Bubba Wallace sponsored by COVID-19 vaccine at Talladega

Bubba Wallace has never been afraid to stir things up in NASCAR, and his paint scheme for this weekend's race at Talladega Superspeedway is already doing exactly that. The 23XI Racing driver will be running a car sponsored by a COVID-19 vaccine.

Wallace's No. 23 Toyota will carry Kroger Health and Nuvaxovid, a protein-based COVID-19 vaccine, at the Alabama track this weekend. And as you might expect, the scheme got plenty of attention online as soon as it was revealed.

NASCAR writer Joseph Srigley shared the paint scheme on X on Wednesday.

"Kroger Health and Nuvaxovid (COVID-19 Vaccine, Adjuvanted) will sponsor Bubba Wallace and the No. 23 Toyota Camry XSE this weekend at Talladega," Srigley wrote.

Nuvaxovid is a non-mRNA vaccine, according to 1819 News . Wallace's car runs with a rotating group of primary sponsors throughout the season, including Columbia and Hardee's, and NASCAR's official paint scheme preview lists the car as the No. 23 Kroger Health Toyota.

Many fans had jokes about the combination of a COVID-19 vaccine sponsor, a fanbase that skews conservative, and a race in the Deep South. Others simply hoped that Wallace would win just to see how people reacted.

Talladega has been home to some of the biggest moments of Wallace's career. In October 2021, he won a rain-shortened race at the track for his first Cup Series victory, becoming the first Black driver to win a Cup race since Wendell Scott in 1963.

The track was also the site of one of the most controversial moments of his career. In June 2020, a member of Wallace's team reported a noose in his garage stall, and drivers and crew members pushed his car to the front of pit road in a show of support before the race.

The FBI later determined that Wallace was not the target of a hate crime, as the rope was a garage door pull that had been in place since the previous fall. But NASCAR noted that Wallace's stall was the only one of 11 with a knotted pull-down rope tied into a noose, and that Wallace and his team "had nothing to do with this."

Wallace, who was born in Mobile, Alabama, has faced plenty of backlash from some NASCAR fans in the years since.