NASCAR Asks Fans Not to Display Confederate Flag, Fans Rebel

"NASCAR may be the last organization you’d expect to bow to the controversy over the display of the Confederate flag, but before this past weekend’s Coke Zero 400 , the organization implored fans to stop waving them during races. Though there was no actual ban on flags, the organization introduced a voluntary exchange program for fans to swap the rebel flag for the Stars and Stripes. It didn’t work. “Spotting a Confederate flag [was] easier than finding a souvenir shop, restroom or beer stand” at Daytona Motor Speedway this past weekend, Fox Sports reported.

Fans were showing Confederate flags on everything from flagpoles to coolers, trucks to tattoos. At least one was emblazoned with the words, “Heritage, not Hate.” Some fans lambasted NASCAR for endorsing a cause in vogue for a little over a week at the expense of sixty years of strong Southern heritage and a long track record of valuing individual liberties. Lifelong racing fan Larry Reeves, who has flown the Confederate flag at races for 30 years, told the Associated Press, “My family is from Alabama and we’ve been going to Talladega forever. It isn’t a Confederate thing so much as it is a NASCAR thing. That’s why I fly it.”

When NASCAR executives released a statement applauding South Carolina governor Nikki Haley’s push to take down the flag from capitol grounds, the organization said it “recognizes that freedom of expression is an inherent right of all citizens.” But recognizing this freedom seems ancillary to the organization’s intention to move beyond its close association with the South. Confederate flags were among those flying at the Coke Zero 400 race.

NASCAR’s heritage is intertwined with a strand of especially independent southern culture, though not the Confederacy in any way. The organization started in 1948 in Daytona Beach, Fla., to organize races for “runners,” drivers that outsped and outmaneuvered federal tax collectors in order to bring bootleg moonshine from Appalachia to customers in the South. Early officials cleared farmland to build a track, and spectators — many no doubt tipping back tax-free moonshine — flocked to the races.

Soon enough, NASCAR was a staple of the rural South, a status it retains today. The organization has been building across the country in recent years, but around half of the tracks in the current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – Daytona among them — are in southern states. A plurality of NASCAR fans (40 percent) hail from the South. At the same time, a new generation of NASCAR executives, led by CEO Brian France since 2003, have been trying to remake the organization’s image, in an attempt to attract more diverse participants and fans. According to the Wall Street Journal, France’s team has launched ad campaigns on hip-hop and Spanish-language radio and invited black artists like 50 Cent and Lenny Kravitz to attend and perform at races.

The race organization also started an unsuccessful “Drive for Diversity” program to recruit minority drivers. France has personally taken issue with the popularity of Confederate flag imagery in races in the past, preventing golfer Bubba Watson from doing a pre-race lap in 2012 in the iconic Dukes of Hazzard car, which features the infamous flag painted on the roof. (As it happens, Watson announced this weekend that he will repaint the “General Lee” to cover the flag.) Still, in a 60 Minutes interview in 2005, France drew the line at controlling Confederate flags in the stands, saying that tracks “are massive facilities, and I can’t tell people what flag to fly.” Which happens to be basically what he did last weekend — to little effect. "

— Shubhankar Chhokra is an intern at National Review.​

Why do you always copy and past all the words from an entire article?

Can you not just post the link?

Can you not use your own words to think for yourself?

Why do you always copy and past all the words from an entire article?

Can you not just post the link?

Can you not use your own words to think for yourself? Originally Posted by Trill Jackson

I did it mainly to give assholes like you something to complain about. Looks like it's working.

I did it mainly to give assholes like you something to complain about. Looks like it's working. Originally Posted by Wheretonow

If thats what you do for fun then i feel sorry for you and your pathetic life. I hope you find happiness someday instead of just being a miserable loser and internet troll.

Why do you always copy and past all the words from an entire article?

Can you not just post the link?

Can you not use your own words to think for yourself? Originally Posted by Trill Jackson

I did it mainly to give assholes like you something to complain about. Looks like it's working. Originally Posted by Wheretonow

Personally I like that the full article was put here. One less click although a link to the source would have been nice if I wanted to compare the slant on other stories.

On the topic of the confederate battle flag and NASCAR I think it's just smart business and nothing more. Right now with the ever expanding "blank offends me and I am special so don't do that" social mind set of the masses, companies have to maneuver with the winds as they blow.

I admit I'm baffled by NASCAR's position on the Confederate battle flag. Yes, it represents treason and racism, but isn't that NASCAR's core audience? Why would NASCAR be distancing themselves from these people?

I admit I'm baffled by NASCAR's position on the Confederate battle flag. Yes, it represents treason and racism, but isn't that NASCAR's core audience? Why would NASCAR be distancing themselves from these people? Originally Posted by Lust4xxxLife

That's what I'm thinking, too. Probably more fans than ever brought confederate flags to the race. Even those who never did before.

Great thread, extremely thought provoking....

I admit I'm baffled by NASCAR's position on the Confederate battle flag. Yes, it represents treason and racism, but isn't that NASCAR's core audience? Why would NASCAR be distancing themselves from these people? Originally Posted by Lust4xxxLife

But it's a big business, too, that relies on corporate sponsorships and advertisers. I strongly suspect that if the governing body stayed silent, that a ton of those folks would have started pulling their support. Displaying symbols that have racist meaning to huge numbers of people is a loosing proposition as a business strategy and is very rapidly being marginalized in all but the narrowest circles. NASCAR figured that the fans had no where else to go and would put up with the governing body's jawboning about the issue (after all they aren't yet force compliance), whereas the main stream business community would walk away rather than get a big black eye. The interesting moment is going to come when folks start demanding that NASCAR enforce the request and take the flags down or kick the people out. They'll get more shit form the fans, but they'll quickly knuckle under to the corporate sponsors and everybody will move on. But there will be more controversy then.

I think it is bullshit, and I am black. But it is not to appease those that possibly could be offended, but to make sure the millions of sponsors that NASCAR lives on doesnt start to pull out.

My wife mention that all of the Dukes of Hazzard episodes have been pulled because of the General Lee, and looking at the car commercials I noticed that they do not mention the car name and the flag isnt there...and this was before SC...