Dale Jr. is coming to Bubba’s defense.
Bubba Wallace is obviously one of the most polarizing figures in NASCAR. He’s invited his fair share of controversy through some of the things he’s said and done on the track, but the driver also seems to get a lot of hate for things that aren’t of his own making.
This past weekend during the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, NASCAR fans showered Bubba with boos during driver introductions – and the driver seemingly had a message for his haters:
But the response wasn’t unusual for the driver of the #23 Toyota for 23XI Racing.
During an interview this past weekend after he finished 5th in the Truck Series race, Bubba was asked about the boos that he gets from fans, and he admitted that it bothers him:
“That’s every week…I mean yeah, but it’s sports. It’s always going to be there.
As long as you continue to live your life judging a book by its cover, that’s who you are…
I finished fifth. I got a good payday. I’m good.”
And apparently it’s not just Bubba who notices the boos that he seems to draw wherever he goes.
On this week’s episode of The Dale Jr. Download, Dale Earnhardt Jr. recalled a moment during the festivities before last week’s throwback weekend race at Darlington Raceway that stood out to him:
“I was at Darlington a couple weeks ago. We’re on this stage, and it’s the 75 greatest drivers all lined up. Outside of me, these are the greatest drivers that have been involved in the sport. All distinguished, of varying ages, everybody’s there to have this great experience.
And the drivers are being introduced and walking by us, shaking our hand one after the other. And it’s this moment where everybody, you would think that it would be a moment where you’d behave.
And there’s this one guy at the rail, the rail of the fans that are down on the front straightaway, there’s one guy at the rail.
Everybody for the most part is just cheering. There’s a couple, you know they give a couple people a hard time, Denny and all that. A smattering of boos. Nothing crazy.
But Bubba gets introduced and walks across the stage and there’s this guy right in front of me and Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth and everyone else there, screaming at the top of his lungs, ‘Go home! Go home! Go home!’ over and over, as loud as he could.
And it was so obnoxious. I really wanted to jump down there and go, ‘Hey, could you stop? Is this really what you want to do right in this moment? Is this how you want to behave right now in front of all these incredible people that you’re standing in front of? Richard Petty and all these legends, you’re going to be acting this way?’
And I thought man, that’s one day in Bubba’s life. And I was thinking, I know there’s people out there who have hated Kyle Busch and hated other drivers and they probably have said some nasty things.
But it just made me really disappointed.”
Junior also pointed out the fact that fans go through such great lengths to trash Bubba that they even jumped on his team radio this past weekend, an incident NASCAR has said they’re investigating:
“Apparently some fans had gotten onto his radio at the end of the race and were raising hell and saying some pretty bad sh*t. I thought that was bad…
I hate that fans go to those lengths to jump on his radio. I mean that took some effort to get the access to be able do that.”
“I will tell you man, Bubba Wallace puts up with more shit than anybody deserves.”
Now, Junior admits that some of it just comes with the territory: Fans are cheering for their driver and are vocal about their dislike for the competitors.
Denny Hamlin gets his fair share of boos, and Kyle Busch has historically been one of the most hated drivers in the sport (although that seemed to change this year when he moved to Richard Childress Racing and Chevrolet).
But the 15-time Most Popular Driver thinks that the hate for Bubba is excessive:
“I will tell you man, Bubba Wallace puts up with more shit than anybody deserves.”
As a legend in the sport and someone whose opinion carries a lot of weight among NASCAR fans, it’ll be interesting to see whether Dale Jr. throwing his voice behind Bubba will do anything to help calm the storm that seems to follow him around wherever he goes.
If there’s anybody who could help silence (or at least quieten) the boos for Bubba Wallace, it’s Dale Earnhardt Jr.
