It is rumored that President Donald Trump will attend Daytona 500 this year on February 16. If it appears, it will be there to see a driver with whom he has an irregular story.
Bubba Wallace, who drives the McDonald’s car for the 23XI team races of the Nascar team of Michael Jordan, dedicated himself to a public dispute with Trump in 2020.
In July 2020, in the apogee of the Covid-19 Pandemia and the sequelae of the George Floyd disturbances, Wallace made multiple publications in X, then known as Twitter, condemning Trump for promoting hatred.
Trump himself attacked Wallace on social networks by the driver asking for a ban on the flags confederated in the careers and claimed that an investigation into a rope that is in his garage was a “deception.” An FBI investigation discovered that the rope had been in the garage position since October 2019, and no crime had been committed.
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Bubba Wallace, #43, wears a “I Can” Black Lives Matter “shirt before an automotive race of the Nascar Cup in Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, June 7, 2020 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo AP/Brynn Anderson)
Later that year, Wallace alleged that they had been told that he was “bringing politics to Nascar”, in response to his sentence to Trump. However, in 2024, Wallace did not make political positions to speak. Wallace previously told Pak Gazette Digital Why.
“Investing my time in that seems a loss of time,” Wallace said at that time. “I was definitely more vocal because our sport needed a desperate change of change.”
Now, with Trump ready to attend Daytona 500, Wallace feels as indifferent as he did during last year’s elections. On Daytona 500 media day on Wednesday, Wallace said “I couldn’t care less” if Trump appeared or not.
“We are here to compete. Not for the show,” Wallace added.
The answer is in line with the recent approach to Wallace’s policy. Unlike 2020, political publications no longer make social networks. His feed on x is now just a cured mixture of photos of races, promotional publications and family photos.
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Bubba Wallace, on the right, discusses with Kyle Larson after the two crashed during an automotive race of the Nascar Cup on Sunday, October 16, 2022 in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
One of the main reasons why Wallace abandoned that 2020 habit is due to cultural changes in social networks during that time. Wallace said there is an overwhelming “negativity on the platforms that would use to send any message of their beliefs.
“Social networks today are just a way that people hide behind a screen and express their opinions about things they really don’t know,” Wallace said before Pak Gazette Digital.
“It is too much negativity that will take years, years and years, and we don’t have time for that,” Wallace said about the current culture of social networks. “Now, with being dad and trying to be the best I can be here for my career team and my team here, that’s where I am investing my energy, so that is all you can really ask for.”
For Wallace, the impact of becoming a father has been a transformative experience for him in such a short time. Since his son was born, Wallace has two top 10 in the three races he has competed. He is also looking at life through a lens that he was not looking before.
“You have your child at home and a complete family to keep for now, so it is crazy to go through all that,” Wallace said.
Meanwhile, if Trump appears, there will be two main appearances in sporting events for the president in the period of one week.
Last Sunday, Trump became the first president in the history of the United States to attend a Super Bowl when he traveled to the Superdome in New Orleans to see the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City chiefs in the Super Bowl Lix.
Trump previously served as a great marshal for the 2020 Daytona 500 and gave the command for drivers to start their engines. He also made a parade around the routite of 2 1/2 miles in his armored limousine, leading the field of 40 cars before the green flag. The presidential caravan remained in the apron in the corners instead of reaching high quality turns.
President Donald Trump, accompanied by Ivanka Trump, speaks before signing the National Security Memorandum to launch the “Development and Global Prosperity of Women”. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Thousands cheered, and a band played patriotic music when Air Force One flew over the famous song, an elevated step that was simultaneously on large screens. Trump’s presence energized fans and caused large headaches due to logistics problems at the entrance points.
Trump, with the first lady Melania Trump next to her, went to the crowd before the race and called Daytona 500 “a legendary sample of roaring engines, turtle spirits and the American skill, speed and power that we have been listening to for so many years.”
