Saturday night, Ray Ciccarelli took part in the Baptist Health 200 Gander Truck Series race. This was his first event since making comments about the confederate flag ban that stirred up social media. He finished 29th overall but drew attention when he hit the wall. Viewers saw the collision, as well as the fact that Ciccarelli was 37th overall, and used the opportunity to mock him.
When Ciccarelli hit the wall, users on Twitter reacted by bringing up politics. Some said that the longtime driver supported building President Donald Trump’s wall while others proclaimed that he lost worse than the confederate army. Hundreds voiced their criticism of Ciccarelli and said he “deserved” to hit the wall. Although some simply asked why he was racing. They thought he had retired and sold his team.
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Catching up on the NASCAR truck race & see that pro-traitorous racist confederate Ray Ciccarelli hit the wall early. When he was already in nearly last place. Boy what a shame it’ll be when he quits. 🙄 pic.twitter.com/Ek92r7yxFV
— David #WhyXLost Bloomberg 🤨🖖 (@DavidBloomberg) June 14, 2020
The track where this incident occurred is Homestead-Miami Speedway, and it has developed a reputation for drivers grazing or hitting the wall regularly. Several Xfinity Series competitors, as well as Cup Series drivers had similar issues on Saturday and Sunday. For example, Chase Elliott had an opportunity to catch up with Denny Hamlin near the end of the Dixie Vodka 400 Sunday night, but he hit the wall. This slight collision slowed Elliott and helped Hamlin lengthen his lead and ultimately secure his third win this season.
Ciccarelli recently spoke out about his now-infamous comments and said that readers had misconstrued his message on Facebook. He conducted an interview with TobyChristie.com and explained that he didn’t mean to offend anyone. Ciccarelli also said that people are “attacking and abusing” his family on social media.
“I regret how it was misconstrued,” Ciccarelli said. “I don’t regret my feelings of believing in the national anthem and standing. I don’t like the fact that I was misconstrued about defending the confederate flag. Because in no way shape or form was I defending the confederate flag.
“Everything I was saying was the fact that I understand both sides’ feelings toward the flag. My viewpoint, all I was trying to say is how do you take [the flag] from one group and help support the group that it offends and then what do you do to the group that you took it from? Now, they get outraged.”
