Confederate Flags Crash Nascar’s Plan for a Homecoming, Throwback acrylic schemes on racecars and awakening logos and signs accustomed Nascar admirers if they accustomed at Darlington Raceway this weekend for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 Sprint Cup race. The business attack was advised to accomplish one of the a lot of acclaimed advance on the ambit attending like the aboriginal 1970s all over again.
Fans were added than blessed to complete the picture, abundant to Nascar’s dismay. The Confederate flags they aloft on R.V.s beyond the infield and alfresco the clue dotted the sky aloft Darlington on Friday morning, as they accept for decades here. The Southern 500, afterwards all, was continued accepted for arena “Dixie” as its canticle and acclimated to affection a appearance called Johnny Reb — a man dressed as a Confederate soldier who stood aloft the acceptable car with a insubordinate flag.
As those Confederate flags coiled already added on Friday, Nascar faced its alternating quandary: How could a action so carefully associated with its Southern roots augment its address nationally afterwards alienating that base?
“I’d say we’re consistently searching to accomplish abiding we’re acceptable our amount admirers and our abiding fan at the aforementioned time as we are growing to a new audience,” Jim Cassidy, Nascar’s chief carnality admiral for antagonism operations, said Thursday during a blast interview. “It’s a balance.”
And Darlington Raceway, as abundant as any clue on the circuit, epitomizes the attempt Nascar has faced in aggravating to acquisition that antithesis with an accident that holds a appropriate abode in antagonism history.
The Southern 500 was aboriginal captivated at Darlington on Labor Day weekend in 1950. For 53 years, it was an iconic stop on the schedule, admired by some as abundant or added than the Daytona 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 a part of the a lot of important contest of the year. That was until 2004, if Nascar afflicted the agenda to accord the Labor Day weekend date to its sister clue in Fontana, Calif., in the coveted Los Angeles market.
The Southern 500 was al of a abrupt gone.
“It’s one of those things: Be accurate what you ambition for,” said Kyle Petty, the longtime disciplinarian who is now an NBC broadcaster. “We admired for a bigger sport, we dreamed of a bigger sport. We dreamed of Chicago and Kansas and Dallas, Tex., and L.A., and we dreamed of those markets if we were active North Wilkesboro and Darlington and Rockingham and Martinsville and places like that.
“And again all of the abrupt you accept those markets, but there’s a cede to be fabricated to be in those markets. And I anticipate Nascar looked at it and said, let’s change some of this being around. I accord them acclaim for alteration it at the time to try to accomplish something happen. But I accord them huge acclaim for acumen what we had was just as appropriate and advancing aback to it.”
Darlington retained one chase anniversary season, the date alive on the agenda several times. The Southern 500 name was brought aback in 2009 as well. But it was not until afterwards the California agreement bootless and the Labor Day accident was confused to Atlanta for four years that Nascar assuredly gave Darlington aback its Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend this year. It was harder to barometer activity traveling into the weekend; the chase was not a sellout at the 58,000-seat track.
“I anticipate our abundant chase admirers in South Carolina abutment this racetrack,” said the clue president, Chip Wile. “Certainly, we wish to accomplish a big burst in our acknowledgment to Labor Day weekend, and I anticipate we’ll do that.”
But admiral are bent not to accomplish a arena at the aforementioned time with Confederate flags in bright appearance during the chase broadcast. Afterwards all, the Nascar chairman, Brian France, had declared that Confederate flags were no best acceptable at advance afterwards a accumulation cutting at a abbey in Charleston in June. If the alternation confused to Daytona in July, clue admiral came up with an barter program. They offered American flags to alter the Confederate flags there.
Wile said the aforementioned affairs would be in abode at Darlington as well. That’s not absolutely what happened on Friday, though, as clue workers asked admirers to yield down their flags. The acumen given: They blocked afterimage curve beyond the track.
Fans were not affairs it.
“If they’re adage it gets in the way, humans can’t see beyond the track, how appear they got flags on all the racecar drivers’ haulers?” said Tyler Harris, 24, of Reidsville, N.C., pointing to the abounding American flags that still waved.
Harris had displayed 5 Confederate flags on a 30-foot pole absorbed to an R.V. in the infield. The banderole on top included this line: “I Aint Advancing Down.” But it did appear down Friday morning afterwards clue workers fanned out beyond the infield and asked admirers to abolish them. Harris vowed to put the flags aback up.
Brian Myers, 40, of Ridgeville, S.C., came to Darlington in a blue-painted academy bus with a assurance on foreground that said, “Ridgeville Rednecks.” He was asked to yield his banderole down, too. He wasn’t blessed about it, though.
