Bubba Wallace wrote his own name in the history books on Sunday. The 23XI driver won the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, becoming the first Black driver to win on the 116-year-old oval where Black competitors were once banned. Wallace’s victory ended a 100-race win drought and punched his ticket into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. The win also comes at a time when his team, owned by basketball legend Michael Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, is suing NASCAR for allegedly violating antitrust laws with its charter system.
Wallace’s trip to victory lane wasn’t as straightforward as it seemed. The No. 23 Toyota Camry was comfortably in the lead ahead of Kyle Larson with four laps to go. However, an isolated shower over Turn 1 forced a delay and threatened to rain on 23XI’s parade. The field was bunched back together for overtime, but the team wasn’t sure how much fuel was left in Wallace’s car. If race went too far beyond the advertised 400 miles, Wallace would either hit empty or be forced to pit. A crash on overtime’s opening lap pushed the race into double overtime. Wallace doubled down and decided to stay on track. The field safely reached the white flag and Bubba had enough fuel to take the win. He even had enough left in the tank for a burnout. Wallace said after the race:
“It’s unbelievable. To win here at the Brickyard, knowing how big this race is, knowing all the noise that’s going on in the background, to set that all aside is a testament to these people here on this 23 team. It’s been getting old right around the cut line (for the playoffs).”
Over a century of trying and fighting is finally rewarded
When NASCAR visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994, it was viewed as a moment of historic proportions. The race was the first time in 78 years that the track hosted an event other than the Indy 500. Only three years earlier, Willy T. Ribbs became the first Black driver to qualify for and race in the 500. The 1990s were a turbulent decade for American open-wheel racing, but the period laid the ground for significant changes at the Speedway. By 2000, Indianapolis welcomed Formula 1 as the track’s third major annual race. Notably, Lewis Hamilton won the final United States Grand Prix on the 2.6-mile road course, which was built specifically for the event.
Similar to professional baseball, the American Automobile Association once had a gentlemen’s agreement to never grant racing licenses to Black drivers. In opposition to the ban, Black businessmen in Indianapolis created the Colored Speedway Association in the early 1920s. The organization’s marquee event was the Gold and Glory Sweepstakes, a 100-mile race at the Indiana State Fairgrounds’ mile-long dirt oval. Racing’s Negro League collapsed after the 1936 Sweepstakes when Charlie Wiggins, the event’s only four-time winner, had a career-ending accident.
The ultimate goal of the Gold and Glory Sweepstakes was to prove that the event’s stars were worthy of competing alongside their white peers. AAA would lift its ban and grant a racing license to Joie Ray in 1947, the same year that Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier. However, no Glory and Gold driver would ever race in the Indianapolis 500. Bubba Wallace’s win came 101 years after the first Gold and Glory Sweepstakes, a wait that lasted far too long.