NASCAR’S PROBLEM IS OUR PROBLEM.

Editor's Note: As reported by Jenna Fryer of the Associated Press: "The noose found hanging in Bubba Wallace’s garage stall at Talladega Superspeedway had been there since at least last October, federal authorities said Tuesday in announcing there will be no charges filed. U.S. Attorney Jay Town and FBI Special Agent in Charge Johnnie Sharp Jr. said its investigation determined “although the noose is now known to have been in garage number 4 in 2019, nobody could have known Mr. Wallace would be assigned to garage number 4 last week.” A crew member for Richard Petty Motorsports discovered the noose Sunday at the Alabama race track. NASCAR was alerted and contacted the FBI, which sent 15 agents to the track to investigate. They determined no federal crime was committed. -WG  Editor-in-Chief's Note: If you think this changes my basic thoughts on racism, the Confederate flag, and the fear-mongering, hate-spewing occupant of the Oval Office, you would be sadly mistaken. The essence of my column remains, and I firmly stand by every word. -PMD

By Peter M. DeLorenzo

Detroit. CAUTION: For all of you out there with the attitude of “I should stick to cars,” I am not going to apologize for this column. And frankly, if it bothers you that I would deign to write something “off topic” well, I don’t frickin’ care what you think. You’re welcome to change the channel if you don’t like what I have to say.

The news that a noose was found in Bubba Wallace’s garage at the Talladega Superspeedway Sunday night – before the rain-delayed NASCAR Cup race was scheduled to take place Monday afternoon – blew up the news cycle and deservedly so. Wallace, who drives for Richard Petty Motorsports, is the only African American driver who races full time at the top level of NASCAR. It was direct pressure by Wallace that led NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag at its tracks and events just two weeks ago. Anyone who knows anything about the history of NASCAR knows that this was a hugely transformative decision, as Confederate flags have been brought to its tracks and displayed by its fans for decades. 

And anyone who has read my columns over the years – especially in “Fumes” – knows that I have been NASCAR’s fiercest national critic. The “stock car” racing organization that has been so resistant to change has been repeating the same mistakes over and over again for more than a decade as it watched its in-person attendance, fan interest and TV ratings plummet in a seemingly unending downward spiral. Being mired in the past has been somewhat of a specialty for the denizens of Daytona Beach, and it’s only when events have conspired to force the issue that NASCAR operatives have been dragged haltingly toward the future. But in this instance, I have nothing but praise for the powers that be in NASCAR for finally moving to expunge a symbol of hate that has been ingrained in its aura almost from its beginning. This significant move was bound to alienate some in its fan base, but NASCAR operatives knew that this was the right time to do so, as the nation is moving inexorably away from its hideous racist past and forging a new way forward.

For his part, Wallace has worn “I Can’t Breathe/Black Lives Matter” T-shirts before races this past month, and on June 10, he raced at Martinsville in a car with #BlackLivesMatter displayed on the side. Wallace has been a courageous and principled leader in this burgeoning movement for change in NASCAR, which is why the appearance of a noose in his team’s garage Sunday evening was so despicable and unacceptable.

(Photo by Wilfredo Lee/USA Today)

Bubba Wallace.

But as I mentioned earlier, this was bound to cause consternation among the most vociferous and hardest of the hardcore faithful in NASCAR’s fan base. The people who couch fervor for the Confederate flag as some sort of sickly skewed tribute to their “heritage” when the reality is that it’s a blatant symbol of white supremacy and hate. And has been for years and years. That a parade of Confederate flag-waving NASCAR “fans” showed up outside of the Talladega Superspeedway in the run-up to Sunday’s postponed race was almost to be expected; this is the Deep South, after all. But still, it didn’t make it acceptable or easy to see by any stretch. It was a flat-out disgusting display that underscored just how far we have to go in this country, which is a long, long way.

(Marvin Gentry/USA Today sports)

The scene outside Talladega Superspeedway last weekend.

