NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace drove a car sponsored by Kroger Health and the COVID-19 vaccine Nuvaxovid in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, a race that drew extra attention because of the sponsorship on his No. 23 Toyota Camry.
In an interview with The Athletic, Wallace addressed the reaction to the sponsorship directly. “Just pissing off the keyboard warriors. Man, why not, right? Here we are,” he said, acknowledging that the partnership is “feeding right into” discomfort some people have with COVID-19 vaccines.
Wallace also explained the broader purpose behind the sponsorship. “The Kroger Health side of things: get your flu shot. People are going to lose their minds over the COVID-19 stuff, but for us it’s about building opportunities for people to be more educated on getting their flu shots, and then taking care of their health and moving forward with that,” he said.
“Everyone else can make their own in lines, but we’re all in it together to help everybody’s health,” Wallace added.
Wallace has three career race wins along with a number of top-10 finishes over the course of his NASCAR career. He remains most widely known for a 2019 incident at Talladega Superspeedway, when he reported finding a rope tied in the shape of a noose in his garage stall. The claim prompted an FBI investigation. Investigators ultimately determined the rope was a pull cord used to close the garage door, which had been there before Wallace’s team was assigned the stall, and concluded that no one had targeted Wallace with a noose.
Sunday’s race marked the latest appearance of the Kroger Health and Nuvaxovid-branded car at Talladega, a track in Talladega County, Alabama, that regularly draws national NASCAR coverage to the region.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login