Race: Bubba Wallace (2022) s01e04 Episode Script
The Inner Voice
1
When I started out,
we always won.
Back in 2013
win
win.
What's next?
I am so proud of you, baby!
Goddang it, Mom.
Come on, now.
It's Daytona.
Well, that sucks.
Hey, can we get top 20 here?
I screwed up so bad.
It sucks, man.
Coming into the 2021 season
- Oh!
- A hard crash!
got into a wreck. Fucked that one up.
Oh! Bubba goes around!
What the fuck?
Going into Martinsville,
I expected to win.
Hey, fuck you.
I hate losing,
and I haven't won in four years.
What the hell is going on?
Still telling myself
that I suck every day.
They were like,
"What's going on? You seem different."
I'm like, "I'm depressed."
And I finally told him,
I need help.
Your favorite race
so far this year?
Well, it was gonna be Martinsville,
but that didn't work out.
Um
Hm.
I haven't had one.
I haven't had one.
I wanna show a couple things
to everyone
about what I see that's a struggle.
There's plenty to talk about.
Uh, biggest thing I wrote down
is braking, center turn and migration,
what Freddie saw in the race,
our communications during a race,
uh, and again, just get back to believing
that we are better than
what we're showing right now.
We talk about the limitations we have.
Part of that is getting Bubba
in here to be face-to-face with the guys
that mechanic the car,
that put the car together.
What did he fight the most?
Was he loose in?
Was he tight center? Was he loose off?
A lot of factors keep us from winning.
Wanna make sure we cross those off.
Now, you getting beat at Martinsville.
I know dang well
you struggled at Martinsville.
Yeah, I'm really pissed at Martinsville.
I expected to win.
So, that's what happens
when you have expectations like that.
I expected to run better.
I'm actually surprised
we suffered as poor as we did.
We all wanted to be better than 16th.
So, that's what I wanna talk about.
I think, um 'Cause again,
you didn't like your brakes.
I mean, you said the pedal was
That effort was high for you, right?
Yeah. Like, it was super stiff.
And, I mean, I was
- All I had to press that motherfucker.
- Yeah.
And it's, like, doing doing this
under the braking zone.
It's like Man, I was going way beyond
comfort zone just to get it to stop.
Is our brake pedal, in general,
stiffer than what you had over at RPM?
Yes, especially at Martinsville.
It was confidence in the brakes.
You knew they weren't gripping as much.
Fix the brakes first.
I mean, Freddie, you wanna
tell Bubba what you thought?
Looked to me like you were just
really struggling to get it slowed down,
struggling with the brake package.
It looked uncommon
for what we've always been doing there.
Didn't know if that was just the brakes.
Car was not good, by any means.
Um, it was tight. It was loose.
Tight is no traction in the front.
Loose is no traction in the rear.
Hard for everybody.
Everybody's mad, frustrated.
'Cause he was asking me
on the first 50 laps,
"Hey, what's he doing?
He looks like he's all out of place."
And again, you were.
Bubba needs some coaching
and, you know, some realism.
It's not easy.
A lot of times, there's hurt feelings.
Easy to say,
"My equipment's not good enough."
But again, it's not about,
you know, taking it personal,
it's trying to be critical
about being better.
So, one thing I noticed,
and I've spent hours looking at data
He's slower than me mid-corner.
It's That's why it's like,
you don't need to make all your time here.
The orange
Yeah, like,
carry the heavier break longer.
- Yeah.
- And trail break.
You can't just rely
on natural talent.
That's something that Bubba has,
so that's the first key, refining it.
What I want to see is by the end of this,
we're battling inside the top ten.
Get a better brake package,
we'll be fine.
Oh! I'm not gonna lie.
That was so frustrating.
I don't care we finished
It was good we finished 16th 'cause
we should have finished fucking 25th.
There's no doubt.
I had high hopes
going into Martinsville.
I expected to win.
That confidence I felt I had?
Gone.
Funny how that works, huh?
I've known Bubba from kids
up until now. We've been really close.
All the attention was great last year,
but now he wants to back that up
with results on the race track,
but if those aren't coming
as quickly as he would like,
the stress and pressure
starts getting on him.
When he says, "I wanna go out there
and win under the checkered,"
and then that doesn't happen,
it's just not anybody else's fault
but his own in his eyes.
He would harbor it inside
to where he was just so frustrated
and so built-up
that he would essentially explode,
like an inch away from losing it.
I remember a couple of years ago
after he finished second
at the Daytona 500,
he's, I mean, super emotional.
Walk through the emotion
of this moment for you.
He has allergies.
I'm watching this from behind the stage,
I'm like, "What is going on?"
Pull it together, bud.
You just finished second. It's awesome.
I just try so hard
to be successful at everything I do,
- and my family pushes me
- each and every day.
And they might not even know it,
but I just wanna make them proud and
Second isn't horrible,
but it's still a good day. Um
I-I always know that he's hard on himself,
but this was to a whole 'nother level.
And I'm telling him, like,
"You gotta be open and honest with me."
"This is friendship right now.
There's more to this."
And I finally told him.
I got a lot of shit going on.
I need help.
I commend you
for coming forward about that,
because a lot of people are struggling.
They were like, "What's going on? Seem
different." I'm like, "I'm depressed."
It's been a lot better,
um, but there's still days I go home,
sit on the couch, and look at a blank TV.
- Oof.
- Yeah.
Welcome back
to our coverage of this tour event
already in progress.
Good stuff today.
The short game's been really sharp today.
There's a lot of shit
going on up here. Um
My mental state has definitely
taken me out of a lot of races
throughout the last three or four years.
I became one of those haters.
I became the person sitting
in the stands that boos me.
"You suck. You can't do this."
"Your teammates are lappin' you."
"You got the same stuff they do,
and you're pathetic."
"You're a piece of shit."
You know, when you're at this level,
you do have a lot of responsibilities
and obligations to fulfill,
and a lot of people counting on you.
You know, I want the best
for myself, my family.
And so when it doesn't happen,
you start to blame yourself
for not getting the job done, you know?
But that's
I think that sends you down that path.
And then it just kind of latches onto you,
and you can't really just shake it off.
That dark cloud comes over, and
you can't think positive things, you know?
I don't know.
I-I haven't been the suicidal person.
It's just the self-doubt, self-hate
of like, "Hey, you'll never
be good enough." And it's like
It's hard to overcome that.
He and I talk very often
about where we're at.
We had a pretty rough patch
in our relationship for about a year.
We were actually struggling in
our relationship when he, um, came to me
and said how he was struggling mentally,
and that was the first time.
It's hard to watch
but over the last couple years,
I've figured out how to help him,
I think, in ways, um
Try to calm him down if he's worked up,
or if he sees something,
you know, we try to bring it back
to reality, you know.
But I definitely think a lot of it
stems from his parents' divorce.
He really cares about
his relationship with his father,
and it's not there at the moment.
Right now, they're just not
in a, um communicative, uh, space.
And so I think that's hard on Darrell,
um, because he won't say it,
but he needs it,
he needs that relationship,
in my opinion.
The relationship that Bubba has
with his dad was very close.
A lot of people have the misconception
that Bubba was born
with a silver spoon in his mouth.
