Ex-NASCAR Driver, Daughter Jumped After NC Concert

A former NASCAR driver and his grown daughter found themselves in a fight Friday night with three men outside a Rascal Flatts concert, police in Charlotte, NC, confirm to USA Today Sports. Mike Wallace, 57, had just left the PNC Music Pavilion with his family when a verbal spat went south. "Mike was talking to one of the three men and then, out of nowhere, one came after Mike like a crazy man," said Wallace's brother, Kenny Wallace. "Mike was knocked out completely cold. While he was on the ground they continued to beat on him, kicking him in the face." Wallace's daughter, Lindsey Wallace Van Wingerden, reportedly leaped onto her dad's unconscious body to protect him, which is when the three suspects started beating her instead, Kenny Wallace says. Per ESPN, the police report said no weapons were involved and injuries to Wallace and Van Wingerden were minor, though they certainly sound painful: Wallace says he suffered a concussion, a black eye, and three teeth forced a few inches back into his mouth.

But even as he was reportedly being pummeled by the three men—whom he says he doesn't know and who the Washington Post says all topped 6 feet tall and weighed more than 200 pounds each—Wallace was mainly worried for his daughter, he tells Channel 9. "I woke up. I see my daughter laying on the ground, which is devastating for a father," he says. Arrested in the attack, per a Charlotte-Mecklenburg PD rep: 29-year-old Paul Lucas, 22-year-old Nathan Lucas, and 24-year-old Randolph Mangum, all of whom were hit with a simple assault charge and let out on $1,000 bond. Per a post on his Facebook page (tweeted out by SiriusXM motorsports host Dave Moody), Wallace said the men—allegedly lawn contractors for PNC— had been involved in multiple dustups at PNC before. But a witness tells the station the Wallaces started the brawl. "Kenny Wallace has used a public platform to blow this thing up and destroy a family," that unnamed witness says. (More NASCAR stories.)