Bubba Wallace called Wednesday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at the Martinsville (VA) Speedway the biggest race of his racing career. The Richard Petty Motorsports driver backed that up with earning an 11th place finish in Wednesday night’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500. Three days after fainting in Atlanta, following a hot and humid race, Wallace nearly got his seventh career top 10 finish in NASCAR’s premiere series, three of which would have came this season alone. Despite being close and having what he calls so much fun racing seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson for 10th in the closing laps, Wallace does have two top 11 finishes in his last three starts now.

“The biggest race of my career right here, Wallace said prior to Wednesday night’s race.  “I’m excited about it, ready for it. I haven’t really slept much thinking about this race and just everything that is going into it and events going on in the world. Trying to change the world here, so wish us luck. Martinsville, my best track hands down. We run really good here. I’m excited to get it under way.” 

What made this big for him is, Wallace is the only African-American race car driver in the sport as the world is in the midst of a global pandemic while the United States faces an uncertain time with racial unjust going around.

Protests and riots have dominated headlines here in America. So, with Wallace being the only person of color in what some have considered a good ole boy southern sport, he’s gaining a lot of attention.

NASCAR and their community have done a great job of raising awareness of this subject and saying all the right things. Their actions though are speaking louder than words. Last Sunday, they held a moment of silence in Atlanta while President Steve Phelps spoke a well prepared speech on national TV. This week alone, they’ve made statements that all are included in this sport to go along with today’s announcement that they’re banning the Confederate Flag.

This has gotten the attention of the mainstream media and mainstream athletes. Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. tweeted about NASCAR. So did LeBron James giving a “BIG S/O to Bubba Wallace.” Richard Sherman tweeted on Tuesday about Wallace’s Black Lives Matter paint scheme on his No. 43 Chevrolet. Deion Sanders joined in on the party too. So did several others.

He backed all of this up and shined under the lights on the .526-mile Virginia oval. Wallace, earned stage points in both stages and looked like a top 15 car all evening.