Wallace said that he encouraged his fellow drivers to take up the cause and speak outGETTY IMAGES
The auto racing community has "vowed to do a better job of addressing racial injustice in the wake of George Floyd’s death," according to the AP. During their warmup laps yesterday, the 40 cars in NASCAR's Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 "pulled to a stop in front of the empty grandstands and shut off their engines so NASCAR president Steve Phelps could deliver a message over their radio sets." After Phelps spoke to the NASCAR drivers, they "observed a 30-second moment of silence." Then, as the cars "refired their engines and slowly pulled away for the green flag, the Fox broadcast cut to a video made by a number of Cup drivers," including Bubba Wallace, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Wallace, the only African American driver in NASCAR’s top series, has been the sport’s "most outspoken voice" on the topic in recent weeks (AP, 6/7). The AP's Paul Newberry noted Wallace last week "expressed frustration that so many drivers were reluctant to speak out" against the social unrest in the U.S. Wallace, appearing on Earnhardt's podcast, said, "A few drivers -- a very few -- have given their opinion on the day's matter and I appreciate that. But the silence from the top drivers in our sport is beyond frustrating. Our sport has always had somewhat of a racist label to it. NASCAR -- everybody thinks redneck, Confederate flags, racists -- and I hate it. I hate that because I know NASCAR is so much more." Wallace said that he "encouraged other drivers to take up the cause." Johnson "reached out to Wallace to ask what he could do." Johnson said, "As a representative of our sport and just a citizen, it's really time to listen" (AP, 6/6).
SETTING THE PRECEDENT: ESPN.com's Ryan McGee noted yesterday's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway kicked off a "run of three Cup series races in seven days across three states, traveling from Atlanta to Martinsville Speedway on Wednesday night and then another Sunday affair, June 14, at Homestead-Miami Speedway." NASCAR has been "running through an obstacle course of state and local government approvals." The association's plan has "become such the prototype that North Carolina government officials have been handing it to other would-be event planners as the model to follow." It was even "discussed at length during a meeting between NASCAR leadership and the Department of Homeland Security, held in Daytona on May 27." NASCAR officials ask themselves: "What will happen as the sport returns to action this weekend for its first events on the other side of the oft-mentioned critical 14-day window when COVID-19 is most likely to make its presence known"? When the Cup series crews entered the Atlanta Motor Speedway garage yesterday, it had been "21 days since they first arrived at Darlington." But everyone agrees that it is "not a question of if someone will fail their pre-entrance health screening; it's a question of when, who, how many and how widespread it is" (ESPN.com, 6/5).