That is so not true.
When Bubba first started racing,
we had just started
our company, Wallace Industrial,
it was an industrial cleaning business.
We had hydro-blasting trucks,
and vacuum trucks, pressure washers.
You know, the PSIs are powerful.
The machines that Wallace Industrial has
can basically cut a house in half.
It took a lot of time and sacrifice
to support Bubba.
His dad made sure
that he had the best equipment
in order to run with the best.
You know, we had to wait
before we could pay our bills
because of the sacrifices
we made with his racing.
His dad supported him in that.
People don't understand,
that was his best friend.
I give a lot of credit to his father
for being where he is today,
but when it comes to divorce, you know
We were together almost 30 years,
and I never could have imagined
the breakup would be
as nasty and ugly as it was.
So, that was 2016.
It was such a bad divorce.
Life is falling apart.
You know, my parents' life
is falling apart.
Me and my dad,
yeah, we didn't talk for, uh
We didn't talk for a long time.
His quote is, "Time heals all wounds,"
and then that would be it.
2016, when I signed my, uh,
my first Cup contract
You know, my dad was always
a part of my deals.
He was the one negotiating everything,
was always there, part of those meetings,
and this time he wasn't.
It was a little weird, intimidating,
being there by myself,
but I had my managers around me,
but, you know
You sit there and look at everything,
and you're kind of an adult on your own.
So I remember texting him,
you know, "Hey, Pops. Hope all is well."
Um
"Just wanted to say I love you, uh,
and hope that I made you proud
by signing my first Cup contract."
Bub has tried to reach out
to his father several times.
Of course he's bothered that
the relationship he has with his father
is not where he would like for it to be.
Um, and I know he's deeply hurt by that.
Um, and like I said,
we just continue to pray, uh, for healing.
Do you feel like
time heals all wounds?
No.
No.
I'm in a routine.
Usually at the gym 8:45 in the morning.
Still haven't accepted that routine.
I still bitch and complain about it,
just 'cause I don't like
being up early or working out.
I still do it, though.
Just to keep me mentally focused
and not become an enemy of self.
Such a stigma that people
can't talk about being depressed.
Just seems like it latches onto you,
and you struggle to, uh
Ooh, God!
to shake it off.
Like, just snap out of it.
When it comes to
Bubba's emotional state,
I don't wanna seem worried,
but he's still figuring out
what he needs to do to get
his emotional state back to where it is,
but it takes time,
and sometimes he's not very patient.
- Bubba, march.
- Huh?
What?
- March, don't run.
- Oh.
The next race to come up,
which is Talladega,
a lot of people would think to come back
to Talladega would be very traumatizing,
but, you know, you wipe the slate clean
and you go back.
That's just my mentality.
Talladega, the first
big sporting event since the pandemic
to allow a large number of fans.
Five thousand fans were here today,
and a NASCAR official told me
that the Confederate flag ban is in place.
All Confederate flags are now
prohibited from NASCAR events.
This comes after the circuit's only Black
full-time driver pushed for the change.
I think people thought of NASCAR
as a racist sport.
And we're not.
We are a sport of people who want
to include other people to come here.
For those that wanted to fly the flag
and that was important to them,
they just can't do it at our facilities.
Across the street
from the track,
there are a number of gift shops
selling Confederate flag memorabilia.
They're everywhere
you look out here.
Alabama is a very difficult state
for a person of color to be in.
My first experience
was in 1990 going to that track.
People stopping their conversations
and pointing at me.
It was clear that I didn't see
anybody else that looked like me.
And I could tell
that I was a fish out of water.
A plane flew over
the racetrack
in Talladega today with a Confederate flag
and a banner that read "Defund NASCAR."
It's just very, very rooted
in oppression
and, you know, white supremacy
and things of that nature.
We were maybe ten days, if that,
off of banning the Confederate flag.
And so, to find the Confederate flag
in Talladega, Alabama,
there was a lot of tension.
Also, given where we were as a country
during that time, emotions were high.
- I can't breathe!
- Louder!
- I can't breathe!
- Louder!
Overnight, nationwide unrest.
Across the country,
what started as peaceful gatherings
protesting the death of George Floyd
devolved into destruction.
At least two dozen cities
are under some sort of curfew.
The climate of the entire sport
at that time,
there were a large group
of people that were all for him,
"He's the best thing
that's ever happened to the sport."
There's also a very large group saying,
"You are essentially ruining NASCAR
by taking this stance."
There was a protest
outside the track.
People are protesting
as a result of something you did.
It felt, it felt I felt nervous.
Very tense weekend to go To start.
Rain has now made its way
to the speedway.
I'm afraid this shower
has turned into a super soaker.
So, we're at Talladega,
and the worst thing that happens
at a NASCAR track is when it rains, right?
It's miserable 'cause you're gonna
go through this long process
of trying to dry the track.
I was up in race control,
talked to Steve O'Donnell.
It's almost 4:00 on Sunday.
He said, "We can't dry the track in time."
"Gonna get too dark. We can't go."
"We're gonna have to postpone
till tomorrow." I'm like "Brutal."
Um, I said, "Okay."
And he said there's a crew member
on Bubba's team,
that they found a noose
in Bubba's garage stall.
My heart sank.
What are we gonna do?
But, importantly, we needed
to have a discussion with Bubba.
Um, and that, obviously,
I felt was my responsibility.
My phone rang,
and I was like, "Steve Phelps."
And said, "I need to talk to you."
He's like, "Mind if I swing by?"
I'm like "Okay. Shit."
"Should I pack up my bag, Steve?
Do I need to leave?"
"Am I suspended? What's the deal?"
He's like, "All right, I'll be there
in a minute." I'm like, "Okay."
So, I went to his bus, and it-it was
I I have to tell you I was as nervous
as I've been
in almost anything I've ever done
to have to walk into his motor coach
and to tell him this.
Um
So, I open up the door for him.
He walks in, and he looks up,
says, "Hey, bud."
He's got tears in his eyes,
and he's struggling to talk.
Um
It was hard.
Um, so, I walked in, and I told him.
He was like,
"There was a noose found in your garage."
And so it was like "A what?"
And he said we'll do everything
to "find the motherfucker that did this,"
and they'll never be allowed back
in our garage, in our sport.
And tears are rolling.
"But we'll be in contact."
Then he left.
So, I sat there.
Called my mom.
I got a call from Bub.
He said, "I have something to tell you."
"They think there was
a hate crime committed."
"They found a noose." I'm emotional.
And I was like, "Son, are you okay?"
- "I'm all right."
- He said, "Mom, I'm fine. I'm nowhere"
"We're not even allowed
to even go to the garage. I'm I'm fine."
He's gonna have extra security, all that.
NASCAR's involved.
Someone's trying to intimidate Bubba.
Who did it? Why'd they do it?
Was this targeted? Was it on purpose?
How do we wanna handle this?
We have to acknowledge it, right?
Before media gets a hold of this,
we gotta put something out there.
We've got to make sure
we handle this correctly.
Breaking news this morning,
a noose was found
A noose was found in a garage
at the Talladega Superspeedway overnight.
NASCAR says,
"We're angry and outraged,
and cannot state strongly enough
how seriously we take this heinous act."
