Bubba Wallace announced via RPMotorsports Twitter that he plans to honor Richard Petty during this weekend’s NASCAR Throwback race in Darlington. This year’s theme is “NASCAR’s Champions: Past, Present, and Future.”
By all means, ‘The King’ Richard Petty is a no-brainer selection for Wallace to represent as his throwback NASCAR champion.
Wallace will race in Richard Petty’s iconic borrowed car from 1986. In that year’s Coca Cola 600 NASCAR Cup, Petty ended up racing in D. K. Ulrich’s bright green and white ride because of what Wallace calls, “an interesting set of circumstances.”
Petty had wrecked his car in the practice rounds and had no backup car. Though urged to stop racing, ‘The King” borrowed Ulrich’s #6 to complete the race.
ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images 
Photo by ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images
“At that time, we didn’t have backup cars, so we sorta just said, ‘Okay we’ll borrow a car’,” Petty says of the incident.
“It wasn’t a good week for me,” Petty admits. He says after the wreck in the practice run, he had to visit the hospital. “Well, I don’t… I don’t remember that part,” he says. As he told the Washington Post in 1986, ” I said, ‘This is going to hurt.’ I don’t remember anything after that till I woke up in the hospital.”
Though he was advised not to race, he refused to call it quits. Petty got back behind the wheel to see himself to the finish. “Back then, no matter how bad you were hurt, you’d get back in the car and try to finish the thing up,” Petty explains.
Now, on Sunday, Bubba Wallace will throw it back to the legendary event, giving NASCAR fans a modern taste of history. He, of course, will don his #43 instead of the white six that was on the 1986 ride. His sponsor Cash App will also add a bit of flair to the white hood.
Catch this year’s NASCAR Throwback race on NBCSN at 6pm Sunday September 6.
