NASCAR has released a statement endorsing the call by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on Monday for the removal of the Confederate flag from its statehouse in Columbia. The action comes in the wake of the shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston that left nine dead.
South Carolina is the home state of the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, which is located about two hours north of Charleston.
NASCAR’s statement:
John Saunders, president of International Speedway Corp., which operates 12 tracks that host NASCAR Sprint Cup races, including Daytona International Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Darlington Raceway, issued a statement about the Confederate flag on Tuesday:
Scott Cooper, vice president of communications for Charlotte Motor Speedway, issued a statement on behalf of Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns eight tracks that host Cup races, including Charlotte, Bristol Motor Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway:
In a 2005 interview with “60 Minutes,” NASCAR CEO and Chairman Brian France said of the Confederate flag, “It’s not a flag I look at with anything favorable. That’s for sure.”
About the presence of the flag at tracks, France said, “These are massive facilities and I can’t tell people what flag to fly,” France said. “A lot of flags fly off property, but they’re in and around the facility.”
France was asked if he could ban the Confederate flag at his tracks.
“I think that you get into freedom of speech and all of the rest of it,” France said. “All we can do is get behind the most important flag, the American Flag.”
The next year, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the only driver of about 30 asked by Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports who spoke on the record about the Confederate flag.
“We live in a country where you can speak freely and do as you may,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t know [if] what that flag stands for is the same for me as it is the guy who might have it flying out there.
“I am not going to agree with everything everybody does all my life. So I don’t have any control over it.”
In 2012, NASCAR barred pro golfer Bubba Watson from driving his replica of the “General Lee” at Phoenix International Raceway. The car, made famous in the 1980s TV show “The Dukes Of Hazzard,” has the Confederate flag on its roof and is named after Confederate general Robert E. Lee.