NASCAR Raises the Bar From Hell to the Basement, Plus the New BC Forum on Racial Justice
NASCAR banned the confederate flag this week, approximately 70 years later than it should have. Also: What’s next for police reform in Massachusetts.
You know I’m back on my game when I put out a 19 word headline. I know I said we’d do more NFL and NHL today, but I went long on NASCAR’s problems so I’m pushing that until tomorrow when I’ll pick the offseason preview series back up with the Lightning and another team yet to be determined. Stanziale’s article on the AFC East is already locked and loaded and I can’t wait for you to read it…I just couldn’t fit in on here, so that’ll also come out tomorrow.
You can check out the last few releases of the newsletter here, here, and here. You should read them all!
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I’m Finally Leading the Newsletter with NASCAR, Unfortunately It’s Because I Can’t Take Them Seriously Yet
Wikimedia Commons/By Zach Catanzareti Photo
I’ve always thought my worst quality was my personality, as well as my general appearance and a multitude of other things about me. But my second worst quality has always been my NASCAR fandom.
Born out of a love for NASCAR Heat 2002, my obsession with cars turning left (usually) manifested fully in 2016 when Jimmie Johnson won his seventh cup championship at the close of the first year I watched every race on the NASCAR schedule. The California-born driver had been my favorite for years throughout my part-time fandom in the late 2000s and early 2010s—mild mannered but kind was exactly what I was looking for, and Johnson was never going to set the world on fire in an interview but his humility and excellence I found inspiring nonetheless.
In the background of all this, I grew up understanding that not only was it stupid to like a hick “sport” where nothing happens, but also that that hick sport was at least perceived as one of the last bastions of white supremacy—there were no black drivers, there weren’t any women in a NASCAR cockpit, there was just older white dudes ripping laps in states like Tennessee and Alabama, racing by die-hard fans who would turn out in the thousands. Endorsing or rooting for NASCAR was essentially taboo.
That’s before we even get to the stupid stars and bars. But we’re getting there.
I think in 2016 I just couldn’t help publicly loving NASCAR anymore. I was so unhappy at the time, I was really only beginning to put my life back together at that point (I was also only just beginning to emerge from being a childish dick all the time), and NASCAR races were like therapy. They may put you to sleep, but I found it fascinating—the relentless pursuit of the perfect lap, the perfect race, the ultimate finish that every driver, crew chief, and race team is pursuing captivated me then. It still does now.
So I embraced my fandom, though making sure to tell anyone who would listen that I knew NASCAR was dumb, that I didn’t agree with anything anyone said or thought in the sport, that I only enjoyed it because it was embedded in my being at such a young age that I couldn’t shake the habit (it turns out I was relatively young in 2002).
At the same time I was heavily investing in NASCAR, NASCAR was doing its best to drive me as far away as possible. The company’s president at the time endorsed Donald Trump for President of the United States, basically mandated that nobody speak out against our great orange majesty, and teams either stuck to that or quietly fist pumped in celebration that somebody public-facing at the company was standing behind their candidate.
Didn’t matter to me. I divorced myself from the issue—I didn’t agree with them politically on essentially any level, but I loved racing and I refused to give it up. Shame on me. I just didn’t have it in me.
I still really don’t. Spoiler alert: This column ends with me just raising an eyebrow at NASCAR over its perceived progress that’s taken place since people started listening to Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. the last couple weeks—all it took was George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery for it to suddenly occur to NASCAR drivers that they had voices they could use to speak out against the blatant truth that systemic racism exists in their sport, in their country, in their fandom, and basically everywhere else—I guess the first few hundred times Black Americans were killed by police officers in the last two decades, it just wasn’t as obvious there was a problem.
In their defense, I didn’t say anything either. In my defense, I had just turned 18 when the riots in Ferguson began and these are famous people. By the time I had a platform, I had started trying to cover race and class at Boston College (spoiler alert: I got seven-ish articles into that project and didn’t finish it, I don’t deserve any bonus points here), by the time Jimmie Johnson realized it was time to use his platform for good on the issue of racial justice, he was the greatest NASCAR driver of all time and a 44 year-old man. How do I know that? He said it himself. Two weeks ago.
