I’ve been to the Daytona 500, attended several races out at Texas Motor Speedway and even penned one of my first Dallas Observer columns about racin’. It’s always been a little fascinating/unsettling seeing all the white faces, red necks and confederate flags.
According to this story over the weekend, sometimes race can even take precedence over the race.
Responding to allegations in conjunction with a lawsuit filed by a black former employee, NASCAR suspended two people last week, one of them for an offense committed at the 2007 race in Fort Worth:
“The lawsuit contends that at an April 2007 race in Texas, Knox exposed himself in the hospitality suite of their hotel at an officials gathering hosted by Balash. … Moore is accused of coming out of his hotel room in Memphis in October 2006 clad only in a towel. The suit says he asked Grant if she wanted to see what was under the towel, opened it and then ducked behind a trash can.”
So that’s fun, no?
NASCAR’s dirty little secret has always been that its core fans are just as obsessed with naked breasts, alcohol and co-Caucasians as fast cars. Couple years back a national group tried to expose NASCAR for what it said were racist undertones. Before that an Addison-based company had designs on a Girls Gone Wild-meets-racing video series. Both uprisings were ultimately quashed by NASCAR.
These latest revelations, however, appear to have legal, staying power. -- Richie Whitt