“There’s a lot of newer, adolescent humans advancing to the contest now, not the old school,” Myers said. “They’ve got to accumulate everybody happy. So they’re in a boxy spot. I accept that. But they shouldn’t ask us to yield our flags down.”
Fans were added than blessed to complete the picture, abundant to Nascar’s dismay. The Confederate flags they aloft on R.V.s beyond the infield and alfresco the clue dotted the sky aloft Darlington on Friday morning, as they accept for decades here. The Southern 500, afterwards all, was continued accepted for arena “Dixie” as its canticle and acclimated to affection a appearance called Johnny Reb — a man dressed as a Confederate soldier who stood aloft the acceptable car with a insubordinate flag.
As those Confederate flags coiled already added on Friday, Nascar faced its alternating quandary: How could a action so carefully associated with its Southern roots augment its address nationally afterwards alienating that base?
“I’d say we’re consistently searching to accomplish abiding we’re acceptable our amount admirers and our abiding fan at the aforementioned time as we are growing to a new audience,” Jim Cassidy, Nascar’s chief carnality admiral for antagonism operations, said Thursday during a blast interview. “It’s a balance.”
And Darlington Raceway, as abundant as any clue on the circuit, epitomizes the attempt Nascar has faced in aggravating to acquisition that antithesis with an accident that holds a appropriate abode in antagonism history.
The Southern 500 was aboriginal captivated at Darlington on Labor Day weekend in 1950. For 53 years, it was an iconic stop on the schedule, admired by some as abundant or added than the Daytona 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 a part of the a lot of important contest of the year. That was until 2004, if Nascar afflicted the agenda to accord the Labor Day weekend date to its sister clue in Fontana, Calif., in the coveted Los Angeles market.
The Southern 500 was al of a abrupt gone.
“It’s one of those things: Be accurate what you ambition for,” said Kyle Petty, the longtime disciplinarian who is now an NBC broadcaster. “We admired for a bigger sport, we dreamed of a bigger sport. We dreamed of Chicago and Kansas and Dallas, Tex., and L.A., and we dreamed of those markets if we were active North Wilkesboro and Darlington and Rockingham and Martinsville and places like that.
“And again all of the abrupt you accept those markets, but there’s a cede to be fabricated to be in those markets. And I anticipate Nascar looked at it and said, let’s change some of this being around. I accord them acclaim for alteration it at the time to try to accomplish something happen. But I accord them huge acclaim for acumen what we had was just as appropriate and advancing aback to it.”
Darlington retained one chase anniversary season, the date alive on the agenda several times. The Southern 500 name was brought aback in 2009 as well. But it was not until afterwards the California agreement bootless and the Labor Day accident was confused to Atlanta for four years that Nascar assuredly gave Darlington aback its Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend this year. It was harder to barometer activity traveling into the weekend; the chase was not a sellout at the 58,000-seat track.
“I anticipate our abundant chase admirers in South Carolina abutment this racetrack,” said the clue president, Chip Wile. “Certainly, we wish to accomplish a big burst in our acknowledgment to Labor Day weekend, and I anticipate we’ll do that.”
But admiral are bent not to accomplish a arena at the aforementioned time with Confederate flags in bright appearance during the chase broadcast. Afterwards all, the Nascar chairman, Brian France, had declared that Confederate flags were no best acceptable at advance afterwards a accumulation cutting at a abbey in Charleston in June. If the alternation confused to Daytona in July, clue admiral came up with an barter program. They offered American flags to alter the Confederate flags there.
Wile said the aforementioned affairs would be in abode at Darlington as well. That’s not absolutely what happened on Friday, though, as clue workers asked admirers to yield down their flags. The acumen given: They blocked afterimage curve beyond the track.
Fans were not affairs it.
“If they’re adage it gets in the way, humans can’t see beyond the track, how appear they got flags on all the racecar drivers’ haulers?” said Tyler Harris, 24, of Reidsville, N.C., pointing to the abounding American flags that still waved.
Harris had displayed 5 Confederate flags on a 30-foot pole absorbed to an R.V. in the infield. The banderole on top included this line: “I Aint Advancing Down.” But it did appear down Friday morning afterwards clue workers fanned out beyond the infield and asked admirers to abolish them. Harris vowed to put the flags aback up.
Brian Myers, 40, of Ridgeville, S.C., came to Darlington in a blue-painted academy bus with a assurance on foreground that said, “Ridgeville Rednecks.” He was asked to yield his banderole down, too. He wasn’t blessed about it, though.
“There’s a lot of newer, adolescent humans advancing to the contest now, not the old school,” Myers said. “They’ve got to accumulate everybody happy. So they’re in a boxy spot. I accept that. But they shouldn’t ask us to yield our flags down.”
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