NASCAR fans ignore request not to fly Confederate flags

FORT WORTH — Charles Ivey climbed to the top of his bus parked on the infield campground at Texas Motor Speedway and proudly hoisted the Confederate battle flag on Thursday afternoon.

He’d never flown the flag during a race weekend but felt compelled to do so for this weekend’s NASCAR tripleheader event at TMS, which concluded with Sunday’s AAA Texas 500.

This marked the first race weekend at the speedway since NASCAR and the track itself in July encouraged fans to leave Confederate flags at home after a racially charged church shooting in South Carolina that left nine worshippers dead.

But that request fell on deaf ears of some race fans who firmly believe it’s their right to fly the flag. Ivey and a handful of other race fans are flying the Confederate flag this weekend. The flags weren’t prevalent around the track, but could be spotted them around the infield.

“I have the right to fly it just as much as they have a right to tell me not,” said Ivey, 52, of Greenville. “It’s not a race thing at all. I’m not about that at all. But I am about First Amendment rights, Second Amendment rights, the Constitution. I believe the flag is about heritage. I had family that fought in the Civil War. I was born in the South, so it’s my right to fly it.”

The Confederate flag debate resurfaced this summer with the June 17 church shooting in Charleston. The suspect, Dylann Roof, had posed with a Confederate flag.

NASCAR, which has deep Southern roots, found itself in the midst of the controversy because many fans displayed the flags during races.

But the sanctioning body has made a conscious effort to diversify and broaden its fan base. NASCAR Chairman Brian France, along with popular drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon, strongly discouraged fans from flying Confederate flags after the shooting.

TMS President Eddie Gossage said he understands the flag debate is a touchy subject on both sides and believes the track might be seeing more flags this weekend simply based on NASCAR’s public stance.

“We’ve never had an issue with it the way you see it so prevalent at certain tracks,” Gossage said. “NASCAR’s public position has prompted more to show up. You know, whenever you tell somebody you can’t do something, they’re going to show you, ‘Yes, I can.’ ”

NASCAR’s strong stance against flying the flags has incited more fans to do so. Ivey went out of his way to make sure he brought a Confederate flag, along with koozies and beads emblazoned with Confederate flags, to the track this weekend.

This isn’t what NASCAR or the tracks want to see during race weekends, of course. Neither do civilrights activists such as Rev. Kyev Tatum of Fort Worth.

“It’s not a First Amendment act. What it is is a direct affront to us coming together, a direct affront in an effort to try to make an unnecessary point,” said Tatum, president of the Fort Worth Southern Leadership Conference. “This is definitely hollow (by those fans). NASCAR did the wise thing in the 21st century to discourage it. This is based on civility and humanity, and (the fans are) saying, ‘To hell with humanity, to hell with civility, my rights are more important.’

“And that’s the attitude that has gotten us into this position in the first place.”