Monday, June 29, 2020

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. 

4 comments:

  1. Great letter!
    I would change the second sentence in the third paragraph to read, "There are enough racial incidents..." just swap the "is" for "are" because of the plural object.

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  2. I used to be a Nascar fan. I watched the races every week, and have been to about ten of their tracks. Darlington was my favorite and I have been there 5 times, even though it is over 1500 miles from where I live. But over the past few years I have noticed that Nascar has been sending out signals that they don't like me, my family values and my politics. In my opinion, they should just SHUT UP AND RACE THEIR DAMN CARS. But since they care more about their socialist politics than the car racing, I say "SCREW THEM !".
















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  3. OK, I guess I had better start on my letter-
    Dear Mr. Nascar, I am ...er...was...a big fan of Nascar, but I now realize that I was all full of ...er....I mean that my priorities were all wrong. I used to go to your races and watch them on TV to see the cars and the drivers go faster and faster. I did not realize that I was NOT seeing any glorification of the Black race or the putting in their place of white devils. I was unaware that our sport was a symptom of white supremacy. I have recently seen the light.
    Nascar should IMMEDIATELY fire all white-owned race teams and ban participation on race teams by white oppressors. This would open up spots for 40 or so black-owned race teams and drivers. Since Blacks are the best athletes, I expect top speed and all other records to fall EVERY WEEK ! And you would definitely get more Black fans after the racist white folks are gone. Power to the People !
    One more thing- Isn't it UNFAIR that only ONE car and driver gets to win each race ? Out of FORTY-THREE ? That's not fair ! It would be more fair if the first ten across the finish line each get a trophy and an equal winner's share ? And if a car gets wrecked or has mechanical problems before the end of the race, they should also share in the winner's share. Also I would like to address the problem of the high ticket prices.
    Sorry- I have to go down to the protest now. They are going to burn down some old statue. I will continue my thoughts in my next letter.
    Let this be a lesson to you. -A fan

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