Bubba Wallace announced that he will leave Richard Petty Motorsports and the Number 43 car at the end of the 2020 NASCAR season. “This was not an easy decision as I have nothing but the utmost respect for Richard Petty and his family. I believe it’s time for someone else to take over the reins of the number 43. Thank you to the King and everyone at Richard Petty Motorsports for giving me the opportunity to start my Cup Series career. I’ve grown so much as a driver and as a person since joining them. We’ve got nine more races together, and I hope we can finish the 2020 season on a high note.”
The folks at RPM responded by saying, ” “Earlier this morning, Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace Jr., informed Richard Petty Motorsports he will not be returning for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) season. We will complete the season with Wallace behind the wheel of the No. 43 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. We look forward to the next chapter in the making for the iconic No. 43 team. We will announce our new driver in the near future.”
Wallace is number 22 in the driver standings. Not awful, but certainly not spectacular. This is his third year with RMP and he notched five top-ten finishes, the best of his cup career. However, Wallace has multiple endorsement deals that will go with him if he switches to another racing team.
Confederate Flag Controversy
Wallace was n the national spotlight over the summer when he called on NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag. NASCAR listened and banned its display at all of its tracks. Shortly after that Wallace reported what he took to be a noose hanging from the door of a garage at Talladega Superspeedway.
After an investigation, NASCAR and the FBI determined the pull rope had been on the garage door for nearly a year and was not a hate crime directed at Wallace. Some accused Wallace on social media of mistaking a serpentine belt or an ordinary door pull for a noose. However, he maintained that he’d never seen a door pull like that before and was not out of line to be concerned.