Bubba Wallace's statement,
he said, "We will not be deterred
by the reprehensible actions
of those who seek to spread hate."
"This will not break me."
"I will not give in,
nor will I back down."
Immediately, Steve Phelps said,
"There needs to be
a full FBI investigation."
We had to investigate
why that noose was there.
Less than 24 hours later,
there are 15 field agents
that descended on Talladega.
Add federal investigators now
looking into the hanging of a noose.
Obviously, if they've committed a crime,
you deal with them with
the full muscle and extent of the law.
I heard about the noose on social media.
I mean, let's be honest,
it's what everybody was thinking,
"This is on-brand for this sport."
And considering the level of which Bubba
had been making his feelings known,
and had become very active
about expressing his outrage
over what was happening in our country,
and being a leader and a voice,
we all knew there was gonna be some moment
where somebody was gonna try
to put him back in his place
and somebody was gonna try to silence him.
That noose seemed to be,
"Here it is. Here we go.
Here comes the bullshit."
It's a noose.
And understanding
what that symbolizes, it's like,
"Well, Bub, they're just
trying to scare you."
"Don't let this affect you.
It'll be all right."
Called my dad.
You can put down your differences
for big things like that.
"Hey, there was a noose found."
"You got a gun?" That's what he said.
I was like, "No."
"You need to get one."
"All right."
He's the only one
that knows what it's like to be Black
and be driving in NASCAR.
For him to be dealing with this,
um, and dealing with it alone
There was, of course,
a level of, you know, sadness for him.
There's just a long history
of Black athlete activism.
We could go back to Jack Johnson.
We could go back to Althea Gibson,
Jackie Robinson,
Jesse Owens, Bill Russell.
All these Black athletes
who used their sport
to address something bigger.
In war,
the intention is to kill
and continue killing innocent people.
If a Black athlete was political,
it hurt his career.
Muhammad Ali was
immediately stripped of his title
by the World Boxing Association.
His ranting and raving,
his association with extremist Negroes,
have all made him unpopular.
Tommie Smith told me
when they got kicked off the Olympic team,
sent home from the Olympics,
couldn't find a job,
totally ostracized by society.
He was broke.
In every generation, there's always
been athletes that took a stand.
There's also been athletes
that have been very apolitical,
not having a point of view
on these issues.
Nobody does it better than Hertz.
It was too polarizing.
Gonna lose half your customer base.
And so, you know,
it was the right thing to do
from a business
and a bottom-line perspective.
So, famously,
you talk about Michael Jordan saying,
"Republicans buy shoes too."
"Why would I speak out on politics?
That's gonna hurt the bottom line."
But then there's a shift,
and a lot of it happened
in LeBron James' time,
where LeBron James went from an athlete
who maybe wasn't gonna speak out
to suddenly, "If you don't speak out,
you're not paying attention."
Outrage over the fatal
shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin
is spreading
LeBron James decided
that it was time to speak up.
Eric Garner saying
"I can't breathe" 11 times.
I think it was a mass
sort of recognition
that there's something big
that we need to fix in this country.
Here, where Michael Brown was killed
- Sterling shot by officer
- Philando Castile shot
Not guilty verdict
in the death of Freddie Gray.
Colin Kaepernick is expected
to kneel once again.
Colin Kaepernick, he put
a different obligation on athletes
when it came to
speaking up for social justice.
I know the consequences
that come along with my decision.
Get that son of a bitch
off the field right now. Out.
He's fired!
I believe our President has kind of
used sport to kind of divide us.
Shut up and dribble.
Looking at the nature of protesting,
it's at its most supreme effectiveness
when it can create disruption.
The entire
Cowboys team, including owner Jerry Jones,
a supporter of President Trump's,
taking a knee.
Seeing what Colin Kaepernick did
and what he went through,
uh, it's impossible for people
not to be inspired by that.
And it's also impossible not to say,
"It's time I risk something.
It's time I put something on the table."
I got a daughter.
And I'm gonna do
whatever I gotta do to make sure
she can look at her dad and be like,
"Hey, you did something,
tried to make a change."
Know what I'm saying?
At this point,
I've been blessed to have the privilege
of being in the NFL,
but I can't look in the mirror,
and see other people dying on the street
that should have
the same opportunities I've had,
and say, "I can live with myself,"
because I can't if I just watch.
That spirit has woven its way
into Bubba Wallace.
Something changed inside me
to be an activist.
My mother said, "Did you ever believe
you'd be an activist?"
And I'm like, "No, not really."
But, you know, I just felt in my heart
that I needed to step up.
I know that people often look at
when an athlete
is, you know,
is the only one in the sport
The thing about breaking a barrier
is that it involves breaking.
That means there's pain
associated with it.
And when you go back
and you look at what athletes
like Jackie Robinson had to deal with,
what you didn't hear about is
what that did to Jackie's spirit,
the pain it left him with,
being the only one,
being called "nigger"
in every possible stadium.
Dealing with a huge level
of racial hostility,
you know,
that's psychologically traumatizing.
And so, when the noose incident happened,
I was disheartened, sad,
because what Bubba is going through,
in real time, is horrible.
He's paying a cost and a price
that most people aren't built to pay.
Welcome to Talladega.
Where we try for the second day
to get 500 miles of racing in.
Weather prevented that yesterday.
Jimmie Johnson had called me
to check in.
We also have a driver's chat,
and he said, "I don't know about y'all,
but I plan on standing next to Bubba
for, uh, for national anthem."
In our driver text, it started growing,
"We're gonna stand in unity behind Bubba."
That to me was like,
"Man, this is this is my friend."
We're really a big family.
We support each other no matter what.
All of NASCAR's drivers
have rallied around Bubba Wallace,
the NASCAR Cup Series' lone Black driver.
I noticed it was very busy
in the background of the drivers.
The drivers and their crews,
the entire garage area.
Bubba's friends,
competitors, and on-track foes
have closed ranks around him.
That was the whole garage.
And I lost it.
Richard Petty is here today.
The king of our sport
flies in the middle of COVID,
and is there to walk beside him?
I went because
I was 100% behind my driver.
When we have a driver driving for us,
he becomes part of the Petty family,
or we become part of his family.
It was spectacular.
I mean, I was incredibly emotional
while watching it.
That was a tremendous sign of unity.
Shocking.
That's something you never thought
that you would see in NASCAR.
For everybody to stand in support
with Bubba in that moment,
give us that visual
about what that support looks like
There's something bigger at stake here.
To send that message to other people
that you consider him
to be one of you is powerful.
There's been quite a bit of time
that has passed since that day.
You're still gonna have those people
that wanna have backlash.
Hopefully, they just choose
to not come to the race.
Whoo! Yeah!
Let's go, baby! Dega, baby!
To come back to Talladega,
it was a little weird.
As traumatizing as it is,
athletes in general,
you know, we forget quickly,
and we we come back
ready to work the next day.
The race is on
for Bubba Wallace!
No matter what struggles
you go through, you keep pushing.
- Get 'em, Bub.
- Yes, sir.
- This'll be a good day for you.
- Hopefully.
- It'll be good. You been rolling.
- Yes, sir.
