An open letter to NASCAR Sponsors

I intend to send this to every major sponsor of NASCAR I can find a contact for:

Like most people, I was at first horrified and disturbed when I heard the news reports regarding the noose found at Bubba Wallace’s garage in Talledega Alabama Speedway. I was cheered and heartened to see that the entire field of drivers was willing to support him in the time following the “incident”. Later, I was disgusted and angered when I found out that the “noose” was in fact, a simply a garage pull rope tied in a loop, and that nearly every garage door had a similar loop tied in it…That the “noose” was, in fact, a hoax. NASCAR is still defending the story that this was a hate crime, even though the FBI has indicated otherwise.

Mr. Wallace at first claimed that the sight of the “noose” had disturbed and frightened him. Later, when the FBI had time to investigate and it was determined that the entire “noose” incident was not, in fact, racism, that the pull rope had been there for at least a year, he claimed that he “Never saw the noose himself" (in his own garage?), but had simply been told about it by Steve Phelps, President of NASCAR” in an attempt to walk back his initial statements.

I, frankly, find this race-baiting disgusting. There is enough racist incidents in our country without creating false incidents in order to generate publicity and as a vehicle to demonstrate how “woke” NASCAR is. This whole incident was, in effect, a poorly done publicity stunt.

Your firm, as a sponsor of the racers, is the heart of NASCAR. You, as the source of funding, are what keeps the racers racing and what keeps NASCAR solvent. You have a responsibility to use your influence to prevent such things from happening again, and to see to it that the people involved in the current incident are punished…..Be it the NASCAR management or Bubba Wallace himself.  THIS SORT OF BEHAVIOR CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO STAND.

I have been a NASCAR fan for many years, Often, my choice of product purchase is influenced by the sponsorship of the cars in the NASCAR season. “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” is often true in the case of my purchasing decisions. NASCAR sponsorship has influenced my choice of many purchases. Losing viewership such as mine will negatively affect the value of your sponsorship dollars.

It is incumbent, therefore, that your firm, as a sponsor of NASCAR teams, force NASCAR to fix this issue and punish those guilty of perpetrating this hoax, be it Steve Phelps, his managers, other NASCAR management, or whomever else in NASCAR who had knowledge of this incident. Further, Mr. Wallace was a willing participant, and needs to be sanctioned for his role in this hoax as well.  If you continue funding NASCAR teams without pressuring NASCAR to stop this behavior, then you as a corporation are complicit in funding race-baiting and perpetuating racial strife in the United States.

Failure to do so will make your firm complicit in this hoax. Failure to act, to clean up NASCAR, to prevent acts like this in the future (you obviously find sponsorship to be profitable) will result in losing me and others as customers. NASCAR fans have long memories. We can boycott as well as support team sponsors.

If you are a NASCAR fan, I strongly urge you to write a similar letter.