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Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Bubba Wallace end association with helmet designer after Confederate flag tweets

Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch and Bubba Wallace have dropped their associations with a helmet designer after the designer’s angry tweets about NASCAR’s decision to ban the Confederate flag.

Beam Designs was very upset online that NASCAR had made the decision to ban the flag Wednesday. Here’s a sampling of the myriad tweets from the account that haven’t been deleted. It’s easy to see why Johnson and Wallace would move so quickly to cut ties.

Beam Designs has created custom helmets for numerous drivers in the Cup Series.

Wallace: ‘All respect lost for ya’

Johnson was simple and straightforward in his announcement.

Wallace took a different approach and even posted a screenshot of tweets that Beam Designs had deleted. The company was not a fan of Wallace’s Black Lives Matter car that he raced to an 11th-place finish at Martinsville on Wednesday night.

Blaney followed Johnson and Wallace. Busch’s disassociation was reported by the Associated Press.

In an attempt at damage control before the drivers said goodbye, the company’s account tried to make up for the previous tweets. That didn’t go well. The company got ratioed — when the number of replies greatly outweighs the number of retweets and favorites — by people noting what the account had previously said about the Confederate flag ban.

NASCAR banned flag after request in 2015

NASCAR’s decision to ban the flag on Wednesday came nearly five years after it had kindly asked fans not to fly the flag at races in the wake of a mass shooting at a South Carolina church. Discussions about banning the flag picked up steam in recent weeks as protests happened across the country following George Floyd’s death.

NASCAR president Steve Phelps said the series could do better to address racial injustice in a speech before Sunday’s race at Atlanta and Wallace called for an outright ban of the flag in a Monday appearance on CNN.

Confederate themed flags fly in the infield before a NASCAR Xfinity auto race at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, S.C., Saturday, Sept. 5, 2015. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
These flags are no longer allowed at NASCAR tracks. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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