WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Organizers of a NASCAR racing series in North Carolina have apologized after a car with a Confederate flag decal competed in a race last weekend, violating the governing body’s ban.
The flag was spotted inside Lee Stimpson’s car Saturday night at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.
Track spokesperson Gray Garrison said that track officials must have missed seeing the flag and that they would make sure Stimpson does not have the symbol in his car if he races again.
Stimpson said he likely would race one more time this season at Bowman Gray Stadium and would not have the decal on the car.
The city of Winston-Salem owns the stadium, which in the fall is the home of Winston-Salem State University football.
NASCAR banned Confederate imagery at all tracks covering all levels of racing last June after a high-profile incident in which a noose on a garage pull-down rope at Talladega Speedway in Alabama was found in the garage assigned to NASCAR’s Bubba Wallace, the only Black driver in the series. After investigating, the FBI said that the noose had been on the garage door rope since October 2019 and that Wallace was not targeted.