How's everything just in general?
- Grinding through. It's a lot.
- Is it? You got a lot going on?
For sure. We'll be all right.
Come yell at me
if you got anything I can help with.
Okay. I will.
- Let me know.
- Thanks, Coach. Appreciate it.
What's up?
This is the bullshit
we keep talking about.
Like what?
Now we all
have to go to the back.
All the cars go through inspection.
NASCAR, what they saw
is we had a piece of tape around
the A-posts of our car they didn't like.
We went through inspection,
you had a chance to look at it,
but when they're on the grid,
they didn't like it.
They kept making up shit
of like, "Eh, we don't like it."
We get on the grid. Now they're like
"We don't like that tape.
Go to the back."
Yeah.
What is it?
It's nothing.
You got to pull that off. And now
that's called an unapproved adjustment.
You adjusted the car after inspection.
You have to go to the back.
Did they get all of our cars?
I'm sure they did.
JGR, which is Joe Gibbs Racing,
along with 23XI,
were aligned with Toyota.
And so that means, essentially,
Bubba, he also has to go to the back.
Thing is, we've gone
through tech multiple times.
Exactly. Yeah.
The further you are back in the field,
the dirtier your air is,
the worse your car's gonna drive,
the slower it's gonna be.
Welcome back to Talladega.
Late breaking news,
all of the Toyotas will start in the back
due to unapproved adjustments.
Follow the other cars.
Have all the Toyotas back here with us.
We'll work with them, try to get up there.
All right. You know the deal here, 188.
Let's go to work.
Yes, sir!
Ready, stacking a little Green, green.
Green flag at Talladega!
Be aggressive.
Try to get up front. All clear.
Bubba Wallace has moved up
31 positions after starting last, 40th.
Wow.
Got 1 goin' down now, be ready.
Go down there now.
Denny Hamlin
Oh, he's gonna Wrecking
All the way through. Cool it down.
Wrecking.
Fuck.
Easy, easy, easy, easy.
Easy, easy, easy, easy.
Keep coming now. Keep coming.
Stay green, stay green.
You good?
I just checked
the right spot. Whoo!
Ah, you know, pretty uneventful.
Just had a car land on us.
I think we're good, we made it through.
Thankful to see
that car back on four wheels,
and grabbing the window net there.
- A good sign.
- Great sign.
Green, green.
- 21 gonna put a block, yes.
- Oh, wow.
Wow. Lead change here.
From worst to first,
Bubba Wallace started this race 40th
under penalty.
He's making a move.
Come back on bottom.
Come bottom.
When you're leading,
you have to be on your game.
Keep an eye
on the 11 of Hamlin.
He is trying to get his lap back
before this stage ends.
To, uh, throw the right blocks
at the right time.
Back bottom.
Whoa.
And make sure you keep that lead.
Hamlin and Keselowski
are nose-to-tail on the inside.
And here they come.
And then Denny came up into the picture,
and he's aggressive.
Gotta block every run he's got.
11's got momentum
in the middle lane.
That's where
the chess match comes in.
What's Bubba Wallace gonna do?
Gonna try to protect that lead.
Are they teammates
or not teammates,
team owner or not team owner
in that situation?
Blocking the boss. Long as we run good,
he'll be okay with it.
Bubba Wallace trying
for his first-ever stage win.
Lot of aggressive moves.
That's what pushed him to the lead.
Watch 2 going top, up top.
Whoa!
I thought he made a few moves
that were questionable.
He was lucky he didn't get wrecked
in a few of 'em.
34, 12,
on the bottom, come down bottom.
Whoa, down the yellow line.
Flies to the bottom
to block the run.
How much risk you take?
But you're trying to block
both of those lines to maintain control.
Take no prisoners.
Roger that.
All right. We're in a good spot.
It'll be one to go.
Up top. All the way top.
- Denny, an outside wall.
- There he is.
Wreckin' behind you. Stay green.
That was a big block.
Stacked them up,
turned them around.
- Stage ends. Bubba Wallace.
- Got it.
Let's fuckin' go, boys!
Check that off the list.
First stage win for me. Appreciate it.
Got the stage win, pretty cool.
That was our first, pretty special moment.
Stage 3.
Bubba Wallace just ran the fastest lap
of the day, 202.77 miles per hour.
He was very aggressive,
played the lines correctly.
When big runs were coming,
he was getting in front of them.
Gotta get out from behind 42.
He's terrible.
When you make a move, and you're deciding
to pass the person in front of you
on the high side or the low side,
you're relying on people behind you
to follow you.
And the pass will not get made
if you don't have someone behind you
willing to stay with you.
That's not gonna help.
Bubba goes to the outside of the 42.
That's gonna stall that whole lane now.
I didn't understand that move.
Fucking just awful.
You make one wrong move,
you get shuffled to the back.
If you do it too late, then it's
really hard to get back up to the front.
Ran well all day.
We got stage points.
We put ourselves in good position,
but we kinda gave it away with a mistake.
Here they come.
To the outside comes McDowell,
and Brad Keselowski wins Talladega!
Man, that was wild.
Brad Keselowski led one lap.
Only one that counts!
- We've been there, done that.
- Yeah.
Good day.
P-18 is not where we wanted to finish,
but, obviously, it's a stage win,
points, everything else.
Could have been a lot worse. Uh
Nice job, Freddie, pit crew, road crew.
Good points day.
Bubba's first stage win
of his career was big for the team.
It's still a checkered flag,
even though it's green and white,
not black and white.
- Good job. Good day.
- Good day.
Obviously wanted to win,
but we made it up on the points.
So, it was good.
Okay, Bub.
It's important to win a race
from a driver-confidence standpoint,
I can tell you that.
For a team-morale standpoint.
Is it necessary? No.
But Bubba is a very emotional person,
and he feeds off the good times,
and he also feeds off the bad times.
As an athlete, though, I think
you have to really manage your emotions.
And I think that the great ones,
you know, from what I've seen,
handle adversity better than others.
The FBI called me.
Wallace was not
the target of a hate crime.
People jump to their own conclusions.
- Noose hoax
- The fake stunt
You're a fucking piece of shit.
I was like,
"The President tweeted at me!"
Bubba owes no one an apology.
This is as solid
as I've seen Bubba in a long time.
Got a penalty.
You fucked up,
and you cost us a top-ten day.
You have Michael Jordan
at the track, and it's your worst track?
- It's gotta play in your mind a bit.
- Let's go race.
I can't see.
- And into the wall!
- I'm done.
Oh, oh my God
I got to make it to the end
It's far
All my life, I've been counted out
All my life has been hard, hard
Oh, hard, hard
And oh my God
I've got to make it to the end
It's far
The sun is burning
And it's getting hot
Feeling so alone, alone
There's only one thing left to do
I put the pedal to the floor
I put the pedal to the floor
I put the pedal to the floor
I put the pedal to the
They're coming for my head
Leaving just to see my shame
I think they want me dead, dead
But no, I won't give up
And no, I can't give in
I'm in my journey
And God, you know I'm gonna win
They're coming for my head
Leaving just to see my shame
I think they want me dead, dead
But no, I won't give up
They'll know I can't give in
I'm in my journey
And God, you know I'm gonna win
I'm gonna win, oh
When I started out,
we always won.
Back in 2013
win
win.
What's next?
I am so proud of you, baby!
Goddang it, Mom.
Come on, now.
It's Daytona.
Well, that sucks.
Hey, can we get top 20 here?
I screwed up so bad.
It sucks, man.
Coming into the 2021 season
- Oh!
- A hard crash!
got into a wreck. Fucked that one up.
Oh! Bubba goes around!
What the fuck?
Going into Martinsville,
I expected to win.
Hey, fuck you.
I hate losing,
and I haven't won in four years.
What the hell is going on?
Still telling myself
that I suck every day.
They were like,
"What's going on? You seem different."
I'm like, "I'm depressed."
And I finally told him,
I need help.
Your favorite race
so far this year?
Well, it was gonna be Martinsville,
but that didn't work out.
Um
Hm.
I haven't had one.
I haven't had one.
I wanna show a couple things
to everyone
about what I see that's a struggle.
There's plenty to talk about.
Uh, biggest thing I wrote down
is braking, center turn and migration,
what Freddie saw in the race,
our communications during a race,
uh, and again, just get back to believing
that we are better than
what we're showing right now.
We talk about the limitations we have.
Part of that is getting Bubba
in here to be face-to-face with the guys
that mechanic the car,
that put the car together.
What did he fight the most?
Was he loose in?
Was he tight center? Was he loose off?
A lot of factors keep us from winning.
Wanna make sure we cross those off.
Now, you getting beat at Martinsville.
I know dang well
you struggled at Martinsville.
Yeah, I'm really pissed at Martinsville.
I expected to win.
So, that's what happens
when you have expectations like that.
I expected to run better.
I'm actually surprised
we suffered as poor as we did.
We all wanted to be better than 16th.
So, that's what I wanna talk about.
I think, um 'Cause again,
you didn't like your brakes.
I mean, you said the pedal was
That effort was high for you, right?
Yeah. Like, it was super stiff.
And, I mean, I was
- All I had to press that motherfucker.
- Yeah.
And it's, like, doing doing this
under the braking zone.
It's like Man, I was going way beyond
comfort zone just to get it to stop.
Is our brake pedal, in general,
stiffer than what you had over at RPM?
Yes, especially at Martinsville.
It was confidence in the brakes.
You knew they weren't gripping as much.
Fix the brakes first.
I mean, Freddie, you wanna
tell Bubba what you thought?
Looked to me like you were just
really struggling to get it slowed down,
struggling with the brake package.
It looked uncommon
for what we've always been doing there.
Didn't know if that was just the brakes.
Car was not good, by any means.
Um, it was tight. It was loose.
Tight is no traction in the front.
Loose is no traction in the rear.
Hard for everybody.
Everybody's mad, frustrated.
'Cause he was asking me
on the first 50 laps,
"Hey, what's he doing?
He looks like he's all out of place."
And again, you were.
Bubba needs some coaching
and, you know, some realism.
It's not easy.
A lot of times, there's hurt feelings.
Easy to say,
"My equipment's not good enough."
But again, it's not about,
you know, taking it personal,
it's trying to be critical
about being better.
So, one thing I noticed,
and I've spent hours looking at data
He's slower than me mid-corner.
It's That's why it's like,
you don't need to make all your time here.
The orange
Yeah, like,
carry the heavier break longer.
- Yeah.
- And trail break.
You can't just rely
on natural talent.
That's something that Bubba has,
so that's the first key, refining it.
What I want to see is by the end of this,
we're battling inside the top ten.
Get a better brake package,
we'll be fine.
Oh! I'm not gonna lie.
That was so frustrating.
I don't care we finished
It was good we finished 16th 'cause
we should have finished fucking 25th.
There's no doubt.
I had high hopes
going into Martinsville.
I expected to win.
That confidence I felt I had?
Gone.
Funny how that works, huh?
I've known Bubba from kids
up until now. We've been really close.
All the attention was great last year,
but now he wants to back that up
with results on the race track,
but if those aren't coming
as quickly as he would like,
the stress and pressure
starts getting on him.
When he says, "I wanna go out there
and win under the checkered,"
and then that doesn't happen,
it's just not anybody else's fault
but his own in his eyes.
He would harbor it inside
to where he was just so frustrated
and so built-up
that he would essentially explode,
like an inch away from losing it.
I remember a couple of years ago
after he finished second
at the Daytona 500,
he's, I mean, super emotional.
Walk through the emotion
of this moment for you.
He has allergies.
I'm watching this from behind the stage,
I'm like, "What is going on?"
Pull it together, bud.
You just finished second. It's awesome.
I just try so hard
to be successful at everything I do,
- and my family pushes me
- each and every day.
And they might not even know it,
but I just wanna make them proud and
Second isn't horrible,
but it's still a good day. Um
I-I always know that he's hard on himself,
but this was to a whole 'nother level.
And I'm telling him, like,
"You gotta be open and honest with me."
"This is friendship right now.
There's more to this."
And I finally told him.
I got a lot of shit going on.
I need help.
I commend you
for coming forward about that,
because a lot of people are struggling.
They were like, "What's going on? Seem
different." I'm like, "I'm depressed."
It's been a lot better,
um, but there's still days I go home,
sit on the couch, and look at a blank TV.
- Oof.
- Yeah.
Welcome back
to our coverage of this tour event
already in progress.
Good stuff today.
The short game's been really sharp today.
There's a lot of shit
going on up here. Um
My mental state has definitely
taken me out of a lot of races
throughout the last three or four years.
I became one of those haters.
I became the person sitting
in the stands that boos me.
"You suck. You can't do this."
"Your teammates are lappin' you."
"You got the same stuff they do,
and you're pathetic."
"You're a piece of shit."
You know, when you're at this level,
you do have a lot of responsibilities
and obligations to fulfill,
and a lot of people counting on you.
You know, I want the best
for myself, my family.
And so when it doesn't happen,
you start to blame yourself
for not getting the job done, you know?
But that's
I think that sends you down that path.
And then it just kind of latches onto you,
and you can't really just shake it off.
That dark cloud comes over, and
you can't think positive things, you know?
I don't know.
I-I haven't been the suicidal person.
It's just the self-doubt, self-hate
of like, "Hey, you'll never
be good enough." And it's like
It's hard to overcome that.
He and I talk very often
about where we're at.
We had a pretty rough patch
in our relationship for about a year.
We were actually struggling in
our relationship when he, um, came to me
and said how he was struggling mentally,
and that was the first time.
It's hard to watch
but over the last couple years,
I've figured out how to help him,
I think, in ways, um
Try to calm him down if he's worked up,
or if he sees something,
you know, we try to bring it back
to reality, you know.
But I definitely think a lot of it
stems from his parents' divorce.
He really cares about
his relationship with his father,
and it's not there at the moment.
Right now, they're just not
in a, um communicative, uh, space.
And so I think that's hard on Darrell,
um, because he won't say it,
but he needs it,
he needs that relationship,
in my opinion.
The relationship that Bubba has
with his dad was very close.
A lot of people have the misconception
that Bubba was born
with a silver spoon in his mouth.
That is so not true.
