NASCAR bans Confederate flags

[47of74]

Source: CNN

Ahead of its Cup Series race Wednesday night in Martinsville, Virginia, NASCAR said it is banning the flying of Confederate flags at its races and other events.

"The presence of the Confederate flag at NASCAR events runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry," NASCAR said in a statement on its website.

"Bringing people together around a love for racing and the community that it creates is what makes our fans and sport special. The display of the Confederate flag will be prohibited from all NASCAR events and properties."

This week, driver Bubba Wallace, the first full-time African American driver in the Cup Series since 1971, called for NASCAR to go further than 2015, when it asked fans not to bring the Confederate flags to races.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/10/us/nascar-bans-conf

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Awaiting the freak out from the Kluxer wing of their fan base....

[unblock]

1. great! now if only the bigots could somehow take the hint and actually revise their attitudes....

[lapucelle]

2. I don't know much about NASCAR, but I have a feeling this is huge. N/T

[still_one]

15. +++

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. ...

[Bucky]

4. whoa

I assume that's for the drivers, crews, and official displays. I don't see them enforcing that with the fans in the bleachers.

[MichMan]

8. They banned it for the participants years ago, not that anyone did it anyway

This statement is about the fans. I also dont know how it can be enforced effectively unless someone complains.

[LanternWaste]

6. Good and good. Done and done.

In my head, I'm applying the same hand-wringing and appeal-to-emotion arguments from the Gone With The Wind threads to this topic and they become even more absurd-sounding and irrational than they do already.

[mitch96]

7. Well after all it's the flag of traitors... Hell if they like traitors so much how about the flag of

Benedict Arnold? if he had a flag that is...... Oh that's right he defected to the British.....
A while ago I found out the alternate for the NASCAR acronym
Non Athletic Sport Centered Around Rednecks... yup, thats them...
m

[MichMan]

9. Most stick and ball.athletes couldn't handle what it takes to drive a race car at that level

In cockpit temperatures of 140 degrees wearing a triple layer firesuit for 3 hours.

One slip and you hit a wall at 200 mph. In football if you make a mistake, you might just drop the ball.

[localroger]

12. In fairness, a pro football career knocks about 20 years off your life expectancy

The damage per mistake is less, but it adds up. You're much more likely to die on the spot from a NASCAR mistake despite all the safety equipment and precautions.

[Calista241]

18. 28 drivers have died in Nascar, the last of which was in 2001.

only 5 have died since 1990.

I would argue that NASCAR is safer for drivers today than the NFL. Junior Seau committing suicide by shooting himself in the chest so they could examine his brain was a seminal moment for me when it came to football. Investments NASCAR has made in safety over the last 30 years make what the NFL has spent on gear, in the same timeframe, laughable by comparison.

TBH, I still watch football, but I will absolutely prevent my kids from playing the sport as long as they're my responsibility. If they want to learn how to drive fast, I'd probably support that kind of interest given the right situation and safety equipment. Carting and go-carts are risky, but in my view have less of an impact on long term health than football.

[localroger]

20. NASCAR has made genuine and substantive efforts toward safety

My understanding is that the center fences that are being installed in the medians of interstate highways are a product of NASCAR research. It will remain true forever that there is no truly safe way to hit a barrier at 200 miles per hour but they have been constantly improving. The NFL by contrast did the Trump denial thing until they couldn't any more, and are now being completely reactive about it. I think there is probably a NASCAR way to play football, with players fully instrumented and collisions monitored in real time and the computer taking players out of the game when they've taken too much damage. That would probably even be a fascinating game to watch as the damage control calculus would become part of the strategy, the chess match between coaching staffs that is the real game. But the NFL is being dragged kicking and screaming toward offering us a game like that. NASCAR (and the other racing organizations) have done as much of that as is technologically possible on their own. Maybe because immediate death is harder to hide or more real than just having a drastically reduced life expectancy.

[jayfish]

23. NASCAR Has Been A Pioneer In Driver Safety For A While.

The widespread adoption of the HANS device and SAFER barrier can be directly attributed to NASCAR. They also have the best response teams in the sport and are the model for other series.

[Maeve]

10. I agree with Jon

[sarge43]

11. Oh my

I love the sound of head's exploding.

[onetexan]

13. Love this: NASCAR's Bubba Wallace will have Black Lives Matter paint scheme on car at Martinsville

Speedway race: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/09/us/bubba-wallace-confederate-flag-trnd/index.html

Bravo Mr. Wallace

[JudyM]

17. That hood! Wow to all this rapid culture change that's starting to actually take.

[onetexan]

19. i'm hoping the crowds will be kind to him and not cause him trouble. Bubba races for Richard Petty's

motorsports company and the man thinks highly of him.

[keithbvadu2]

14. Is Dotard doing any tweets about freedom of speech?

Is Dotard doing any tweets about freedom of speech?

[jayfish]

22. NASCAR - Fast Facts

Last edited Thu Jun 11, 2020, 12:33 PM - Edit history (1)

NASCAR – Fast Facts

NASCAR – Fast Facts

On straight-aways at 200 mph, NASCAR drivers in one second travel 293 feet, almost the length of a football field.

On turns, NASCAR drivers can experience 3 Gs of force against their bodies, comparable to the forces pressing down on shuttle astronauts at liftoff.

Research shows fit drivers are better able to handle g-forces while muscle mass offers more protection in a wreck.

Temperatures in the car often exceed 100 degrees, reaching as much as 170 degrees by the floorboards.

Drivers can lose 5-10 pounds in sweat during a race.

If a driver loses more than 3 percent of his body weight in sweat and doesn't replace those fluids, focus and reflexes start declining.

In a race, a NASCAR driver maintains the same heart rate -120-150 beats per minute for 3-plus hours - as a serious marathon runner for about the same length of time.

A study in "anticipatory timing" found race car drivers to possess the same ability to anticipate what was going to happen as a hockey goalie or a quarterback.

SAFER barriers, which NASCAR has installed at most tracks, reduces crash impacts on drivers by 70 percent or more. SAFER stands for "Steel and Foam Energy Reduction."

No driver has died since NASCAR began requiring head-and-neck restraints in 2001.

Jerry Nadeau recorded the hardest crash - 128 Gs at Richmond International Speedway in May 2003 - since NASCAR began putting black boxes in cars in 2001.

[chwaliszewski]

25. Just a playful acronym. Relax.

[TristanIsolde]

21. Good fisrt step

but Nascar is still not my cup of tea.

[TheFourthMind]

24. Andersonville. One of the many reasons the confederate flag should not be flown in this country.

“There are deeds, crimes that may be forgiven, but this is not among them.”

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2014/02/american-atrocity-the-andersonville-prison-camp/