Full Throttle

I’ll post this entire article so you can get the “whole flavor” of the story:

A former African-American crewman who once worked on NASCAR’s Winston Cup circuit sued the governing body of the US stock car series on Wednesday for race discrimination and breach of contract.

David Scott, who worked as a motorcoach driver to one of the racing teams, claimed NASCAR executives deceived him and did not fulfill promises of a job following a well-publicized 1999 racial incident involving white motorcoach drivers, according to the complaint filed in Manhattan federal court that seeks unspecified damages.

Scott was harassed by at least two white motorcoach drivers from different racing teams, including being called “nigger” and an incident where he was confronted by the pair with one wearing a white pillow case over his head imitating a Ku Klux Klansman, according to the complaint.

When the incident was reported in the media, the complaint said, top NASCAR executives flew Scott back home to North Carolina promising him a future job, but while negotiations continued over the next five years, a job never materialised.

Scott seeks back pay and compensatory damages for loss of employment benefits and mental suffering.

NASCAR was not immediately available for comment.

After an exhaustive search the only background to this was located at Jayski’s in a piece dated August 1999.

My first impression is why is this filed seven years later? My second thought was what “breach of contract?” Unless the suit refers to a verbal agreement, NASCAR’s promise of a job, this isn’t going anywhere. I checked The Smoking Gun who normally is among the first to post the legal briefings of Federal suits but they have nothing as yet.

Me thinks I smell a rat. Somewhere. Maybe he has been snagged as the latest poster boy for the National Association for Minority Race Fans outfit.

The note at Jayski’s says one of the motorcoach drivers accused in this alleged incident was Ray Labbe and contains quotes from an RPN2Nite interview at the time. It’s worth the read but really doesn’t add too much to the story.

I also find it odd this story hasn’t been reported by any of the usual sources. To be reported via news site in New Zealand via the Reuters wire service isn’t the normal path for NASCAR news. xtraMSN has been a good source for my Asian Motorsports project but with the exception of Marcos Ambrose news they avoid other references and stories on NASCAR.

Let’s consider this as “developing” as I tend to other things before getting back to a search for more info. If anyone notes another source for the story drop a link in your comment and I’ll check it later.

UPDATE: Nothing new to report other than adding this link to the original Reuters story. I have found no other references to this on the AP wires, UPI, CBS, ABC, NBC or the NASCAR websites.

The stench of rat is getting stronger!

NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Sports, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle