HOMESTEAD, Fla. – NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace wore a protective face mask with an American flag on it, his hand over his heart as he stood for the national anthem.
This time, fans joined him.
In troubled and unprecedented times, a bit of normalcy returned to sports Sunday afternoon. Fans – only 1,000 of them, mostly military members and their guests – were at Homestead-Miami Speedway, marking the first time people were on that side of the fence at a NASCAR race since the coronavirus pandemic shut down sports worldwide.
Among those fans: New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara, who was wearing a T-shirt and a cap with Wallace’s name on them. Wallace is the only full-time black driver in the top-tier Cup Series, and he has essentially become the face of the movement that led to NASCAR’s decision last week to ban the Confederate flag from tracks where it holds races.
“He’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders, being the only African American driver and with what’s going on with the climate of the world right now and taking a stand,” said Kamara, an Atlanta area native whose college football career started at Alabama and finished at Tennessee. “He’s backed into a corner right now, and it takes a lot of courage to be in the place that he’s in and still say, ‘You know what, I’m going to stand up for what’s right’ instead of just being quiet.”