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Bubba Wallace admits to feeling 'miserable' at track for years in wake of NASCAR punishment

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Bubba Wallace admits to feeling 'miserable' at track for years in wake of NASCAR punishment
Sport

Sport

Bubba Wallace admits to feeling 'miserable' at track for years in wake of NASCAR punishment

2024-07-14 05:56 Last Updated At:06:00

LONG POND, Pa. (AP) — Bubba Wallace and his wife have a baby on the way and a mortgage to pay on their home. So when Wallace eyed a pack of media at Pocono Raceway, he decided he’d be the one to open with a question.

“Anybody got any money?” he quipped.

Wallace was a bit light in the wallet this week after NASCAR fined him $50,000 for retaliatory contact against race winner Alex Bowman on the cooldown lap of the Chicago Street Race.

Wallace door-slammed Bowman’s car and sent it into the wall.

The move cost Wallace some cash, for sure — and yes, driving for Michael Jordan's 23XI Racing team, he can afford the fine. More than that, the incident opened Wallace's eyes to the fact that he really wasn't acting like the person he wanted to be at the track.

“The penalty was probably the best thing that's happened to me,” Wallace said Saturday. “I've been miserable for years."

The 30-year-old Wallace has long been open about his battles with depression, triggered by both personal and professional struggles. Known for wearing his heart on his sleeve, Wallace acknowledged he hasn't been a beacon of joy at the track as he approaches almost two years since his last Cup Series victory. He starts 29th in the No. 23 Toyota on Sunday at Pocono.

“I've been walking around with a persona I'm not proud of,” Wallace said.

Wallace apologized for his recent behavior to everyone from his publicist to a journalist he brushed off last week to Bowman and even the NASCAR official who informed him of the fine.

“I'm just frustrated. I'm trying way too hard,” Wallace said. “I'm not focused on the right things.”

Wallace has also wrestled with his role as an agent of change in NASCAR following his successful spark to help the industry ban the Confederate flag in 2020. He is seen as a hero to some, particularly those who have longed for a Black driver to shake things up in a predominantly white sport. To others, Wallace represents something else entirely and he has seen plenty of haters out on social media over his career.

“For the last four or five years, people have been wanting me out of the sport, right?” Wallace said. “People don't really understand.”

Wallace found a surprising source of advice this week when he bumped into retired NASCAR great Kevin Harvick. Wallace was set to race with Harvick in a grassroots racing series when talk turned to the Bowman incident and NASCAR's fine. Long one of NASCAR's most outspoken drivers, Harvick told Wallace to show up at Pocono “with a smile on my face and accept it.”

“I might not agree with the penalty but I'm smiling about it,” Wallace said. “He also told me a lot of powerful things. To show up and be the fun-loving guy that I am throughout the week. I think that has been one of the most important things told to me. People don't see who I actually am on Sundays. That broke me.

“I always preach about being the same person on and off the racetrack. It's a pressure-cooker being at the Cup level, right? And the last four years, I've been miserable just trying to walk around like everything's OK.”

Wallace insisted his overall mental health was fine. But he owed an apology to one more person: his wife, Amanda.

“I wasn't the best husband,” he said. “I made her feel like she had to walk on eggshells after bad races. That's not what it's about. It's about going home and getting a fresh reset and being close to the people that are around you. That's what I'm looking forward to.”

Wallace said he strayed from his normal jovial self at the track because he always felt the need — even with two Cup victories — to prove himself as a person.

He laughed when he said he blamed his father — whom Wallace has said he's had a complicated relationship with over the years — who told him not to start trouble. But always to finish it, if needed.

An eye for an eye.

Like in Chicago.

Bowman said after the race at rainy Chicago he had spun Wallace during the event and the retaliation was warranted. Bowman also advocated for Wallace not to be punished. Bowman said Wallace “has every right be mad.”

Wallace’s window net was down when he slammed into Bowman after the race, and the camera inside Bowman’s car showed the driver was jostled by the hit.

“Did I time it wrong? Sure, 100%," Wallace said. "His window net was down, seatbelts were off. Not an ideal situation.”

Denny Hamlin, who co-owns 23XI with Jordan, believed NASCAR levied the fine because the dustup was caught on camera. He also didn't discuss the matter with Wallace.

“I think it being live and everyone seeing it, probably caused a little more of a social media uproar which then they responded to that,” Hamlin said.

Wallace is chasing a spot in NASCAR's playoffs with six races left. He's 45 points behind Chris Buescher for the final spot in the 16-driver field. A win gets him an automatic berth.

Harvick told Wallace to take a breath because the punishment could have been worse. A heavier fine. Points docked. A suspension.

Compared to those alternatives, maybe being out $50,000 isn't so bad — even as Wallace joked home improvements must wait.

“I told my wife, hey, we might have to hold off on that baby room,” Wallace said. “I've got to pay this fine first."

Martin Truex Jr. is close to the finish line of his NASCAR career. He’s already made it there at Pocono.

The track honored Truex — who announced he will retire from full-time racing at the end of this season — by painting TRUEX Jr at the start/finish line.

“As a driver, you don’t ever feel like you’re really deserving of things like that,” said Truex, who has two career wins at the track. “For Pocono to do that, it’s really special for me, my family. Definitely cool to see and hope we’re the first to cross it tomorrow.”

Truex could use a win to position himself to chase a second career Cup championship in his final season. Truex has yet to win this season for Joe Gibs Racing and clings to one of the four open spots on points.