When Bubba first started racing,
we had just started
our company, Wallace Industrial,
it was an industrial cleaning business.
We had hydro-blasting trucks,
and vacuum trucks, pressure washers.
You know, the PSIs are powerful.
The machines that Wallace Industrial has
can basically cut a house in half.
It took a lot of time and sacrifice
to support Bubba.
His dad made sure
that he had the best equipment
in order to run with the best.
You know, we had to wait
before we could pay our bills
because of the sacrifices
we made with his racing.
His dad supported him in that.
People don't understand,
that was his best friend.
I give a lot of credit to his father
for being where he is today,
but when it comes to divorce, you know
We were together almost 30 years,
and I never could have imagined
the breakup would be
as nasty and ugly as it was.
So, that was 2016.
It was such a bad divorce.
Life is falling apart.
You know, my parents' life
is falling apart.
Me and my dad,
yeah, we didn't talk for, uh
We didn't talk for a long time.
His quote is, "Time heals all wounds,"
and then that would be it.
2016, when I signed my, uh,
my first Cup contract
You know, my dad was always
a part of my deals.
He was the one negotiating everything,
was always there, part of those meetings,
and this time he wasn't.
It was a little weird, intimidating,
being there by myself,
but I had my managers around me,
but, you know
You sit there and look at everything,
and you're kind of an adult on your own.
So I remember texting him,
you know, "Hey, Pops. Hope all is well."
Um
"Just wanted to say I love you, uh,
and hope that I made you proud
by signing my first Cup contract."
Bub has tried to reach out
to his father several times.
Of course he's bothered that
the relationship he has with his father
is not where he would like for it to be.
Um, and I know he's deeply hurt by that.
Um, and like I said,
we just continue to pray, uh, for healing.
Do you feel like
time heals all wounds?
No.
No.
I'm in a routine.
Usually at the gym 8:45 in the morning.
Still haven't accepted that routine.
I still bitch and complain about it,
just 'cause I don't like
being up early or working out.
I still do it, though.
Just to keep me mentally focused
and not become an enemy of self.
Such a stigma that people
can't talk about being depressed.
Just seems like it latches onto you,
and you struggle to, uh
Ooh, God!
to shake it off.
Like, just snap out of it.
When it comes to
Bubba's emotional state,
I don't wanna seem worried,
but he's still figuring out
what he needs to do to get
his emotional state back to where it is,
but it takes time,
and sometimes he's not very patient.
- Bubba, march.
- Huh?
What?
- March, don't run.
- Oh.
The next race to come up,
which is Talladega,
a lot of people would think to come back
to Talladega would be very traumatizing,
but, you know, you wipe the slate clean
and you go back.
That's just my mentality.
Talladega, the first
big sporting event since the pandemic
to allow a large number of fans.
Five thousand fans were here today,
and a NASCAR official told me
that the Confederate flag ban is in place.
All Confederate flags are now
prohibited from NASCAR events.
This comes after the circuit's only Black
full-time driver pushed for the change.
I think people thought of NASCAR
as a racist sport.
And we're not.
We are a sport of people who want
to include other people to come here.
For those that wanted to fly the flag
and that was important to them,
they just can't do it at our facilities.
Across the street
from the track,
there are a number of gift shops
selling Confederate flag memorabilia.
They're everywhere
you look out here.
Alabama is a very difficult state
for a person of color to be in.
My first experience
was in 1990 going to that track.
People stopping their conversations
and pointing at me.
It was clear that I didn't see
anybody else that looked like me.
And I could tell
that I was a fish out of water.
A plane flew over
the racetrack
in Talladega today with a Confederate flag
and a banner that read "Defund NASCAR."
It's just very, very rooted
in oppression
and, you know, white supremacy
and things of that nature.
We were maybe ten days, if that,
off of banning the Confederate flag.
And so, to find the Confederate flag
in Talladega, Alabama,
there was a lot of tension.
Also, given where we were as a country
during that time, emotions were high.
- I can't breathe!
- Louder!
- I can't breathe!
- Louder!
Overnight, nationwide unrest.
Across the country,
what started as peaceful gatherings
protesting the death of George Floyd
devolved into destruction.
At least two dozen cities
are under some sort of curfew.
The climate of the entire sport
at that time,
there were a large group
of people that were all for him,
"He's the best thing
that's ever happened to the sport."
There's also a very large group saying,
"You are essentially ruining NASCAR
by taking this stance."
There was a protest
outside the track.
People are protesting
as a result of something you did.
It felt, it felt I felt nervous.
Very tense weekend to go To start.
Rain has now made its way
to the speedway.
I'm afraid this shower
has turned into a super soaker.
So, we're at Talladega,
and the worst thing that happens
at a NASCAR track is when it rains, right?
It's miserable 'cause you're gonna
go through this long process
of trying to dry the track.
I was up in race control,
talked to Steve O'Donnell.
It's almost 4:00 on Sunday.
He said, "We can't dry the track in time."
"Gonna get too dark. We can't go."
"We're gonna have to postpone
till tomorrow." I'm like "Brutal."
Um, I said, "Okay."
And he said there's a crew member
on Bubba's team,
that they found a noose
in Bubba's garage stall.
My heart sank.
What are we gonna do?
But, importantly, we needed
to have a discussion with Bubba.
Um, and that, obviously,
I felt was my responsibility.
My phone rang,
and I was like, "Steve Phelps."
And said, "I need to talk to you."
He's like, "Mind if I swing by?"
I'm like "Okay. Shit."
"Should I pack up my bag, Steve?
Do I need to leave?"
"Am I suspended? What's the deal?"
He's like, "All right, I'll be there
in a minute." I'm like, "Okay."
So, I went to his bus, and it-it was
I I have to tell you I was as nervous
as I've been
in almost anything I've ever done
to have to walk into his motor coach
and to tell him this.
Um
So, I open up the door for him.
He walks in, and he looks up,
says, "Hey, bud."
He's got tears in his eyes,
and he's struggling to talk.
Um
It was hard.
Um, so, I walked in, and I told him.
He was like,
"There was a noose found in your garage."
And so it was like "A what?"
And he said we'll do everything
to "find the motherfucker that did this,"
and they'll never be allowed back
in our garage, in our sport.
And tears are rolling.
"But we'll be in contact."
Then he left.
So, I sat there.
Called my mom.
I got a call from Bub.
He said, "I have something to tell you."
"They think there was
a hate crime committed."
"They found a noose." I'm emotional.
And I was like, "Son, are you okay?"
- "I'm all right."
- He said, "Mom, I'm fine. I'm nowhere"
"We're not even allowed
to even go to the garage. I'm I'm fine."
He's gonna have extra security, all that.
NASCAR's involved.
Someone's trying to intimidate Bubba.
Who did it? Why'd they do it?
Was this targeted? Was it on purpose?
How do we wanna handle this?
We have to acknowledge it, right?
Before media gets a hold of this,
we gotta put something out there.
We've got to make sure
we handle this correctly.
Breaking news this morning,
a noose was found
A noose was found in a garage
at the Talladega Superspeedway overnight.
NASCAR says,
"We're angry and outraged,
and cannot state strongly enough
how seriously we take this heinous act."
