Bubba Wallace, the only Black driver in NASCAR’s Cup Series, will drive for a new team owned by basketball star Michael Jordan and race car driver Denny Hamlin, NASCAR said Monday.
Jordan will be the majority owner of the NASCAR Cup Series team and Hamlin will be a minority owner, according to the announcement.
The move comes after Wallace announced earlier this month he would not return to Richard Petty Motorsports, according to NASCAR.
“We welcome Michael Jordan into the NASCAR family, and look forward to watching Michael, Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace compete in 2021,” NASCAR said in a statement.
“Michael is an iconic sports figure and celebrated champion whose fiercely competitive nature has placed him among the greatest athletes of all time,” the statement continued. “His presence at NASCAR’s top level will further strengthen the competition, excitement and momentum growing around our sport.”
Wallace has been an outspoken advocate in support of racial equality. Earlier this year, he led the successful push for NASCAR to ban Confederate flags at its racetracks.
He also drove a car emblazoned with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter and the words “compassion, love, understanding” on it earlier this year.
Wallace has also been the target of tweets from President Trump, who pressured the racer in July to apologize while falsely calling an incident that involved a noose being discovered in Wallace’s garage stall a “hoax.”
In response to Trump, Wallace suggested Trump was “wrong on the factual information” and also questioned whether it was the most important issue the president should be dealing with.
“When I first read it, I was, you know, just like, ‘Man there’s so much more things that are going on in the world that I feel like he should be worried about,’” Wallace said on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” in an episode hosted by Anthony Anderson.
NASCAR announced in late June a noose had been found in a garage stall assigned to Wallace at the Talladega Superspeedway. After an investigation, the FBI determined the noose had been in the stall since October and that Wallace was not the target of a hate crime.