'Doesn't really matter': Bubba Wallace takes a jab at Ray Cicarelli over Confederate flag stance
NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace says most drivers in the sport support the Black Lives Matter movement, except for one who "doesn't really matter".
Wallace, NASCAR's only African-American driver, helped push for a change in the sport when he called for the confederate flag to be banned from racetracks. In a widely praised move, the sport's officials suspended the use of the flag but not everybody agreed with the move.
Bubba Wallace. Getty
Wallace said he never paid much attention to Cicarelli's comments - a part time driver in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, who has zero wins, zero top-five finishes and has never led a lap in 32 career NASCAR races.
"I've only seen one driver, and I wouldn't really call him a competitor. I haven't really seen him much on the track," Wallace said of Ciccarelli on MSNBC.
"The guys I'm racing with, my peers, they're supportive of NASCAR and supportive of my stance on everything and that means a lot.
"One driver I haven't heard much about in years doesn't really count, doesn't really matter."
Wallace previously said he was "baffled" by Ciccarelli's since-deleted post on Facebook.
Regardless, the move to ban the confederate flag has had major support across the board.
Ray Cicarelli. Getty
NFL star Alvin Kamara saw his first race as an invited guest of NASCAR's on Sunday at the Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway after he tweeted his support for the sport and driver Bubba Wallace after the flag was banned.
Kamara said now that the offensive symbol is gone more African-American people can attend the races without feeling offended.
"What's right is right, and what's wrong is wrong, and I think Bubba's a testament to that," Kamara told ESPN.
"With them being able to, I guess, step away from that, that's a huge step. And flipping the script, just rewriting the narrative on what this sport is and what it stands for," Kamara said.
"There's obviously some people that are against that decision of removing the flag, and I think there's way more people that are for that decision. Because I think there's a certain stigma on the type of fans that support this sport, and there's some bad ones. But I don't think the bad ones represent all the good ones."
