[Sport] Bubba Wallace: How 2020 helped NASCAR driver find his voice to speak out over injustice

[Dewey]

Ahead of Sunday's Daytona 500 - the biggest event on NASCAR's schedule - it's hard for Darrell "Bubba" Wallace not to get a little excited about what's to come.

"The Daytona 500 is the biggest race of our year, and we have to start out with a bang," Wallace recently told CNN Sport's Coy Wire. "So it would be nice to finish one spot better than we did three years ago. Get that W."
Wallace is driving for a team that knows all about winning.
In September, NBA Superstar and global icon Michael Jordan announced he was teaming up with last year's Daytona 500 winner, Denny Hamlin to form 23XI Racing - 23, of course being Jordan's iconic number from his playing days with the Chicago Bulls and XI representing Denny Hamlin who drives the # 11 car in the NASCAR Cup Series.
"Just his name of him in general brings a lot more awareness to our sport, a lot more eyes." Wallace said of Jordan. "I'm just excited, grateful for the opportunity. I've been in the sport for 17, 18 years now and an opportunity like this hasn't really come before and I've got to capitalize on it."

And before you ask, yes, Wallace will be driving the 23 car.
A Black driver, driving for a Black owner. Years ago, you could be forgiven for thinking something like that was out of the realm of possibility in NASCAR, a sport that has struggled with its racial identity in the past.
Wallace is the first driver of African-American descent to race full-time in NASCAR's top series since Wendell Scott in 1971.
"Diversity is taking a huge leap in the right direction, I believe. [But] still a lot of work to be done. But for MJ and a person of his stature to come through and want to be an owner in a sport and show like, 'Hey the sport is changing,' hopefully it encourages others to want to do the same. " Wallace told CNN Sport.
Wallace knows all about change in the sport he loves dearly.
This past summer, when America was dealing with a social reckoning in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, Wallace was leading the charge in NASCAR.

Bubba Wallace wears a "I Can't Breathe - Black Lives Matter" T-shirt under his fire suit in solidarity with protesters around the world taking to the streets after the death of George Floyd on May 25 while in the custody of Minneapolis, Minnesota police, stands during the national anthem prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on June 07, 2020 in Hampton, Georgia.
Wallace proudly wore a shirt with "I Can't Breathe" and "Black Lives Matter" on it ahead of his race in Atlanta in June.
Later in the month Wallace called for NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag, a symbol still seen at NASCAR tracks not only in the South but across the country.