Nascar needs to look like America
I like Nascar racing. But the France Family run organization is somewhat of a joke. Why? Well sanitizing history is not how sports organizations should do things in this country. Yes they earn lots of money and the sport is one of the most popular sports in America. But to have 125 drivers and the only non-caucasian driver is Juan Pablo Montoya does not look like the America we live in and is surely the greatest challenge for the sport’s thriving and remaining in the top-tier for the rest of this century.
It appears that the sport’s greatest non-white driver, Wendell Scott won’t make the 1st 5 Nascar drivers in the new Hall of Fame according to this NYTimes article by Bruce Lambert. The Jackie Robinson of the sport won’t make the Top 5? Why? Because then you would see the history of the sport and it wouldn’t be pretty.
For years Scott was barred from Darlington Raceway in South Carolina and barred from some races elsewhere. Officials denied him the Rookie of the Year award he had earned and hassled him over trivia like chipped paint and his sons’ beards, the book reports. The most egregious humiliation came in a major 1963 race in Jacksonville, Fla. Scott won by two laps, even beating Richard Petty.
But officials apparently blanched at the prospect of the winner’s customary kiss for the local — white — beauty queen. So the scoreboard went blank, the checkered flag was withheld and the runner-up was crowned victor.
“Everybody in the place knew I won the race,” Scott recalled. Later, officials conceded a “scoring error” and privately gave him a crude wooden trophy with no inscription.
Nascar’s salute to Scott on its Web site cites his Jacksonville victory — but omits the troubles.
Nascar needs to own up to it’s history, stop sanitizing the truth, get rid of the racists it is harboring in the sport (that claim to want to keep the “culture” of Nascar) and get some drivers who look like all of America.
The REAL America. Not just the America the France family would like it to be made up of.
While you’re at it- does Speed Channel really need another fat white guy broadcaster?
This entry was posted on Friday, August 21st, 2009 at 2:27 pm and is filed under link of the week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
