This is a really cool story. A Facebook fan group named ‘Forty Three’ has banded together to donate to the Victory Junction Camp in an effort to stand with Bubba Wallace and the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports team.
The group, which has roughly 1,500 members, has already raised more than $2,700 for the camp with more donations expected to roll in.
As a thank you for their efforts, the group will have a logo featured on the left side of the rear bumper of Wallace’s No. 43 machine Thursday in the Super Starter Batteries 400 at Kansas Speedway.
The idea for the donations spawned when the No. 43 team and driver came under fire by outsiders of the sport after and alleged hate crime was thought to have been carried out inside the team’s garage stall at Talladega Superspeedway. After an investigation by the FBI, it was determined that the incident was not a hate crime, but this ruling led to many unfairly shouting hoax and conspiracy in reference to the story.
Seeing their driver and team attacked and raked through the mud on political websites and other news sources that don’t understand the happenings of the sport of NASCAR is all it took for the group to spring into action.
“The idea was constantly evolving,” explains group admin Bryan Snare, who actually first proposed the idea. “When our team and our driver came under fire, we knew we wanted to do something publicly. We want to stand for what is right. We want to stand with our team. We want to stand with our driver. After several conversations, we decided the best way to make our statement was a logo on the car for all of the world to see.”
Once the idea was in place and the method of how to achieve the goal of getting their logo was settled (donating to Victory Junction), Snare says it was easy rallying the troops in the group.
“Man, that’s the easy part!” Snare said. “There are no better people on planet earth than Petty/Wallace fans. It grew like wildfire. Our folks simply want to make the world a better place. The support has been overwhelming.”
The team as a whole at RPM has been blown away by the gesture, according to Snare.
“On an individual level, the RPM employees have been blown away. They have expressed deep appreciation for our acknowledgement of them and our standing with them,” said Snare. “They are humble. They are appreciative. This could not have come at a better time for them. With the current climate of the world, they needed this breath of life.
“As an organization, RPM has helped every step of the way. I think they believe we represent them well. They always know they can count on ‘Forty Three’.
While Wallace and the No. 43 team have made headlines for things not on the track this season, they have also been making quite a bit of noise on the track, as well.
At the halfway point of the 2020 season, Wallace sits 19th in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings (nine positions better than his career-best ranking) and he has already tied a career-high with three top-10 finishes. Overall, Wallace has amassed eight top-15 finishes so far this season.
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