NASCAR is back.
While gearing up for the Daytona 500 this week, we’ve been digging into all the NASCAR history we could possibly find, including some of the best moments from Daytona in recent memory.
There was the “Dale and Dale show” from 1993, and Dale Earnhardt‘s incredible win in 1998 after 19 years of heartbreak. Then we looked at Earnhardt’s gritty performance in the 1997 Daytona 500 after flipping his car and then getting out of the ambulance to get back in his car and finish the race.
Then there were a couple of head-scratching moments, like Sterling Marlin getting out of his caron the backstretch under a red flag to fix his damaged fender in 2002, and Juan Pablo Montoya taking out a jet dryer and turning the track into a fiery inferno in 2012.
But I also stumbled upon this one… a rather bizarre story where NASCAR driver Mike Wallace got his ass beat at a Rascal Flatts concert in North Carolina.
According to USA Today, it went like this…
NASCAR driver Mike Wallace took his daughter to see Rascal Flatts at Charlotte’s PNC Music Pavilion back in 2016.
According to Mike’s brother Kenny (a former NASCAR driver as well), Mike got sucker punched out of nowhere, and then attacked by three men while leaving the show:
“Mike was talking to one of the three men and then, out of nowhere, one came after Mike like a crazy man.
Mike was knocked out completely cold. While he was on the ground they continued to beat on him, kicking him in the face.”
Mike Wallace’s daughter, Lindsey jumped in to try and protect her father, and was also injured in the fight. Wallace himself suffered a black eye, knocked out teeth, and nearly a dozen stitches in his lip.
Mike shared his own personal account of the attack on his Facebook page:
“I normally would not post personal affairs but this is to help and give advice to our friends, do not ever talk to a group of now what appeared to be drunk or drugged up young adult men or women when your trying to get in your car to leave the unguarded PNC amphitheater in Charlotte, NC parking lot after a good Rascal Flatts concert.
This is what I looked like after I was knocked out and crap beat out of me. The ambulance driver took this picture we were just supposed to gave a fun night.
I want to thank my family and friends for helping protect me from a worse beating as I layed unconscious on the ground. What’s worse is three of guys that beat my family up were arrested and out of jail before we got out of the hospital.”
That three men: Paul Lucas, 29, Nathan Lucas, 22, and Randolph Mangum, 24 were each arrested and charged with simple assault.
Defense attorneys argued that Wallace instigated the fight, caused by a mix of alcohol and prescription drugs. However, after the first mistrial was granted, the charges were mysteriously dropped at the request of the Wallace family.
I’ll refrain from any “I’d rather get punched in the face than go to a Rascal Flatts concert” jokes, but still, this is why I don’t go to Rascal Flatts concerts.
Got a whole lotta pissed off drunk dudes who don’t want to be there, but got dragged along by their girlfriends and wives… I’m surprised more fights don’t break out to be honest…
I mean, imagine sitting through the torture of a Rascal Flatts concert just to get punched in the face at the end… talk about going from bad to worse.
Mike Wallace has made 197 starts in NASCAR Cup Series career, registering three top-five finishes and 14 top-10 finishes.
