What NASCAR loses when it turns its back on hard-won inclusivity
Inviting Riley Gaines to perform the invocation is a slap in the face to NASCAR fans.
Ahead of Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Circuit of The Americas, transphobic activist Riley Gaines delivered a pre-race prayer and signaled that NASCAR has turned its back on the last several years of its diversity initiatives.
Make no mistake: That is a loss for NASCAR, and today, we're going to talk about why.
If you're not keen on listening to the invocation yourself but would like to know what Gaines said, I've got a transcription for you:
Dear heavenly Father, we gather today with gratitude for your mercy that we do not deserve and the sacrifice of your son who was sent to Earth to conquer death, hell and the grave. We thank you for this day and the unity that brings us together as we prepare for the start of this race. Lord, we ask for your protection for all drivers, staff, families and fans alike. Grant each driver wisdom and safety at every turn.
Heavenly Father, bless President Donald J. Trump, his cabinet and all of our leaders that they may seek your guidance in all decisions. If this is done, we may never be wrong and America will be made great again. Instill in us humility and grace so that others will see you in our daily lives. May today and every day lead us to the ultimate finish line — meeting you at the pearly gates.
We surrender the activities of this day and of our lives into your mighty hands. God bless America, God bless the great state of Texas. In your name, we pray. Amen.
First things first: I want to make it clear that my conversation today is less about the content of Gaines’ invocation, or the nature of the invocation itself. That's a post for another day. I'm talking about what Gaines represents.
Motorsport is inherently political, often in ways that are uncomfortable or unpleasant. The success of the sport rides almost entirely on satiating politically diverse but often conservative governments, and in NASCAR in particular, the racing is deeply associated with the racial divides that characterize the southeastern part of the United States.
It's no surprise, then, that NASCAR's invocation (which is, in itself, a political act) directly requested blessings for President Donald Trump and included the politician's "make America great again" slogan. Trump was present at the Daytona 500 — it's clear the sport is determined to remain in the current President's good graces.
What is surprising is NASCAR's decision to platform a person whose fame has been founded on a backbone of hate and discrimination.
Riley Gaines is a two-time gold medalist in SEC Championship swimming meets, with a handful of other medals to boot. Her public profile, though, has not been built around her performance, athleticism, or desire to grow the sport in which she competes. Her profile has been built around transphobia.
Under the guise of “protecting women's sports” — itself a transphobic dogwhistle — Gaines has spent the bulk of the last few years actively trying to make life more dangerous for a very small minority of people. She believes in the rigid confines of biological gender and has parroted conservative talking points about an imagined threat that trans athletes pose to people she terms as “biological women.” She routinely positions herself as an enthusiastic supporter of women, but primarily only in such a way that it means rigidly defining what is allowable gender presentation and conduct (which is in itself only serving to further police the “biological women” Gaines claims to protect, because anyone who doesn't conform to her very specific ideas about what is acceptable conduct/appearance for a woman can be punished for deviance).
I'm not going to dig into the nuance of Gaines’ position — it is, frankly, a position that doesn't deserve to be treated with that level of respect — but I do think it's important to investigate what it means for NASCAR, and for motorsport.
Within the span of NASCAR's first three races, we've been inundated with right-wing figureheads: Trump at Daytona, Gaines at COTA. I'm not naive enough to assume the sport has been politically aligning itself with a more progressive viewpoint in an effort to become a paragon of equity, but NASCAR had seemed to be making steps in that direction:
In 2020, NASCAR banned confederate flags from its events and properties.
In 2020, NASCAR also supported Black racer Bubba Wallace during an investigation into what appeared to be a noose hanging in his garage.
NASCAR has approved “Black Lives Matter” paint schemes, and officials have knelt during the national anthem.
NASCAR has supported the LGBTQ+ community (notice the 'T’ in there).
NASCAR censured Kyle Larson for using a racial slur during a sim race.
NASCAR has a Drive for Diversity program designed to encourage women, people of color, LGBTQ+ community members, and more to join the sport, be that in driving roles or other critical roles in the sport.
NASCAR attempted to tamp down the “Let's Go Brandon / Fuck Joe Biden” bullshit that kicked off in 2021 when Brandon Brown won his first Xfinity race.
Maybe those were all token gestures delivered in the post-Obama-era delusion that we were living in a post-racial, post-patriarchal world, with the whole goal of selling tickets to left-wing race fans, or maybe they were genuine attempts at welcoming a more diverse crowd to its races. But if the latter was the case, then NASCAR has made it clear that it's comfortable slipping back into exclusionary conservative territory the moment there's a guy in office who makes people feel okay about saying slurs.
Again: Not surprising. I'm sure it's better for business, even if it's of active detriment to fans who aren't the picture-perfect example of the hateful lifestyle these people are pitching.
The problem is that by doubling down on expressing support for and platforming all manner of hateful individuals, NASCAR is closing its doors.
NASCAR is signaling that, when the going gets rough, it's going to hitch its ship to the folks who already have plenty of wealth and assets and social status, and it's going to let anyone who doesn't fit that mold drown.
NASCAR is suggesting that its efforts to include women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community were superficial, designed to cater to the times.
NASCAR is restoring an atmosphere in which any fan who doesn't fit an acceptable mold will be left open to hate, ridicule, or abuse.
(And, just so you know, this isn't something shocking or new: The “Goyim Defense League” — literal Nazis — turned up at Talladega last year trying to goad people into saying racial slurs and handing out flyers about their bullshit antisemitic “replacement” agenda. Their pandering took place outside of the venue so I guess NASCAR couldn't do anything about it, but let me tell you: There are few things more horrifying than listening to some racist organizers kick up a “white power” chant that many, many drunk people also start parroting. This is the kind of bullshit NASCAR is opening itself up to.)
((And no, that wasn't just the only race GDL turned up to. They've been to a few NASCAR events, and one of their cronies ended up getting punched in 2023. And they've also set up shop at Daytona ahead of the 500. But that antisemitic bullshit has been plaguing the sport for a long time: I direct you to Seth Eggert to illustrate.))
NASCAR is tacitly endorsing the exaggerated fear mongering that accompanies these transphobic “activists.”
NASCAR is saying that it stands for your rights, so long as you don't make it uncomfortable, and so long as you contort yourself to fit their expectations.
NASCAR can tell us all it wants that its intention with Gaines was not to spread hate, that it doesn't necessarily stand for these things, but y'know what? If I was picking some folks to guide us in prayer before a NASCAR race, I'd make damn sure I wasn't platforming a person whose entire existence is dedicated to vilifying an entire group of people over what are wholly imagined threats. NASCAR spoke loud and clear with its actions, and no amount of crisis PR is going to prove otherwise to the many fans who tuned in on Sunday.
I don't know the full breakdown of NASCAR's demographics. I don't know how much of the data that currently exists paints an accurate picture of the folks who watch NASCAR. I don't know how many people are going to turn their backs on NASCAR, because I don't know about you, but I've been watching this shit my whole life, and I've rooted my career in it, and I've poured my heart and soul into it, and I know that this is all just fodder for the post-irony bros to call me a whiny shitlib who needs to get over herself while NASCAR gets back to its roots, which they apparently assume to be better than what we have today.
But I do know that NASCAR has definitively illustrated that it has no backbone. That it has folded under the most minute smidge of pressure in order to lick the boots of people who are so afraid of even a whiff of diversity that they'd rather legislate entire groups of people out of existence than ask themselves why they think their rules are the only ones everyone in the entire world should follow. And I have very little time or respect for that.