(Marvin Gentry/USA Today sports)

Here is part of what Wallace had to say on Twitter Sunday night: “Today’s despicable act of racism and hatred leaves me incredibly saddened and serves as a painful reminder of how much further we have to go as a society and how persistent we must be in the fight against racism.” Truer words were never spoken, and Wallace’s eloquent response was in stark contrast to the reprehensible rhetoric we’ve had to put up with as a nation amidst the worst pandemic in a century, and the most severe epidemic of race-driven policing incidents in recent history.

That this rhetoric has been fueled and propagated by the current occupant of the Oval Office is a monumental disgrace. This third-rate TV hack has made a mockery of the office of the President of this great nation; he has blatantly allowed the closeted white supremacists festering in the shadows to have a voice in the national discussion, which is unconscionable and inexcusable. He doesn’t even attempt to hide his anti-black, anti-Hispanic, anti-immigrant agenda anymore; he is nothing but a rogue actor who stumbled into the office ill-equipped for the gravity it carries and undeserving of the adulation he now expects. He is a preening, vacuous fool with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and he is an insult to everything this great country stands for. It is no wonder that the white supremacists feel emboldened by this pitiful excuse for a “leader” – his only concern is himself. Nothing he does is for the good of the country. Nothing. It’s all just a relentless nightmare of a Shit Show.

In a column I wrote on October 27, 2015, entitled “Seriously, Is This Best We Can Do” I had the temerity – according to a long list of haters – to delineate what was wrong with then-candidate Trump. I said the following:

“Are we, as a country, going to sit back and allow this third-tier ‘celebrity’ and belligerent, classless, no-talent, lying hack to get anywhere near the office of the President of the United States?

Really?

Are we going to sit back and let this boorish, low-life, hate-mongering, nouveau dick lead this nation going forward? (I’m sorry, is ‘dick’ too crude a word for you? Remember we’re talking about an unctuous prick that has left nothing but pithy one-liners, lies and misstatements in his wake. The word is more than appropriate.)

Really?

I have sat back and watched this bombastic publicity hound chew the airwaves spewing lies about the auto business (if he’s telling such egregious untruths about the auto business and then doubling down on it, what else is he lying about?) and refrained from commenting on it, but I can’t abide this for one damn second. The Dude does not abide.

Seriously, is this the best we can do? I will answer that for you: Oh Hell no.

Yes, I admit that Trump was initially amusing with his off-the-cuff quips and chirps about the cesspool that defines Washington, but all that amounted to was a humorous diversion and nothing more. That isn’t going to fly in the White House.

This country deserves better. Much better.

We have serious problems that are growing exponentially by the hour. Our manufacturing base is being threatened by global competitors that don’t play fair, or even worse, by any rules whatsoever. We have friends acting like enemies and enemies masquerading as friends. We are being threatened by enemies that want to destroy us and everything we stand for because our very existence is a threat to their dark vision of a dead world. And the paralysis in Washington among our stumblebum politicos is a dismal disgrace and an insult to every American.

Donald Trump is nothing more than a minor bit player in this circus, one who is relentlessly ill equipped to be President, but he has managed to dominate the airwaves and the media because of his empty, reactionary rhetoric and this country's sick infatuation with ‘celebrity.’ And it is embarrassing and depressing that we, as a country, have indulged him this far.

Well, it needs to stop here and it needs to stop now.

We can do better and we must do better.”

I knew when Trump gave the most embarrassing and indefensible inauguration speech in Presidential history that we, as a people and a country, were in serious trouble. The Grifter-In-Chief and his posse of sycophants, white supremacists and serial incompetents have taken this nation down a long dark road, a road punctuated by Confederate flags and “very fine people on both sides.”

And it is disgusting.

What Bubba Wallace has had to put up with is disgusting, too, and the direct result of a Presidency that has failed this great nation at every turn. And the ugly reality is that NASCAR’s problem is our problem. The collective “we” as a nation of concerned citizens who want to finally relegate this country’s racist past to the dustbin of history has to fight and claw for every inch of progress against an administration that flaunts the rule of law and blatantly discriminates against minorities at every opportunity. 

And at this point, there is only one solution to this mad kaleidoscope of vitriol and racism that is suffocating the life out of this great nation. And it is this:

On November 3^rd vote as if your life – and the future of this great nation – depends on it.

Because this just in: It does.

And that’s the High-Octane Truth for this week.