Friday as NASCAR prepared for this weekend’s races at Daytona International Speedway, fans got ready as well. The sights found at most NASCAR races on practice days could be seen as the garage was a flurry of activity while fans set up campers, broke out the pools and fired up the grill. One sight normally in abundance however was almost noticeably absent.
The Confederate flag is normally not a rare sight at a NASCAR race. For a sport with its roots in the American South, the sights, sounds and symbols associated with the American South, are usually associated with NASCAR. Among those symbols is the Confederate flag a symbol that has been involved in a great deal of controversy lately. The flag has come under fire after a 21-year-old white man gunned down nine people at a historic African American church in Charleston South Carolina.
Support for the Confederate flag to come down has been steadily growing in the wake of the deadly attack. MORE>>>
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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