Denny Hamlin is the BETMGM Sportsbook favorite to win Sunday.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Bubba Wallace (23) makes his way into Turn 3 during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Gladeville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)

Bubba Wallace (23) makes his way into Turn 3 during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Gladeville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday directing the United States to again withdraw from the landmark Paris climate agreement, dealing a blow to worldwide efforts to combat global warming and once again distancing the U.S. from its closest allies.

Trump's action, hours after he was sworn in to a second term, echoed his directive in 2017, when he announced that the U.S. would abandon the global Paris accord. The pact is aimed at limiting long-term global warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels or, failing that, keeping temperatures at least well below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels.

Trump also signed a letter to the United Nations indicating his intention to withdraw from the 2015 agreement, which allows nations to provide targets to cut their own emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. Those targets are supposed to become more stringent over time, with countries facing a February 2025 deadline for new individual plans. The outgoing Biden administration last month offered a plan to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60% by 2035.

Trump's order says the Paris accord is among a number of international agreements that don't reflect U.S. values and “steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people."

Instead of joining a global agreement, “the United States’ successful track record of advancing both economic and environmental objectives should be a model for other countries,'' Trump said.

Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and a key architect of the Paris accord, called the planned U.S. withdrawal unfortunate but said action to slow climate change “is stronger than any single country’s politics and policies."

The global context for Trump's action is “very different to 2017,'' Tubiana said Monday, adding that “there is unstoppable economic momentum behind the global transition, which the U.S has gained from and led but now risks forfeiting."

The International Energy Agency expects the global market for key clean energy technologies to triple to more than $2 trillion by 2035, she said.

“The impacts of the climate crisis are also worsening. The terrible wildfires in Los Angeles are the latest reminder that Americans, like everyone else, are affected by worsening climate change,” Tubiana said.

Gina McCarthy, who served as White House climate adviser under President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said that if Trump, a Republican, “truly wants America to lead the global economy, become energy independent and create good-paying American jobs," then he must “stay focused on growing our clean energy industry. Clean technologies are driving down energy costs for people all across our country."

The world is now long-term 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.3 degrees Celsius) above mid-1800s temperatures. Most but not all climate monitoring agencies said global temperatures last year passed the warming mark of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, and all said it was the warmest year on record.

The withdrawal process from the Paris accord takes one year. Trump’s previous withdrawal took effect the day after the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Biden.

While the first Trump-led withdrawal from the landmark U.N. agreement — adopted by 196 nations — shocked and angered nations across the globe, “not a single country followed the U.S. out the door,” said Alden Meyer, a longtime climate negotiations analyst with the European think tank E3G.

Instead, other nations renewed their commitment to slowing climate change, along with investors, businesses, governors, mayors and others in the U.S., Meyer and other experts said.

Still, they lamented the loss of U.S. leadership in global efforts to slow climate change, even as the world is on track to set yet another record hot year and has been lurching from drought to hurricane to flood to wildfire.

“Clearly America is not going to play the commanding role in helping solve the climate crisis, the greatest dilemma humans have ever encountered,″ said climate activist and writer Bill McKibben. “For the next few years the best we can hope is that Washington won’t manage to wreck the efforts of others.”

About half of Americans “somewhat” or “strongly” oppose U.S. action to withdraw from the climate accord, and even Republicans aren’t overwhelmingly in favor, according according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults “somewhat” or “strongly” in favor of withdrawing from the Paris agreement, while about one-quarter are neutral.

Much of the opposition to U.S. withdrawal comes from Democrats, but Republicans display some ambivalence as well. Slightly less than half of Republicans are in favor of withdrawing from the climate accord, while about 2 in 10 are opposed.

China several years ago passed the United States as the world's largest annual carbon dioxide emitting nation. The U.S. — the second biggest annual carbon polluting country — put 4.9 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in the air in 2023, down 11% from a decade earlier, according to the scientists who track emissions for the Global Carbon Project.

But carbon dioxide lasts in the atmosphere for centuries, so the United States has put more of the heat-trapping gas that is now in the air than any other nation. The U.S. is responsible for nearly 22% of the carbon dioxide put in the atmosphere since 1950, according to Global Carbon Project.

While global efforts to fight climate change continued during Trump's first term, many experts worry that a second Trump term will be more damaging, with the United States withdrawing even further from climate efforts in a way that could cripple future presidents’ efforts. With Trump, who has dismissed climate change, in charge of the world’s leading economy, those experts fear other countries, especially China, could use it as an excuse to ease off their own efforts to curb carbon emissions.

Simon Stiell, the U.N. climate change executive secretary, held out hope that the U.S. would continue to embrace the global clean energy boom.

“Ignoring it only sends all that vast wealth to competitor economies, while climate disasters like droughts, wildfires and superstorms keep getting worse," Stiell said. “The door remains open to the Paris Agreement, and we welcome constructive engagement from any and all countries.”

Associated Press writer Linley Sanders contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

AES Indiana Petersburg Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant, operates in Petersburg, Ind., on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

AES Indiana Petersburg Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant, operates in Petersburg, Ind., on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

FILE - Wind turbines stretch across the horizon at dusk at the Spearville Wind Farm, Sept. 29, 2024, near Spearville, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

FILE - Wind turbines stretch across the horizon at dusk at the Spearville Wind Farm, Sept. 29, 2024, near Spearville, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

President Donald Trump gestures during the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)

President Donald Trump gestures during the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)

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