Bubba Wallace will have #BlackLivesMatter paint scheme for NASCAR's Martinsville race

NASCAR driver Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. will race with a #BlackLivesMatter paint scheme on his No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet in Wednesday’s Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, the team announced Tuesday.

In his third full-time season at NASCAR’s highest level, Wallace is the only African American driver in the Cup Series, and he has been integral in leading the sport’s response to George Floyd’s death and the subsequent nationwide protests against racism and police brutality.

At Martinsville, Wallace’s paint scheme will be mostly black with #BlackLivesMatter written on the quarter panel. On the hood, there is an image of a handshake between a black person and a white person, and the message below it reads, “Compassion, Love, Understanding.”

In a video tweeted by Richard Petty Motorsports announcing the scheme, Wallace said it was inspired by last week’s Blackout Tuesday, explaining:

“We knew the Martinsville race was open. We did not sell sponsorship for that, and it sparked and idea of: Why not run a blackout car? And I was like, ‘Absolutely, that would be incredible.’ Our team brought that idea to me, and I jumped all over it. And we had further conversations of, ‘Let’s make a statement behind it and run a foundation or a charity [on it] that’s helping push the narrative and the initiative of what’s going on in the world today, racial inequality. Let’s find somebody that aligns with that.’ And why not dive straight to the root and putting #BlackLivesMatter on the car? Most powerful hashtag going around, I feel like, especially these last couple days, last couple months really.

“And it’s true: Black lives do matter. It’s not that we’re saying, ‘No other lives matter.’ We’re trying to say, ‘Black lives matter, too.’ If we put ‘t-o-o’ on the end, I think a lot more people would understand it. We want to be treated equally and not judged off our skin color and the actions that we get to ensure are based off of our skin color. It’s different, so that’s what we’re trying to get across.

“We want to be a part of this nation as one and come together as one. But we always say, ‘All lives will not matter until black lives matter.’”

Prior to the start of NASCAR’s race Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Wallace wore a black t-shirt with “I Can’t Breathe” and “Black Lives Matter” written on the front.

And on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon on Monday, he called for NASCAR to ban the confederate flag, which it currently “disallows” but has not prohibited from races.

Wallace was among several other big-name drivers — including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin — who helped make a group video statement speaking out against racism and encouraging others to join them in educating themselves and starting discussions about anti-racism. Drivers shared the video on social media Sunday before the Atlanta race began, and FOX aired it during its pre-race broadcast.

Speaking from the same script, drivers said in the video, in part:

“The events of recent weeks highlighted the work we still need to do as a nation to condemn racial inequality and racism. The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and countless others in the black community are heartbreaking and can no longer be ignored.

“The process begins with us listening and learning because understanding the problem is the first step in fixing it. We are committed to listening with empathy and with an open heart to better educate ourselves. We will use this education to advocate for change in our nation, our communities and, most importantly, in our own homes, even after the headlines go away.”

A statement from NASCAR president Steve Phelps also aired on FOX before the green flag flew.

“The time is now to listen, to understand and to stand against racism and racial injustice,” Phelps said.”We ask our drivers, our competitors and all our fans to join us in this mission to take a moment of reflection to acknowledge that we must do better as a sport.”

Last Monday, Wallace and driver Ty Dillon — who was also one of the first drivers to speak out about George Floyd and systemic racism — shared a conversation they had on Instagram Live about racial injustice and Wallace’s experiences with racism and police profiling. And on the Dale Jr. Download postcast last week, the Richard Petty Motorsports driver opened up about police killing his cousin.

In 2017 as debates continued about athletes kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racism, seven-time champion driver and No. 43 team owner Petty told USA TODAY Sports: “Anybody that don’t stand up for that ought to be out of the country. Period.”

Wednesday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, officially the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500, is at 7 p.m. ET on FS1.