NASCAR asks fans to refrain from showing Confederate flag at races

NASCAR announced on Thursday it had entered into "an unprecedented collaboration" among the tracks that host its national series events in an effort to ask fans to "refrain from displaying the Confederate Flag at our facilities and NASCAR events."

The sanctioning said in a statement that every one of its tracks had agreed to the arrangement and vowed to help remove fans' displays of the flag.

Last week, NASCAR confirmed that the flag was prohibited from appearing in any official capacity at NASCAR races but stopped short of prohibiting its display by fans. Today's announcement goes considerably farther in efforts to end displays of what critics call a symbol of the South's racist past, which became especially controversial after last month's murders in South Carolina by a self-proclaimed white supremacist.

"We're all trying to be, as we should, the most inclusive sport that we can, and you can't say that on one hand and then fly a very offensive flag to an entire race of people on the other," NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France said Wednesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. "It just doesn't comport. That's where we are, and there's no daylight between that. And I was clear on that over (last) weekend, and our tracks are working on the right kind of solution to work with our fans."

Last weekend at Sonoma, Dale Earnhardt Jr. strongly endorsed calls to remove the flag from any appearance with NASCAR races.

"I've made my comments about the Confederate flag several times, and I stand behind NASCAR's stance to remove it," Earnhardt said. "I think if it's offensive to an entire race, it really does nothing for anybody to be there flying. It belongs in the history books, that's about it.'"

Source: NASCAR