President Trump told 2 lies in 279 characters, and NASCAR let him off the hook
NASCAR saw its credibility — and the credibility of the only Black driver in its top series — strongly attacked by President Donald Trump on Twitter on Monday morning.
And what did the sport do in response?
Not nearly enough. The organization let almost seven hours go by and then issued a wishy-washy statement, one that let Trump off the hook for the two lies in his 279-character tweet.
Was this because so many NASCAR fans are Trump supporters?
Is NASCAR — the same organization that banned the Confederate flag from all its properties last month — enabling Trump because it doesn’t want to make the president mad?
Yes and yes.
I get that NASCAR is trying to toe a fine line here. The sport wants to look progressive and support driver Bubba Wallace, who is Black. Several times over the past month, it has done both.
At the same time, NASCAR doesn’t want to offend a fan base that has always skewed conservative. I understand that you can’t dismiss financial considerations entirely, especially in a sport where the sponsors are such a huge deal.
But NASCAR could have done more here, and the organization could have done it faster. For a sport built on speed, seven hours is an awfully long time to let a tweet go unchallenged.
A statement respectfully disagreeing with the president would have been a good start, rather than one that made no reference to Trump’s incendiary comments and almost made it sound like they didn’t exist at all.
The background:
Trump — late to the news but coming in hard — wrote on Twitter to his 82.8 million followers Monday: “Has Bubba Wallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers and officials who came to his aid, stood by his side & were willing to sacrifice everything for him only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX? That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!”
Why Trump tweeted this Monday -- 13 days after the FBI announced the noose wasn’t evidence of a federal crime -- is a mystery. But since he did, the story immediately revived. So let’s review.
The first reference Trump made in his tweet regarding Wallace and a proposed apology concerned the garage-door pull fashioned into a noose. That noose was found inside Wallace’s garage stall June 21 at Talladega Superspeedway by one of Wallace’s crew members.
NASCAR called in the FBI and announced the investigation into the noose, making national news. NASCAR drivers pushed Wallace’s car in front of the starting grid together before the next day’s race in a touching show of unity.
By June 23rd, the FBI had determined the noose had actually been in that garage stall since October 2019, well before Wallace was assigned to use it. NASCAR president Steve Phelps said June 25 in a teleconference that “the noose was real” but acknowledged that it didn’t appear its construction had been directed toward Wallace and thus that the noose didn’t constitute a hate crime. Phelps also emphasized that Wallace had nothing to do with reporting the incident.
Phelps said then of Wallace: “He stood tall for what he believes in, and we all need to stand with him. I know I’m going to.”
Rather than standing strong Monday after Trump called the incident “just another HOAX” and also wrote that NASCAR’s ratings were at their “lowest” ever because of the noose and the banning of the Confederate flag (a decision sparked by Wallace), the sanctioning body put out this statement:
“We are proud to have Bubba Wallace in the NASCAR family and we commend his courage and leadership. NASCAR continues to stand tall with Bubba, our competitors and everyone who makes our sport welcoming and inclusive for all racing fans.”
Which was OK as far as it went. But what about the hoax, which by definition is a malicious or humorous deception? There’s been no evidence this was someone’s idea of a joke, nor that the noose was malicious.
Was it an embarrassing misunderstanding? Absolutely. Was it a hoax? Given what we know right now, absolutely not.
What about Trump’s claim about the ratings? That one is easy to disprove via official measurements. NASCAR’s ratings are up substantially, not down, compared to 2019, and the sport has reached millions of new viewers during the pandemic. Sunday’s race had the second-largest TV audience (4.34 million viewers) of the 12 Cup Series races since NASCAR’s return from its pandemic-related hiatus May 17. (The return race at Darlington averaged 6.32 million viewers)
NASCAR, however, seemed content to let the specifics of Trump’s tweet go.
The Trump tweet presented a choice of fight or flight. NASCAR chose flight, running away from a potential confrontation with one of the world’s most powerful men.
That tweet, going largely unchecked, will establish a new and false narrative in the minds of millions.
Remember, there was a noose. As Phelps said June 25, explaining that every other NASCAR track had been checked for garage door pulls fashioned into a noose: “Across those 29 tracks and 1,684 garage stalls, we found only 11 total that had a pull-down rope tied in a knot. And only one noose: The one discovered on Sunday in Bubba Wallace’s garage.”
Also in that teleconference, Phelps said: “Bubba Wallace and the 43 team had nothing to do with this. Bubba Wallace has done nothing but represent this sport with courage, class and dignity. It is offensive seeing anyone suggest otherwise, and frankly it’s further evidence as to how far we still need to go as a society.”
I completely agree with that.
But Trump more than suggested otherwise Monday. He declared otherwise. Logically, NASCAR and Phelps should have labeled this attack on Wallace’s character and the sport’s honesty as “offensive.” They did not.
Wallace said more than his sport in his own statement Monday afternoon, which NASCAR did retweet. The driver wrote about persevering in the face of adversity and ended that statement with the words: “Even when it’s HATE from the POTUS … Love wins.”
Trump, the POTUS himself, stirred up this hornet’s nest. Name him. Hold him accountable.
If the president declares you are involved in a hoax, you shouldn’t pretend that he never said it.
You should fight — for your reputation, for your sport, for the facts. It’s a lesson NASCAR has yet to learn.
This story was originally published July 6, 2020 at 6:44 PM with the headline "President Trump told 2 lies in 279 characters, and NASCAR let him off the hook."