He’s since been the driving force behind the video put together by some of the most famous front-facing and behind-the-scenes members of the NASCAR community endorsing both listening to the Black community and effecting change in the sport.
And, though he shouldn’t have to shoulder this burden, the voice for the Black community in NASCAR is basically just Bubba Wallace. He spoke with Ty Dillon on Instagram about what was going on. He spoke to Dale Earnhardt Jr., the most powerful and famous NASCAR driver since his father, about it.
And he spoke to Don Lemon about it, which seems like a minor thing—Don Lemon is just a cable TV host—but context matters here: NASCAR being on CNN for any positive reason is huge progress for a sport generally looked down on because of the perception that people who like NASCAR aren’t intelligent or caring, and might be racist.
Bomani Jones of ESPN has been vocal about what NASCAR is up to lately. A Black man from the south who grew up in Atlanta and Houston, went to college in Atlanta and North Carolina, and ultimately built the building blocks that have hoisted him to national relevance as a columnist, radio host, and television host in North Carolina, the home of NASCAR (Jones is now based out of New York, the allure of TV takes us all to New York eventually apparently).
Few in the world can bring his mixture of understanding, intelligence, and background to the table when considering NASCAR. He’s an outsider, ultimately even Black men in NASCAR like Wallace and team owner Brad Daugherty are viewed by some NASCAR fans as intruders on the traditional (read: racist) NASCAR culture. But he’s an insider—few people are as compelling about racial justice issues as Jones and few people make you feel as uncomfortable as Jones is willing to make you in order to get you to understand his point, even if you don’t agree with it (that goes for all his takes, whether it’s sports, music, race, or anything, Jones is nothing if not genuine, passionate, smart, and compelling).
Ironically, right now, there’s very little that’s uncomfortable about what Jones is saying—it’s more clear than ever that racial injustice, systemic racism, and the plight of Black people across the globe is real, is punishing, and is fed by ignorant people in power or people in power who are too afraid to speak.
Which brings us to what Jones is saying: “while i get we're giving people credit for doing better, we cannot for how absurd it was that nascar didn't do this until 2020,” he tweeted on Wednesday, referring to NASCAR’s decision to ban the confederate flag.
I couldn’t agree more. Johnson deserves credit for coming out, endorsing the value of Black lives, and pushing for others to join him. What really matters is that his pushing for change is part of why NASCAR officials are brave enough to make change—they know their most prolific, money-making driver is behind them, as is Dale Jr. (their most famous alumnus who returns to the track this weekend in the second-tier Xfinity Series), as is the most talented driver of this generation of NASCAR stars (Kyle Busch).
NASCAR deserves credit for banning the confederate flag in the same way I think I deserve credit for writing that I think Black Lives Matter: Congratulations, you’ve gone from being a part of the problem to joining the group of people that are a part of the solution. I haven’t done anything that deserves an insane amount of praise, and honestly NASCAR has done less than that. The organization was part of the reason Trump was elected, he was back at the track kicking off the season literally four months ago, and NASCAR fandom has been a sanctuary for racists—we know that because fans are tweeting at the governing body that they’re leaving.
Jeff Gluck of The Athletic nailed it in his column when he said he hopes the door doesn’t hit those exiting fans on the ass on the way out. Ryan McGee of ESPN wrote an even more compelling column from the southern perspective explaining why any defense of the confederate flag itself, never mind its presence at NASCAR events, is reprehensible and done in bad faith.
Gluck did point out he has questions about how NASCAR is going to enforce it, and the governing body’s executive vice president Steve O’Donnell hasn’t given details on how enforcement will be handled yet—he did say it was something NASCAR was already considering how to do the right way—and to some degree, I’m with Jeff: Show me the change. Show me track security telling fans who won’t take the flag down to drive home.
