It’s probably controversial to write about American politics in 2020, no matter which side you’re coming out in favour of. However, I’m going to go ahead for two reasons:
(1) From the looks of things, no one is reading this blog anyways.
(2) I’m not coming out in favour of either U.S. Presidential candidate. In fact, quite the opposite.
To a large portion of the American (and Canadian) population, us NASCAR fans are stereotyped as low-income, low-IQ redneck white trash males.
Unfortunately, despite NASCAR’s best efforts to market outside this particular demographic, the stereotype and the stigma remains. So it probably stands to reason that most who consider themselves political experts (whether they’ve worked in politics, studied political science or just spend a lot of time “educating” themselves on Twitter) might question why any self-respecting political movement would go out of their way to win the NASCAR vote.
Well, as far back as 2004, political pundits even went so far as to coin a term “NASCAR dad” as they strategized over how to win the vote of white, middle-aged, working or lower-middle class men who predominantly resided in small towns in the Southern U.S., estimated to number approximately 45 million possible voters.
2004 wasn’t the first time American politics decided there might be some merit to wooing the NASCAR vote. Names like Carter, Bush, Clinton and Reagan have all made appearances at races in the hopes of convincing race fans to vote for them. (Check out this article in particular which discusses how Darlington – and the Southern 500 – was a political battleground for a number of years.)
It has been assumed that NASCAR fans, being tagged as predominantly white, southern, and male must also be – among other things – conservative and vote Republican. While there may be some merit to that thinking (then-First Ladies Michelle Obama and Jill Biden being booed at a 2011 race), a 2010 survey found 27.2% of NASCAR fans identified as Democrat, 30.8% as Republican and – surprisingly, at least to this writer, 35.1% as independent. (See the full article here, although take those numbers with a grain of salt, a LOT has changed in ten years.)
What struck me about those numbers was that the gap between Democrat and Republican was not as wide as might have been expected and that the largest group was fans that identified their party of choice as Independent.
While Kanye West’s presidential run (for the Birthday Party – I wish I was kidding) may be great for the TMZs of the journalistic world, odds are that the race for the White House will come down to Democratic nominee Joe Biden and Republican nominee Donald Trump (incumbent).
Neither Biden nor Trump probably care who wins this year’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship, their campaign staff would certainly care about cornering the market on the votes stemming from millions of NASCAR fans across the United States.
In 2016, this was a no-brainer. After making a similar politic move during the Republican primaries, Trump sponsored Austin Wayne Self in the then-Camping World Truck series. Hillary Clinton’s campaign sponsored…no one. (The last foray a Democrat presidential candidate attempted into NASCAR sponsorship was a short-lived discussion by 2008 candidate and future President Barack Obama to sponsor BAM Racing’s #49 ride, then driven by Chad McCumbee.)
Four years later, the situation – like everything else in the world – is muddled. Trump’s team is still sponsoring NASCAR rides, primarily Timothy Viens #49 – obviously a popular presidential number – in the Gander Outdoor Truck Series and Cory Lajoie’s #32 Ford in the Cup Series.
Trump also sponsored Joe Nemechek’s Chevrolet in the XFINITY season opener at Daytona. A day later, Donald Trump arrived at Daytona in Air Force One, served as Grand Marshall for the Daytona 500 (his fourth attendance at the Great American Race) and took a ride around the 2.5 mile superspeedway in his presidential limousine.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s Democrat Presidential campaign has sponsored…no one. And as activists have told us many times recently, silence speaks volumes. Sometimes people say more by saying nothing.
So, no matter what one might think of Trump’s politics, his campaign was certainly doing more to win the NASCAR vote than his opponent.
But then came the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Black Lives Matter protests across the world and controversy surrounding NASCAR fans flying Confederate flags.
NASCAR had, in 2015, barred the flag from being flown at races. Richard Petty Motorsports driver Darrell “Bubba” Wallace, Jr. spoke to the media discussing his wish that NASCAR would go further and ban fans from bringing Confederate flags to tracks
NASCAR agreed with Wallace and banned the flags. But when NASCAR went to Talladega, located in the deep Southern state of Alabama, a noose was believed to be found in Wallace’s garage area. The NASCAR community of drivers and crews all stood behind Wallace, literally, as they walked Wallace and the #43 car to pit road before the race.
An investigation proved the incident was not a hate crime. But Trump wouldn’t leave it alone. He bashed NASCAR for their stance on the Confederate flag and tweeted an inquiry as to whether Wallace had apologized for the noose “hoax.”
While many NASCAR fans had taken to Twitter to express their disgust over the Confederate flag ban, an equal number did the same to lash out at Trump for attacking NASCAR in general and Bubba in particular. No doubt many of them will remember this in November.
But their decision on who to vote for to be President from 2020-2024 may not be cut and dry. As American NASCAR fans walk into the election booth in November, they will look to the right and see a candidate that has gone out of his way to antagonize them. They will look to the left and see a candidate who has ignored them.
If the “NASCAR Dad” vote is as an important a demographic as it was in 2004, it appears that neither side deserves that particular vote as America – and the world – braces for the 2020 Presidential Election and the fallout from that vote.
Researching this article was quite interesting. I had expected to find out that the vast majority of political candidates trying to use NASCAR as a political tool would be Republican. I knew the George Bush Sr. and Jr. had come to NASCAR races and, most famously, Ronald Reagan had been the grand marshall for the 1984 Firecracker 400 when Richard Petty scored his 200th and final win. I also remembered Jimmy Carter being a Democrat who was a NASCAR fan and had watched the 1992 Southern 500 where Clinton showed up on YouTube. I will say, however, there were more Democrats involved than I expected (the Darlington/Southern 500 article illustrated this) and I had never heard of Obama thinking about sponsoring a Cup car.
On a non-NASCAR-related note, I was surprised to learn that there are just as many minor and independent parties in the U.S. as there are in Canada.
johnmilner.ca 