• Home
• Blog
• Podcast
• Forum
• Speed Shop
• Archives
• About Us

• Channels:
• Formula 1
• IRL
• NASCAR
• Motorcycles
• NHRA

Double Clutchin’-NASCAR Sued For $225 Million For Possible Racism/Sexism

Don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger, but get ready to hear a lot more about this story in the next few days and weeks, if any of the following claims turn out to be true. Mauricia Grant, a former technical inspector is suing NASCAR to the tune of 225 million and is claiming that there is rampant racism and sexism within the sport. According to ESPN:

The 32-year-old Grant, who is black, worked as a technical inspector responsible for certifying cars in NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series from January 2005 until her termination. In the lawsuit, she alleged she was referred to as “Nappy Headed Mo” and “Queen Sheba” by co-workers, was often told she worked on “colored people time” and was frightened by one official who routinely made references to the Ku Klux Klan.

In addition, Grant said she was subjected to sexual advances from male co-workers, two of whom allegedly exposed themselves to her, and graphic and lewd jokes.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, lists 23 specific incidents of alleged sexual harassment and 34 specific incidents of alleged racial and gender discrimination beginning when she was hired in January 2005 through her October 2007 firing.

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said the organization had not yet reviewed the suit.

It should be noted that the lawsuit came after Grant was fired in October 2007 due to what NASCAR described as “poor work performance”. But there is a key line that Grant uses that I want to focus upon and it is this one line that I believe will cause NASCAR the most trouble with this case:

“It’s just the way things are in the garage,” she said.

Why is that line so important? It’s because of the perception of NASCAR in the mainstream media, both sports and news-related. NASCAR is still seen by many as a “good ole-boys” network, as a “southern, back-woods sport”. It’s still covered with disdain by many sportscasters and sportswriters who don’t understand the sport, its culture, and would rather poke fun at NASCAR fans for being “rednecks and hicks”.

There are many who hold this view of NASCAR and this case is going to give many of those people a chance to jump on that train. Remember, we are only two years removed from NBC Dateline planting Muslims in the crowd at Martinsville in an attempt to show that NASCAR fans are the bigoted, racist individuals that the media believes that they are. Nothing happened at Martinsville and it was the Dateline folks who were left having to apologize and wipe the egg off their face. We don’t have to ask why Dateline picked a Virginia race to try this at, we know why they didn’t pick Las Vegas, Fontana, or Dover. NASCAR is still seen as a southern thing and its fans still have the image of being rougher than your average sports fan.

This accusation isn’t about the fans though. This accusation goes much deeper than that, as it is a claim against the entire organization for engaging in sexist, racist, and overall demeaning behavior. If any of these claims are substantiated, NASCAR is in for a bad time of it as you can expect every area of the sport that can be criticized to have the light shined on it. And there are some issues that NASCAR is going to have to deal with.

Some of those issues include the low numbers of African-Americans and women in the sport. Not just behind the wheel but behind the scenes. I don’t know the exact breakdown of white males to minorities that have jobs in NASCAR and if anyone wants to supply that information feel free; but just giving it the eyeball test, it appears from the outside that NASCAR is a hard club to get into if you don’t fit a certain criteria.

Understand, I’m not saying that NASCAR is racist or sexist; I’m just trying to show just how badly that these claims can hurt the sport. I’m also not afraid to say that NASCAR hasn’t always done the greatest job of policing itself when it comes to problems related to race and gender.

Most old-time fans know the story of Wendell Scott’s victory at Jacksonville Speedway in 1963. Scott, a black driver, lapped the field twice by the time that he crossed the finish line, but no one ended the race until several laps later when a car driven by Buck Baker, who was a mile behind Scott, was awarded the win. Scott was later awarded a second-hand trophy, but Baker was allowed to keep the original. Scott said:

“They (promoters) didn’t want me out there kissing any beauty queens.”

Times have changed since 1963, but there still has not been a team that has really pushed a driver of a different race or gender. Are African-Americans just not entering the sport? If not, why? This is a question that NASCAR is going to have to have an answer for in the coming days.

Earlier this year Jon Denning, a Jewish driver, made claims to the Jerusalem Post that he had problems in NASCAR because of his different beliefs:

Denning says people urged him to attend church and told him his racing career might take a positive turn if he accepted Jesus.

“‘Your luck would be better if you came to Jesus,” he said associates told him, suggesting that blown-out engines, flat tires and other failures would disappear once he converted.

The proselytizing comes amid an atmosphere on the racing circuit that Denning describes as rife with racism and bigotry.

“People would curse Jews and put down minorities,” he said. “Their putting down people, including my people, made me want to come on this trip.”

A NASCAR official, Andrew Giangola, said the organization had no knowledge of any misconduct among its drivers and is trying to make the sport more multicultural.

All sports have their problems. It was last year and early this year that the New York Knicks organization lost a lawsuit that was based around sexism and the sexual harassment of women by Knicks then-coach Isiah Thomas. Golf and the PGA are always under fire for the race rules that some of their country clubs still cling to about who can join and who cannot. This case is potentially bigger than those. If any of these claims are true, NASCAR officials and management are guilty of gross negligence in allowing terrible things to be said and done without punishment, and by doing that, they will have invited everyone to come in and take a look at their dirty laundry, and to use what they find to reinforce stereotypes about the sport and its fans that it most cases does not apply. The average NASCAR fan is no more racist or sexist than the average NFL, MLB, or NBA fan, and I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most of the people working in the sport are not either. But if NASCAR is shown to have been allowing a few people to behave like Neanderthals, it is going to bring every little secret that the sport has out into the light.

Understand, right now all that we have are the claims of one person and a lawsuit. But that’s more than enough for everyone in the mainstream to start talking and jumping to their own conclusions. I don’t know whether these claims are fact or fiction, but Mauricia Grant has made some damning accusations against the sport, and whether they are true or not, they are going to have to be faced and dealt with. This isn’t just a story that is going to be covered by ESPN. This story is one that the mainstream news media outlets are going to be interested in. I’m interested to see how NASCAR is going to respond.

Comments