No, the only thing NASCAR deserves credit for is making Black people feel safe. The Undefeated’s Clinton Yates said that after 20 years of NASCAR fandom, the confederate flag was what kept him away from the track. He said that before the coronavirus outbreak, he was going to try to go to a race regardless of his previous position despite NASCAR previously only having said they were against fans flying confederate flags.
Now, there’ll be nothing standing in his way.
Alvin Kamara tweeted through Martinsville out of the excitement of rooting for Wallace (who finished 11th). Bernard Pollard, my least favorite football player ever for obvious reasons, did the same, even asking fans to help him out on rules questions. LeBron freaking James tweeted in support of Wallace’s Black Lives Matter car—that car is actually what impressed Jones more than banning the flag: A car fielded by Richard Petty, with his number on it, in the same font as he ran it when he raced against NASCAR pioneer Wendell Scott, a Black man who quite literally had to break the color barrier in NASCAR in the sixties and the lone Black man to drive a cup car full-time until Wallace assumed the cockpit of the 43 Petty machine officially in 2018, with Black Lives Matter as the sponsor was a loud statement to any fans who disagreed.
But lasting change will come if Wallace is not alone. NASCAR’s “Drive For Diversity” program has long been the sport’s primary effort to diversify its ranks, as chronicled on The Undefeated by Maya A. Jones. The program concentrates on training and introducing women and people of color to the racetrack from a young age, hopefully attaining enough talent to be prepared to move into NASCAR’s lower levels of competition.
But since the program began its current iteration in 2009 under the leadership of the first Black NASCAR executive Max Siegel, who was once the president of Dale Earnhardt, Inc., only three drivers have made it to the cup level (since the program’s inception in 2004, 62 had come through the stable as of 2018): Wallace, currently driving the 96 car for Gaunt Brothers racing (we’ll circle back on him momentarily), and Kyle Larson...who was fired from Chip Ganassi racing’s signature 42 car for dropping the n-word over the radio during a publicly streamed simulation race.
The rise and fall of Larson has to be taken into consideration in the background of NASCAR’s progress. Larson, whose mother is Japanese-American, was the most talented driver to rise through NASCAR’s ranks since Kyle Busch, who’s now a two-time champion who hasn’t even reached his peak yet. He was set to be the most highly-coveted free-agent on the NASCAR market since perhaps Dale Jr., and was potentially the driver-in-waiting to take over Johnson’s machine (and his sponsorship).
Now he’s driving dirt tracks, waiting for time to pass so the wounds he made heal and to prove that he’s changed in order to get another opportunity. I believe he’s still suspended by NASCAR, but it’s not clear how he’ll ever break into the sport again—so much of success in NASCAR is based on being able to secure, and hold onto, massive amounts of sponsorship money. The last number I saw regarding how much money it took to put a competitive cup car on the track was $25 million per year. Organizations can’t just eat that sort of price tag, and they don’t—sponsors offset it.
Larson wasn’t fired until his primary sponsors, Credit One Bank and McDonald’s, indicated they’d leave Ganassi altogether unless a change was made.
His future is certainly in doubt, but the sponsorship problem is certainly a part of Wallace’s story.
Bubba is a seriously charismatic, fun to watch racecar driver. He ended up coming up through the Toyota development program, ultimately beginning the mainstream part of his career with Kyle Busch Motorspots (owned by Busch, aligned with NASCAR powerhouse team Joe Gibbs racing, and all under the Toyota umbrella). He was very successful in Trucks, securing some wins while running occasionally in the Xfinity Series (the next tier up the NASCAR hierarchy), and Gibbs endorsed Wallace’s driving ability, saying he had big plans for the young driver as a part of his Xfinity program.
They didn’t get enough sponsorship.
In fact, Wallace left Gibbs to go race for Roush Fenway Racing, who secured sponsorship for him. About two years later, in the middle of the season sponsors for Wallace fell through after two mediocre years in mediocre equipment and Wallace was let go while the Roush Xfinity program was shuttered.
Wallace was without a job until later that year, Aric Almirola, then driving Petty’s car, broke his back (yeah, it was bad) in a crash. Wallace performed well as Almirola’s substitute, and when Almirola ultimately left as a free agent to join Stewart-Haas racing (a better job that was available to him because he had sponsor backing), Wallace was signed as his replacement.
