On September 16th, Terrance Cox filed a discrimination lawsuit against NASCAR and International Speedway Corporation (ISC) for alleged injustices against African Americans trying to break into the sport. In the lawsuit, Mr. Cox is seeking damages of 500 million dollars, which breaks down to 75 million in compensatory damages and 425 million dollars in punitive damages. NASCAR has said that they intend to file a counter lawsuit for defamation as a result of the inflammatory statements made by Terrance Cox.
Dear Mr. Cox,
When I first saw the news about the lawsuit that you filed at the end of last week, some unrepeatable words entered my thoughts. Then I began to laugh a little because of how ridiculous your claims were because NASCAR, as a sport, has never looked down upon a driver or owner based on the color of their skin. Now with that being said, it is most definitely obvious that there are not a lot of minority drivers in NASCAR. However, it goes much more beyond the idea that NASCAR is trying to keep them out and stating that is the reason will not make it any easier to change the demographics.
You allege that NASCAR is discriminating against drivers of African American decent, but I have a hard time believing you. You say that team owners and NASCAR have tried to make sure that African American drivers aren’t hired, but it is more than the talent of a driver that goes into the decision to hire a driver. As a team owner, I would think that you would be able to understand that it is hard for a team to field a driver when they don’t bring sponsorship with them. It is hard for teams to find sponsors for their drivers nowadays because company executives don’t see NASCAR as a good marketing opportunity. When the most popular driver loses sponsorship, its primary sponsor is forced to look for a new one. It’s evident that companies don’t view NASCAR as a good way to spend marketing dollars. In addition, if owners collectively were trying to make sure that African Americans couldn’t break into the sport, you wouldn’t have an owner who puts his own company on the car as a sponsor for multiple races if he was trying to make sure that the said driver didn’t make it in the sport.
You allege that NASCAR isn’t doing their part to help minorities, but yet NASCAR has done the best to integrate minorities into the sport through the Drive for Diversity program, which takes talented minority driver and tries to help them break into the sport. Now, this isn’t necessarily because of the fact that teams don’t want them, but much rather that they may not have the resources of others. Mr Cox, I don’t know if you have been watching this season, but in case you haven’t, two Drive for Diversity graduates have won races this season. These drivers are showing what they can do in quality equipment. For the first time in history, a driver who was of Asian descent won in the top level of our sport. I ask you this; does it seem to you like minorities are being pushed out by the sport? Does it seem like they aren’t getting the opportunities that they deserve?
I hope that throughout this process, you come around to see that there are many factors that go into whether or not a team chooses to sign a driver on. I also hope that you realize that NASCAR is doing all that it can to help those who may have the talent, but not the resources to be competitive. I hope that you realize the false claims you make are not what is best to help get minorities interested in NASCAR. Lastly, I hope that when you lose this case, it doesn’t mean that you will stop your passion for NASCAR.
