NASCAR Right to Sever Ties with Jackson's Group

Fan Commentary by Grandstand Bob

Bravo to NASCAR for discontinuing funding for Jesse Jackson’s cash cow, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. It’s rare that a group, especially one as routinely accused of racism as NASCAR, stands up to the coalition’s shakedown tactics, but it is necessary.

Jackson’s group has a long history of extorting money from corporations, from General Electric to Toyota. In these cases and many more, the corporations respond by doing business with or contributing to companies or organizations with ties to Jackson. In other words, though the left-wing media might applaud involvement with a group that purports to support diversity causes, such involvement often leads to negative consequences that outweigh any positive developments.

The NFL is a case in point. After some Jackson grandstanding, and under threat of lawsuits, about the lack of black coaches in professional football, the NFL issued a mandate stating that teams must interview a minority candidate for any vacant head-coaching job.

In the last week, the Detroit Lions became the first team to violate this mandate, and they were fined $200,000 by the league. What makes this tremendously ironic is that five minority candidates DECLINED interviews, because they believed, rightly so, that the lions were already going to hire Super Bowl coach Steve Mariucci, a close friend of team president Matt Millen. With a coach of Mariucci’s stature set to take the job, it would have been a pointless exercise for both the job candidates and the team. Unfortunately, logic is often lost in matters of diversity and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

To put this in NASCAR terms, it would be like Joe Gibbs racing having a spot in a Winston Cup ride and Jeff Gordon lined up to take it, but needing to interview minority drivers, none of whom have Winston Cup experience. Do we really want to see something as ridiculous as this happening in NASCAR? If the organization maintained its ties with Jackson’s group, history indicates that such a situation would be likely.

David Poole, a Charlotte Observer columnist for whom I have a lot of respect, disagrees with this position in his recent column (http://www.thatsracin.com/mld/thatsracin/6419605.htm). He believes that NASCAR is further opening itself to criticism on its lack of diversity, and he’s probably right. I do, however, disagree when he says that, by heeding pressure from those opposed to Jackson and his group, “The logical conclusion, then is that NASCAR doesn't really care enough about diversity to take heat on that front.”

As much as I criticize NASCAR, I do believe that they care a lot about diversity. How could they not? There is big money in capturing the minority race fan market. Imagine the draw and commercial potential of a black Dale Earnhardt, Jr. or Jeff Gordon. I think that NASCAR would jump all over itself to elevate a driver like that to the top series. The trouble isn’t that such a driver doesn’t exist, there are probably several out there struggling to make it, as there are several qualified white drivers who lack the money to get the equipment to get the attention. Therein is the problem, money.

In his column, Poole quotes Tinsley Hughes, a black driver who has tried for years to develop a Winston Cup team, as saying that it’s not a lack of desire to drive race cars that prevents minorities from competing, it’s a lack of resources. The same holds true for struggling white mechanics in the Appalachian Mountains. It’s a rich man’s sport.

To me, that makes the lack of diversity in motorsports an unintentional result of the capital requirements of funding a race team, rather than racism or systematic exclusion of any group. Jackson’s group, with its $250,000 of NASCAR money, has not helped a single team advance to the top levels of competition, and hasn’t even placated the group’s race warlords (ref: my earlier column on the subject).

That money could better be spent with another group that could produce better results, without extortion, shakedown tactics and outright denigration of the sport and its fans.

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note: This opinions expressed in this column are those of writer and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of ARS Racing Outlet or its parent company, Beydler and Bell, LLC.