Ever since, it’s been a struggle for Petty’s team, which is always pinching pennies to try to survive. Sponsorship is generally infrequent, despite Wallace’s performances (which have hit a new level this year, despite the financial issues that have plagued the team) and personality (probably top five in the sport).
His future, which is scary, is also in doubt. It’s not clear what the future of Petty Motorsports is, and it’s not clear that Wallace even wants to be a part of it in the long term. It’s a stressful job: Petty is the most successful driver in NASCAR history, driving for a legend isn’t easy, and it’s especially not easy when the legend can’t put the driver in equipment that will allow Wallace to even compete for top-10’s, never mind wins.
But jobs are opening up: Almirola’s future at Stewart-Haas is not sealed, neither is his teammate Clint Bowyer’s (though Bowyer seems set to return). Larson’s old seat at Ganassi will be open, though prospect Ross Chastain is highly touted and could end up in that car—it’s possible that Chastain isn’t ready to go cup racing though and will remain in Xfinity for another year or two until the older Busch brother, Kurt, decides to retire (who’s made it clear that his career won’t last more than two or three more years, if that). Plus, Johnson is still retiring at the end of the year, which could lead to even more shuffling of rides—it’d be shocking if Wallace isn’t in the driver’s seat next year, especially since his national profile is rising.
Which brings us to Suarez: Though his career has not spanned the same amount of time as Wallace’s or Larson’s have, Daniel Suarez already has an Xfinity championship to his name, drove for both Gibbs and Stewart-Haas (both top tier, cup championship winning organizations), and has loads of sponsorship support. He lost his rides at Gibbs and Stewart-Haas due to extenuating circumstances (previous cup champion Martin Truex Jr. displaced Suarez at Gibbs, while good old-fashioned nepotism combined with a really talented young driver in Cole Custer pushed him out of Stewart-Haas last year). Suarez is lucky: He has so much sponsorship that Toyota has actually taken a gamble on trying to build up a second cup team around him. It’s a long-term project with no guarantee of succeeding, but Suarez, without even speaking crystal-clear English (I actually think he’s an excellent English speaker for someone who’s only been fluent for like two to three years but others may disagree) but still commanding tons of sponsorship money through his appeal to newer NASCAR fans and Mexican NASCAR fans.
Which brings us to Bomani Jones’ last point: He said he’s not excited to give NASCAR credit for beginning to change because he’s not sure how much has really changed. Someone asked why see, and Jones answered with questions: “what's different about nascar or the confederate flag than it was yesterday? or 50 years ago? why didn't you do this sooner?”
Nothing is different about the flag. Until Wednesday, I would’ve argued little is different about NASCAR—50 years ago, Scott’s career was winding down. Now, there’s still only one Black driver in Wallace, and it was a struggle to get him the financial backing to even keep him in the cup series. In addition, the majority of the “Drive For Diversity” drivers failed to reach the levels Wallace, Suarez, and Larson reached (and the victory of Larson, who was the most successful of the three drivers considering he was seen as a championship contender while Wallace and Suarez see top-15’s as victories, has been wiped out) due to difficulties securing sponsorship.
But after Wednesday, with a Black Lives Matter car, with the flag being banned, with a prominent Black journalist saying that he’s feeling safer about the prospect of visiting the track, with prominent Black athletes giving the sport credit and going as far as to actually try watching the sport (which they extremely did not have to do), evidence is beginning to build that NASCAR may not be different yet (talk to me when the driving pool, the executive pool, literally any aspect of the NASCAR community is seriously diversified), for the first time the building blocks are actually in place.
I think the next dominoes to fall will be sponsors: Coca-Cola is clearly actively seeking to sponsor minority drivers—both Wallace and Suarez are a part of the Coke “racing family” and Suarez, who has been extremely vocal about being anti-racist especially since George Floyd’s death, gave a pre-race interview about what he and Coke are doing to try to fight racism before climbing into a Coca-Cola sponsored car. A sponsor should absolutely take a chance on Wallace right now if they have the marketing money to do so. Next year, either an upper-tier team should try to snatch him up (he absolutely has the talent to justify such a move) and build sponsorship around him, or a sponsor should become a major part of Petty Motorsports and convince Wallace to stay and try to compete for wins with the additional financial support.
