Over the last 14 years, Walker Hayes shared his love for country music with albums like Boom. His last album to hit shelves was Country Stuff the Album back in January 2022. Among his hits, “Fancy Like” caused the country singer to top both the Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay. He even received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Country Song thanks to “Fancy Like”. But while many enjoyed his song, NASCAR fans shared their disdain recently when it was announced Hayes would perform the infield concert at Talladega.
When it comes to NASCAR, tradition runs deep through fans who travel to historic tracks like Daytona, Talladega, and Milwaukee Mile. Although the race takes place over several hours, fans spend days before the race tailgating and sharing their love for fast cars, country music, and partying. Not wanting to be left out of the fun, NASCAR embraced the tradition. Believing fans would be thrilled, the organization announced that the Saturday Night Infield Concert would feature Hayes. But it appears they were wrong.
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Gaining over 25,000 views, the post from NASCAR only received over 100 likes as the comment section filled with criticism over the decision. Comments included, “Oh this is bad…why? This is not the kind of guy Dega fans listen to…” Another NASCAR fan considered Hayes to not even be country. “Sorry this dude isn’t country, I grew up on country music and he is not a country singer .”
The NASCAR Backlash Continued For Walker Hayes
That was just the start of a mountain of backlash aimed at NASCAR and Hayes. A fan claimed, “Ain’t no way yall all sat around, planned this, made it official then high fived and said ‘we got our guy!’ Horrible”. One comment used a GIF of Jim Carrey gagging in the film Dumb and Dumber.
While fans are not remotely excited about the announcement, this isn’t the first time Hayes performed at a sporting event. Just over the last few years, he performed during the halftime show at the AFC Championship and the NHL Stadium Series. Following his love for sports, he also displayed his talents before the NCAA national championship game. And not that long ago, he once again shared his voice with fans at the NBA All-Star game.
With more than enough practice performing live, NASCAR will be just the latest sport to welcome Hayes.
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(Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
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