s something we’re trying to change and NASCAR is as a whole trying to bring in a younger fan base, a different-looking fan base, we’re trying to change the whole demographic of the sport. Me going out to do that is something I’ll take responsibility for.
It’s short-track racing. You’re going to get that and it’s going to happen. I don’t know why everybody thought it was the end of the world when wrecks were going to happen. Like I said, with close-quarter racing like that it’s going to get heated.
I definitely feel like I’m carrying on the legacy of the Scott family. What Wendell had to go through was extremely difficult, but he kept racing, kept fighting. Part of him will be with me when I’m out on the track.
I’ve stood for the national anthem ever since grade school. It’s a patriotic thing for me. I understand what Colin Kaepernick and others are doing, but it’s not for me.
I want to be a champion, and win races as much as I can and elevate my platforms and become an icon in the sport. It’s going to take a lot of hard work and determination from my camp and for myself to get to where we need to be. I’m excited about the journey.
I just kind of go by the theory of, ‘Don’t knock it until you try it.’
I try to represent myself and my team the best that I can.
I am looked at as an African American guy because of the color of my skin. I am darker.
We’re definitely going to get some flak each and every day, whether it’s social-media keyboard warriors, or people in person.
My mother said, ‘Did you ever believe you would be an activist?’ I said, ‘No, not really.’ But I just felt in my heart that I needed to step up and be a leader in the forefront.
People are entitled to their own opinion to make them feel good, to make them sleep at night.
The encounters I had were very few, but they were powerful. The negative encounters I’ve had with law enforcement were very few, but they stood out.
I have all of my firesuits and helmets, and my parents collect all the newspaper articles and pictures and stuff like that.
When you sign up to become something, you’re signing up to become something larger than yourself. Represent something more than yourself.
I’m African-American. There are more eyes on me than anybody. They’re going to take the negative before the positive.
I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark III.
I was so young when I started that I didn’t really understand all of it. We’d show up and have the slurs being thrown out there, but my parents always dealt with that. They just told me to go out there, do my best, and try to win. Go out there and race well and they’ll shut right up.
For me, I just want to be a role model, put a positive impact on the kids that are watching the sport, that want to be a part of the sport, and leave a good everlasting impact on the sport, continue my legacy down the road.
There’s no need for me to go out there and try to set the world on fire, try to win races and put myself in a tough spot, not be able to capitalize on it. If the opportunity presents itself, yeah, we’ll jump on it. There’s no need for me to force a hole, end up tearing up a racecar.
We all bleed the same color. It hurts when we bleed.
We have a lot of guys from different backgrounds in pit crews and even in the front offices of NASCAR and race teams.
I’ve had my fair share of incidents with law enforcement, whether they’re saying smart remarks, condescending remarks to downplay who I am and what I can afford… It’s something that made me stronger on the back end of it, and learned from those instances.
This sport is changing.
Once we got to the race track, everybody called me Bubba – we created a brand around it. Now it’s become a household name.
We are much more than just drivers who drive a race car.
I see all these professional photographers out at the racetrack, and there’s all these people across the world, taking really cool pictures and you’re like, ‘Man, I want to create that!’ I had that mindset when I first grabbed a camera.
No one should feel uncomfortable when they come to a NASCAR race.
I’ve always been a person that has said what’s on my mind and stand behind it with a lot of heart and passion.
If you know me, I don’t hold back. I take what I can get, and whatever falls.
I chase checkered flags.
I believe in what Richard Petty Motorsports is doing and their desire to win races.
I’ll go out there and prove to everybody that I belong to the Cup Series.
I’m looking forward to it, to be able to represent the black culture… but I’m doing my best at managing it, keeping it behind me, and that’s the best thing I can do.
A typical off day for me, I’m hanging out at the house.
The people that don’t want change, the ones that don’t see how removing Confederate flag creates so much more opportunities for our sport to grow – they don’t want our sport to grow.
It’s simple-minded people like that, the ones that are afraid of change, they use everything in their power to defend what they stand up for instead of trying to listen and understand what’s going on.
I used to go out there and think I’ve got to do this to help better the sport – I’ve got to go out there and run top five and try to win a race. Now I just go out there and do my best, and hopefully it settles it.
I’ve hit a couple barriers out there on the racetrack growing up. There’s definitely been some flak in the way. I’ve been able to handle that the best I could, ignore it, use that as motivation.
I don’t really watch much TV. I’m usually into movies.
We were fortunate enough to have our own business to keep us moving up through the ranks – go-karts, Bandoleros, Legend cars, Late Models. That’s where we stalled out, but luckily we caught a break with Joe Gibbs Racing and the diversity program.
I’ve seen too many comments, too many stories from a fan, or first-time fans that have come to a race in years past and the first thing they say is, ‘I seen the Confederate flag flying, it made me feel uncomfortable.’
It’s an honor to be driving the 43.
Everybody should live their lives to the fullest with no hassles, no hold-backs, no matter what age, what color you are… I don’t have an issue talking about it, taking the forefront of it.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what other people think. You’re out there running your own race and you want to run everybody as clean as possible.
I watch too many scary movies.
That’s a goal of mine and the sport. To become more diverse and change the demographic, bring in a new face.
I do laundry, but my bags from the last race will sit there until the very last minute that I have to do laundry again.
Systemic racism is a problem from every aspect of life.
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.
I’m just a race car driver.
Once we started racing, my dad had his own industrial cleaning business about twenty minutes from the house, so we kept our race cars there.
I feel for everybody that goes through it because depression is real, and it doesn’t take much to put you in that state of mind to where you think everybody’s against you, you’re up against the world and that’s not true.
It all relies on teamwork. We could be running fifth all day, and we come down pit road for the last stop and the pit crew messes up, then we all go down and not just them.
Times get tough sometimes, you lose cool. At the end of the day it is one of the most demanding and grueling sports.
I’ve already got 10,000 more eyes on me because I am of color and they’re going to see what I can do in the top series. That’s enough pressure in itself, so I don’t need to add extra pressure.
No matter what faces you in life, always look up to God, and he will guide the way. You just have to walk that path very stern, and very proud.
We have that platform to tell something and that voice to tell people we have got to stop and change our ways. That’s just how I think about it.
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