Alvin Kamara knew little about NASCAR before Wednesday, but as soon as NASCAR announced its decision to ban the Confederate flag, the Saints running back tweeted his approval.
“When the next race?” Kamara tweeted.
An hour later, Kamara live tweeted the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief. Four days later, at the invitation of NASCAR, Kamara attended his first race.
Kamara, who makes his offseason home in South Florida, watched the Xfinity Series in Homestead as NASCAR opened the doors to 1,000 spectators.
“I’ve watched it before, like I’ve turned it on and just skimmed through it, but I never really understood it,” Kamara said Sunday, via David Wilson of the Miami Herald. “I never even really took the time to understand what was going on.”
Kamara wore a T-shirt and hat sent to him by Bubba Wallace, the only full-time black driver in the NASCAR Cup Series. Wallace publicly campaigned for NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag, and it did.
“I don’t think it’s about when to say it. It’s about it actually being said,” Kamara said of the current climate prompting NASCAR’s decision. “It’s taken this long to do it, and it is what it is. Me personally, I’m not going to be mad at that because the climate dictated it. The fact that they sat down and got rid of it, and are making these strides to flip the script, that’s all you can ask for.”