Bubba Wallace's statement,
he said, "We will not be deterred
by the reprehensible actions
of those who seek to spread hate."
"This will not break me."
"I will not give in,
nor will I back down."
Immediately, Steve Phelps said,
"There needs to be
a full FBI investigation."
We had to investigate
why that noose was there.
Less than 24 hours later,
there are 15 field agents
that descended on Talladega.
Add federal investigators now
looking into the hanging of a noose.
Obviously, if they've committed a crime,
you deal with them with
the full muscle and extent of the law.
I heard about the noose on social media.
I mean, let's be honest,
it's what everybody was thinking,
"This is on-brand for this sport."
And considering the level of which Bubba
had been making his feelings known,
and had become very active
about expressing his outrage
over what was happening in our country,
and being a leader and a voice,
we all knew there was gonna be some moment
where somebody was gonna try
to put him back in his place
and somebody was gonna try to silence him.
That noose seemed to be,
"Here it is. Here we go.
Here comes the bullshit."
It's a noose.
And understanding
what that symbolizes, it's like,
"Well, Bub, they're just
trying to scare you."
"Don't let this affect you.
It'll be all right."
Called my dad.
You can put down your differences
for big things like that.
"Hey, there was a noose found."
"You got a gun?" That's what he said.
I was like, "No."
"You need to get one."
"All right."
He's the only one
that knows what it's like to be Black
and be driving in NASCAR.
For him to be dealing with this,
um, and dealing with it alone
There was, of course,
a level of, you know, sadness for him.
There's just a long history
of Black athlete activism.
We could go back to Jack Johnson.
We could go back to Althea Gibson,
Jackie Robinson,
Jesse Owens, Bill Russell.
All these Black athletes
who used their sport
to address something bigger.
In war,
the intention is to kill
and continue killing innocent people.
If a Black athlete was political,
it hurt his career.
Muhammad Ali was
immediately stripped of his title
by the World Boxing Association.
His ranting and raving,
his association with extremist Negroes,
have all made him unpopular.
Tommie Smith told me
when they got kicked off the Olympic team,
sent home from the Olympics,
couldn't find a job,
totally ostracized by society.
He was broke.
In every generation, there's always
been athletes that took a stand.
There's also been athletes
that have been very apolitical,
not having a point of view
on these issues.
Nobody does it better than Hertz.
It was too polarizing.
Gonna lose half your customer base.
And so, you know,
it was the right thing to do
from a business
and a bottom-line perspective.
So, famously,
you talk about Michael Jordan saying,
"Republicans buy shoes too."
"Why would I speak out on politics?
That's gonna hurt the bottom line."
But then there's a shift,
and a lot of it happened
in LeBron James' time,
where LeBron James went from an athlete
who maybe wasn't gonna speak out
to suddenly, "If you don't speak out,
you're not paying attention."
Outrage over the fatal
shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin
is spreading
LeBron James decided
that it was time to speak up.
Eric Garner saying
"I can't breathe" 11 times.
I think it was a mass
sort of recognition
that there's something big
that we need to fix in this country.
Here, where Michael Brown was killed
- Sterling shot by officer
- Philando Castile shot
Not guilty verdict
in the death of Freddie Gray.
Colin Kaepernick is expected
to kneel once again.
Colin Kaepernick, he put
a different obligation on athletes
when it came to
speaking up for social justice.
I know the consequences
that come along with my decision.
Get that son of a bitch
off the field right now. Out.
He's fired!
I believe our President has kind of
used sport to kind of divide us.
Shut up and dribble.
Looking at the nature of protesting,
it's at its most supreme effectiveness
when it can create disruption.
The entire
Cowboys team, including owner Jerry Jones,
a supporter of President Trump's,
taking a knee.
Seeing what Colin Kaepernick did
and what he went through,
uh, it's impossible for people
not to be inspired by that.
And it's also impossible not to say,
"It's time I risk something.
It's time I put something on the table."
I got a daughter.
And I'm gonna do
whatever I gotta do to make sure
she can look at her dad and be like,
"Hey, you did something,
tried to make a change."
Know what I'm saying?
At this point,
I've been blessed to have the privilege
of being in the NFL,
but I can't look in the mirror,
and see other people dying on the street
that should have
the same opportunities I've had,
and say, "I can live with myself,"
because I can't if I just watch.
That spirit has woven its way
into Bubba Wallace.
Something changed inside me
to be an activist.
My mother said, "Did you ever believe
you'd be an activist?"
And I'm like, "No, not really."
But, you know, I just felt in my heart
that I needed to step up.
I know that people often look at
when an athlete
is, you know,
is the only one in the sport
The thing about breaking a barrier
is that it involves breaking.
That means there's pain
associated with it.
And when you go back
and you look at what athletes
like Jackie Robinson had to deal with,
what you didn't hear about is
what that did to Jackie's spirit,
the pain it left him with,
being the only one,
being called "nigger"
in every possible stadium.
Dealing with a huge level
of racial hostility,
you know,
that's psychologically traumatizing.
And so, when the noose incident happened,
I was disheartened, sad,
because what Bubba is going through,
in real time, is horrible.
He's paying a cost and a price
that most people aren't built to pay.
Welcome to Talladega.
Where we try for the second day
to get 500 miles of racing in.
Weather prevented that yesterday.
Jimmie Johnson had called me
to check in.
We also have a driver's chat,
and he said, "I don't know about y'all,
but I plan on standing next to Bubba
for, uh, for national anthem."
In our driver text, it started growing,
"We're gonna stand in unity behind Bubba."
That to me was like,
"Man, this is this is my friend."
We're really a big family.
We support each other no matter what.
All of NASCAR's drivers
have rallied around Bubba Wallace,
the NASCAR Cup Series' lone Black driver.
I noticed it was very busy
in the background of the drivers.
The drivers and their crews,
the entire garage area.
Bubba's friends,
competitors, and on-track foes
have closed ranks around him.
That was the whole garage.
And I lost it.
Richard Petty is here today.
The king of our sport
flies in the middle of COVID,
and is there to walk beside him?
I went because
I was 100% behind my driver.
When we have a driver driving for us,
he becomes part of the Petty family,
or we become part of his family.
It was spectacular.
I mean, I was incredibly emotional
while watching it.
That was a tremendous sign of unity.
Shocking.
That's something you never thought
that you would see in NASCAR.
For everybody to stand in support
with Bubba in that moment,
give us that visual
about what that support looks like
There's something bigger at stake here.
To send that message to other people
that you consider him
to be one of you is powerful.
There's been quite a bit of time
that has passed since that day.
You're still gonna have those people
that wanna have backlash.
Hopefully, they just choose
to not come to the race.
Whoo! Yeah!
Let's go, baby! Dega, baby!
To come back to Talladega,
it was a little weird.
As traumatizing as it is,
athletes in general,
you know, we forget quickly,
and we we come back
ready to work the next day.
The race is on
for Bubba Wallace!
No matter what struggles
you go through, you keep pushing.
- Get 'em, Bub.
- Yes, sir.
- This'll be a good day for you.
- Hopefully.
- It'll be good. You been rolling.
- Yes, sir.
How's everything just in general?
- Grinding through. It's a lot.
