Next question: How?
NASCAR must figure out how it will enforce ban on Confederate flag.
Reese Witherspoon tweeted a high-five emoji for her A-list stamp of approval that NASCAR banned the Confederate flag.
NASCAR’s decision to ban the Confederate flag from its races and venues grabbed headlines as stars such as Witherspoon and New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara were quick to praise the stock car series for ridding itself of a symbol long associated with slavery and racism.
Kamara tweeted as the laps ticked off — he requested NASCAR send him a car so he can take a spin — and the sport suddenly had a slew of new, energized fans. Now comes the tricky part. In a matter of days, NASCAR will be faced with a daunting question: How to enforce the ban at its sprawling, rowdy tracks once fans are allowed back in and campers start setting up their RVs for race weekends? Approximately 1,000 members of the military will be allowed into a race Sunday near Miami and become the first fans at a NASCAR event since the pandemic shut down sports in March.
The enforcement question is much more likely to be an issue when the series holds races June 20-21 at Talladega, Ala., where up to 5,000 fans are expected to be allowed. Flags are a common sight at the superspeedway in the heart of NASCAR’s Southern base. NASCAR will work to develop protocols around enforcement, though it’s not known where the ban ends? Will security be tasked with policing every Rebel flag string bikini or scrape off all the bumper stickers? Take off that shirt, or else! Or else, what?
“That will certainly be a challenge. We’ll try to do that the right way,” NASCAR executive vice president Steve O’Donnell told SiriusXM on Thursday. “We’ll get ahead of it as we are today in letting people know that, ‘Hey, we’re all about pride, we’re all about America, fly your U.S. flag high, fly your drivers’ flags high and come on into the track.’ But if we see something displayed at the track we’re going to have react and we will.”
Fellow drivers were quick to credit Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s lone black driver, for pushing NASCAR to enact the ban. Years of bad press and handwringing over the fate of the flag evaporated within 48 hours once Wallace publicly condemned the relic of racing’s good ol’ boy roots.
“I’ve seen too many comments and too many stories from first-time fans that come to a race in years past and the first thing they say, ‘I’ve seen the Confederate flag flying and it made me feel uncomfortable,’” Wallace told the “Today” show. “We shouldn’t have anybody feeling uncomfortable.”
Helmet company booted
Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano announced they are terminating relationships with helmet design company BEAM Designs.
Johnson tweeted that he “decided to end [his] relationship with Beam Designs” shortly after Wallace posted a picture on Twitter showing comments from the company’s Twitter account that called Wallace’s Black Lives Matter car paint scheme “garbage.”