NASCAR could be making another significant change very soon. According to Sports Business Daily, NASCAR is in the early stages of discussing whether to ban political paint schemes on cars. The league has allowed teams to have paint schemes that represent a political candidate or idea in the past. Still, with the current state of the country, NASCAR could decide to eliminate the political paint schemes for good. This change comes after fans being upset for Bubba Wallace‘s “Black Lives Matter” car as well as the “Trump 2020” car driven by Corey LaJoie.
“The talks are in the early stages, and what will be the ultimate outcome, and when such a move would be implemented if it was adopted, are all currently unclear,” Adam Stern of the Sports Business Daily wrote. Stern also wrote that it’s unclear what NASCAR will define as political. The reason for the move could also have to do with NASCAR being as neutral as possible. Last month, NASCAR decided to ban Confederate flags at races, and that decision was made due to Wallace speaking out on it.
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“My next step would be to get rid of all Confederate flags,” Wallace said at the time. “No one should feel uncomfortable when they come to a NASCAR race. So it starts with Confederate flags. Get them out of here. They have no place for them.” Wallace, who is the only full-time Black driver in NASCAR, has been very outspoken during the Black Lives Matter movement. And while he did receive some backlash for his Black Lives Matter car and speaking about against the Confederate flag, LaJoie was attacked non-stop, which led to him going private on Twitter and turning off his comments on a recent Instagram post. LaJoie’s team, Go Fas Racing, partnered up with Patriots of America PAC to put “Trump 2020” on LaJoie’s car for nine races.
“With an estimated 75 million NASCAR fans out there, I was surprised that about 15 million of those fans are not registered voters,” said driver Corey LaJoie in a press release. “I will give my best effort to get NASCAR fans registered to vote through our team efforts on and off the track. When they see the car, hopefully, it makes them race to the polls in November.”
