NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace has told Richard Petty Motorsport that he will not be returning to the team for the 2021 season.
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The 26-year-old has been with the team since he started the Cup series in 2017.
“We’ll end this season with Wallace behind the wheel of the # 43 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. We look forward to the next chapter for the legendary # 43 team. We’ll be announcing our new driver in the near future,” said the team.
Wallace hasn’t announced his plans for the next year but said in a statement posted on Twitter that leaving Richard Petty Motorsports would not be an easy decision.
Wallace is a free agent at the end of this season and had previously confirmed he was in talks with Chip Ganassi Racing. Richard Petty Motorsports had offered Wallace a part in the team as part of a future contract.
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Wallace, whose best result in the series is his runner-up at the Daytona 500 2018, has not advanced to the playoffs this year and is currently 23rd in the season’s standings. The Alabama native came to prominence earlier that year as a leader in NASCAR’s response to the Black Lives Matter movement, with support from team owner Richard Petty, who stood by his side at Talladega Superspeedway after a rope was found in his garage that was later found bound in a noose was determined not to be a message of hate directed at him. In the past few weeks he has won several new sponsorships, including Beats by Dre and Kingsford Charcoal, who will follow him to his next team.
This is a developing story. Check again for updates.
