Driver misbehaves during simrace, loses his sponsor
F1 News
- GPblog.com
With all the racing at a standstill, the gaming industry is proving what it's good for. Simracing is picked up in every racing class. For example, the drivers of the American NASCAR competition are also racing in simraces. However, Bubba Wallace made such a mess online that he lost his sponsor after the race.
Last Sunday the simulation race took place at Bristol Motor Speedway. At this race the NASCAR driver did not have a good start. After the bad start and the incident with colleague Clint Bowyer, the driver didn't feel like driving his damaged car another 150 laps to the back of the race. Wallace promptly turned off his device.
A classic rage-quit, the driver stopped out of frustration. In online gaming this is done a lot, but the fact that 1.3 million people were watching the event via FOX caused a strange outcome for Bubba Wallace.
Y’all have a good one
"Y'all have a good one", the American said before he even pressed the button. "So this is exactly why I don't take this shit seriously. Peace out."
The rage-quit came in for a lot of criticism from the driver, but Wallace didn't take that very seriously. Afterwards he told the world via Twitter: "I laugh myself to death at all the reactions. I've ruined the day of so many people... by stopping a video game. Quarantine life is hard."
Sponsor pulls out plug
The unsympathetic reaction to the already strange action of the American did not go unnoticed by his sponsors. In the same way the sponsor Blue-Emu, sponsor of his team, Richard Petty Motorsports, said goodbye to the driver.
The company posted on Twitter: "Good to know where you are standing. Bye bye Bubba. We are interested in drivers, not quitters."
GTK where you stand. Bye bye Bubba. We're interested in drivers, not quitters.
— Blue-Emu (@BlueEmu1) April 5, 2020