Just before Dale Earnhardt Jr. issued the command to start engines, Bubba Wallace took a phone call from Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron.
How cool is that?
Here’s what Aaron -- a native of Mobile, Alabama, just like Bubba -- had to say to Wallace, who is racing in the legendary No. 43 for Richard Petty Motorsports.
RPM owner Andrew Murstein tells @sbjsbd that just before engines were fired he put @BubbaWallace on the phone with Baseball HOFer Hank Aaron.
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) February 18, 2018
"Hank wanted to wish Bubba good luck. He said, 'From one Mobile son to another, always believe in your dreams and anything is possible.'"
Wallace went on to finish second in the race to Austin Dillon.
“Really cool and really special for Hank Aaron also to call right there before was really special,” Wallace said. “He just said, ‘Hey, good luck, and just have a good race today,’ and that was it. He knew that we were pressed for time, and it was five seconds, and that’s all he said. That was really cool. So when (team co-owner) Andrew Murstein came up to me and said, ‘Hey, Hank Aaron is on the line,’ I’m like, what? That’s awesome. So, I was pretty excited about that.”