- Is it? You got a lot going on?
For sure. We'll be all right.
Come yell at me
if you got anything I can help with.
Okay. I will.
- Let me know.
- Thanks, Coach. Appreciate it.
What's up?
This is the bullshit
we keep talking about.
Like what?
Now we all
have to go to the back.
All the cars go through inspection.
NASCAR, what they saw
is we had a piece of tape around
the A-posts of our car they didn't like.
We went through inspection,
you had a chance to look at it,
but when they're on the grid,
they didn't like it.
They kept making up shit
of like, "Eh, we don't like it."
We get on the grid. Now they're like
"We don't like that tape.
Go to the back."
Yeah.
What is it?
It's nothing.
You got to pull that off. And now
that's called an unapproved adjustment.
You adjusted the car after inspection.
You have to go to the back.
Did they get all of our cars?
I'm sure they did.
JGR, which is Joe Gibbs Racing,
along with 23XI,
were aligned with Toyota.
And so that means, essentially,
Bubba, he also has to go to the back.
Thing is, we've gone
through tech multiple times.
Exactly. Yeah.
The further you are back in the field,
the dirtier your air is,
the worse your car's gonna drive,
the slower it's gonna be.
Welcome back to Talladega.
Late breaking news,
all of the Toyotas will start in the back
due to unapproved adjustments.
Follow the other cars.
Have all the Toyotas back here with us.
We'll work with them, try to get up there.
All right. You know the deal here, 188.
Let's go to work.
Yes, sir!
Ready, stacking a little Green, green.
Green flag at Talladega!
Be aggressive.
Try to get up front. All clear.
Bubba Wallace has moved up
31 positions after starting last, 40th.
Wow.
Got 1 goin' down now, be ready.
Go down there now.
Denny Hamlin
Oh, he's gonna Wrecking
All the way through. Cool it down.
Wrecking.
Fuck.
Easy, easy, easy, easy.
Easy, easy, easy, easy.
Keep coming now. Keep coming.
Stay green, stay green.
You good?
I just checked
the right spot. Whoo!
Ah, you know, pretty uneventful.
Just had a car land on us.
I think we're good, we made it through.
Thankful to see
that car back on four wheels,
and grabbing the window net there.
- A good sign.
- Great sign.
Green, green.
- 21 gonna put a block, yes.
- Oh, wow.
Wow. Lead change here.
From worst to first,
Bubba Wallace started this race 40th
under penalty.
He's making a move.
Come back on bottom.
Come bottom.
When you're leading,
you have to be on your game.
Keep an eye
on the 11 of Hamlin.
He is trying to get his lap back
before this stage ends.
To, uh, throw the right blocks
at the right time.
Back bottom.
Whoa.
And make sure you keep that lead.
Hamlin and Keselowski
are nose-to-tail on the inside.
And here they come.
And then Denny came up into the picture,
and he's aggressive.
Gotta block every run he's got.
11's got momentum
in the middle lane.
That's where
the chess match comes in.
What's Bubba Wallace gonna do?
Gonna try to protect that lead.
Are they teammates
or not teammates,
team owner or not team owner
in that situation?
Blocking the boss. Long as we run good,
he'll be okay with it.
Bubba Wallace trying
for his first-ever stage win.
Lot of aggressive moves.
That's what pushed him to the lead.
Watch 2 going top, up top.
Whoa!
I thought he made a few moves
that were questionable.
He was lucky he didn't get wrecked
in a few of 'em.
34, 12,
on the bottom, come down bottom.
Whoa, down the yellow line.
Flies to the bottom
to block the run.
How much risk you take?
But you're trying to block
both of those lines to maintain control.
Take no prisoners.
Roger that.
All right. We're in a good spot.
It'll be one to go.
Up top. All the way top.
- Denny, an outside wall.
- There he is.
Wreckin' behind you. Stay green.
That was a big block.
Stacked them up,
turned them around.
- Stage ends. Bubba Wallace.
- Got it.
Let's fuckin' go, boys!
Check that off the list.
First stage win for me. Appreciate it.
Got the stage win, pretty cool.
That was our first, pretty special moment.
Stage 3.
Bubba Wallace just ran the fastest lap
of the day, 202.77 miles per hour.
He was very aggressive,
played the lines correctly.
When big runs were coming,
he was getting in front of them.
Gotta get out from behind 42.
He's terrible.
When you make a move, and you're deciding
to pass the person in front of you
on the high side or the low side,
you're relying on people behind you
to follow you.
And the pass will not get made
if you don't have someone behind you
willing to stay with you.
That's not gonna help.
Bubba goes to the outside of the 42.
That's gonna stall that whole lane now.
I didn't understand that move.
Fucking just awful.
You make one wrong move,
you get shuffled to the back.
If you do it too late, then it's
really hard to get back up to the front.
Ran well all day.
We got stage points.
We put ourselves in good position,
but we kinda gave it away with a mistake.
Here they come.
To the outside comes McDowell,
and Brad Keselowski wins Talladega!
Man, that was wild.
Brad Keselowski led one lap.
Only one that counts!
- We've been there, done that.
- Yeah.
Good day.
P-18 is not where we wanted to finish,
but, obviously, it's a stage win,
points, everything else.
Could have been a lot worse. Uh
Nice job, Freddie, pit crew, road crew.
Good points day.
Bubba's first stage win
of his career was big for the team.
It's still a checkered flag,
even though it's green and white,
not black and white.
- Good job. Good day.
- Good day.
Obviously wanted to win,
but we made it up on the points.
So, it was good.
Okay, Bub.
It's important to win a race
from a driver-confidence standpoint,
I can tell you that.
For a team-morale standpoint.
Is it necessary? No.
But Bubba is a very emotional person,
and he feeds off the good times,
and he also feeds off the bad times.
As an athlete, though, I think
you have to really manage your emotions.
And I think that the great ones,
you know, from what I've seen,
handle adversity better than others.
The FBI called me.
Wallace was not
the target of a hate crime.
People jump to their own conclusions.
- Noose hoax
- The fake stunt
You're a fucking piece of shit.
I was like,
"The President tweeted at me!"
Bubba owes no one an apology.
This is as solid
as I've seen Bubba in a long time.
Got a penalty.
You fucked up,
and you cost us a top-ten day.
You have Michael Jordan
at the track, and it's your worst track?
- It's gotta play in your mind a bit.
- Let's go race.
I can't see.
- And into the wall!
- I'm done.
Oh, oh my God
I got to make it to the end
It's far
All my life, I've been counted out
All my life has been hard, hard
Oh, hard, hard
And oh my God
I've got to make it to the end
It's far
The sun is burning
And it's getting hot
Feeling so alone, alone
There's only one thing left to do
I put the pedal to the floor
I put the pedal to the floor
I put the pedal to the floor
I put the pedal to the
They're coming for my head
Leaving just to see my shame
I think they want me dead, dead
But no, I won't give up
And no, I can't give in
I'm in my journey
And God, you know I'm gonna win
They're coming for my head
Leaving just to see my shame
I think they want me dead, dead
But no, I won't give up
They'll know I can't give in
I'm in my journey
And God, you know I'm gonna win
I'm gonna win, oh