Track loses races and sponsors over ‘Bubba Rope’ post
A North Carolina racetrack lost two Carolina Sprint Tour races and “all but two” sponsors after its owner offered “Bubba Rope” for sale, days after a noose was found in the Talladega garage of Bubba Wallace, the only black driver at the top level.
Mike Fulp, owner of the half-mile 311 Speedway in Pine Hill, had written Wednesday on Facebook Marketplace: “Buy your Bubba Rope today for only $9.99 each, they come with a lifetime warranty and work great.”
The dirt racetrack advertised a series of “America We Stand” races for Saturday night, with Fulp writing on Facebook that the Confederate and Trump flags and caps, and American and Christian flags for “Heritage Night,” would be on sale. Fans were reminded, “don’t forget your 2nd Amendment Right, 311 Speedway,” according to The Associated Press.
Fulp removed the posts after criticism last week, but Saturday’s races and promotion at the track that calls itself “The Daytona of Dirt” were cancelled. “I’ve lost all but two of my sponsors,” Fulp told the Greensboro News & Record. “I’m responsible. I’m responsible for trying to make some jokes. But the world is mad as hell right now.”
The Carolina Sprint Tour announced Friday on Facebook that it would skip 311 Speedway for the rest of the season and was looking for new venues for its July 25 and Sept. 26 races, noting that “2020 has been a year to test us all.”
“We do not condone nor support the comments and posts that have been made the past week. We will not put our sponsors, IMCA Racing, series, drivers, teams, owners, fans or families in a negative light such as what’s happened recently,” its statement said.
Fulp changed the title of Heritage Night, which had been a response to NASCAR’S decision to ban the Confederate battle flag from races. But the controversy brought attention to his other, now-deleted Facebook posts.
“I received death threats this week, all week long,” Fulp said. “People called and left messages, threatening me, threatening my mama, threatening my granddaughter. My girlfriend got threats. My employees got harassed. I had seven employees quit.”
A local company, Loflin Concrete of Kernersville, “cut all ties” with the track.
“Standing for what you believe is often different than being known for what you are against,” it announced on Facebook. “Sometimes just being against something in principle or belief is just not enough. Words must lead to action sometimes. This is one of those times. We have cut all ties with 311 speedway.”
Fulp told the News & Record he is “not a racist” and was “trying to be funny, trying to make jokes” because there is a Bubba Rope synthetic line of winches that he says he sells. He said that by pointing out the connection between his post and the noose found in Wallace’s garage, his critics “took a joke and made it racial.” The Washington Post