There are no barriers to supporting Wallace at this point from a sponsorship or team standpoint. He has Petty’s name tattooed on his thigh, so it’s not like Wallace won’t feel some sort of loyalty to that team, and if Wallace goes to victory lane anytime soon that alone could create even more momentum for change in a number of areas. Being the sponsor to put Wallace in victory lane? It’d be hard to put a price tag on how valuable that marketing could be for a company.
Until then, it’s also time for sponsors and teams to take a closer look at grassroots candidates. The “Drive For Diversity” program still has drivers. More will come. They just need the fiscal support to convince them to stay. Now, they have someone to guide their journey in Wallace, somebody just needs to kick start them on the road—only then, I think, will I be able to proudly admit to someone I’m a NASCAR fan without throwing 5,000 caveats on top of that declaration.
Quick Hitters: Massachusetts Police Reform is Coming and BC’s New Racial Justice Forum
Here is The Boston Globe’s breakdown of what Governor Charlie Baker and Massachusetts House of Representatives Speaker Robert DeLeo are preparing to propose regarding police reform in Massachusetts. The highlight of the legislation is the creation of a system to certify officers the same way you’d certify anyone else to practice a trade for the first time in the state’s history—Massachusetts is one of few states in the nation without such a system. Baker came out this week against abolishing or defunding police forces, instead pledging to work with Black lawmakers to create oversight measures. The Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus has issued a 10 point plan that Baker’s certification efforts are a part of, though those ten points do not advocate for defunding or abolishing the police efforts despite activists nationwide beginning to push for such measures, and succeeding most notably in Los Angeles and Minneapolis. You can find the ten point plan here.
Boston College took its first steps toward actually putting together something that could engineer change instead of serve as a passenger regarding racial injustice: University President William P. Leahy, who has come under fire previously both in the BC community and in this sentence for not doing more in the past, sent an email to the community announcing the BC Forum on Racial Justice—in that email he also affirmed for the first time that BC believes Black Lives Matter. The forum is intended to serve as a “meeting place for listening, dialogue, and greater understanding about race and racism in our country,” as well as “bridging differences” and “promoting reconciliation. Law School Dean Vincent Rougeau will be the forum’s inaugural director. More details are in the release above. My lone cautious sentiment is that the last time BC tried something like this, it created the Church in the 21st Century Center (C21) in response to the sexual abuse crisis the Catholic Church entered into beginning in the early-2000s. The issue is, the Church has never exited that crisis, but C21 hosts essentially zero events surrounding Church reform or coming up with ideas on how to deal with the sexual abuse crisis, such as helping survivors of abuse or literally anything else. Instead, the center is now primarily focused on showing that the Church is appealing to younger audiences through various events. Here was their schedule in October of last year, the last full month of unaffected business at BC. If you search C21 on The Heights website, you’ll find some moments, specifically in 2019 after 2018 saw the release of how many abuse complaints were filed just in the United States, when C21 appeared to be getting back to its roots as an organization intended on building Church reforms directly in response to issues created by the sexual abuse scandal (this is the last time Leahy himself chimed in on the issue), but I believe that if the Forum on Racial Justice is run the same way C21 was run before the beginning of the 2018 academic year when C21 events more frequently looked like they did this past October...I mean that would be a catastrophic error on the part of BC administrators and play directly into the narrative, fair or unfair, that BC’s campus is not safe for Black members of the community, or other minority or marginalized community members. The damage would be lasting and a black mark on Leahy’s presidency. I can’t say my hopes are particularly high, but it’s better than what BC was doing before (nothing).
Jack Goldman is the publisher and editor of this newsletter, as well as an independent reporter who has previously worked for The Heights and The Dorchester Reporter. In his spare time, he’s a student at Boston College.