Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

I think when Kyle L. got in trouble for using the N word most of us on this DIRT racing site thought that he was being made a "rule" of by NASCAR and although should be punished; by far was to the extreme.

Now, this last weekend we see Pro Golfer Justin Thomas get caught on microphone after missing a putt uttering a homophobic slur. He apologized over and over. He said that's not who he is; he said all those things. Next, Hailie Deegan let's slip the R word that relates to a type of person that is slow in learning, etc. while racing on the computer. She has apologized over and over. 
 

I believe that Kyle has learned so much by the mistake he made due to all the work he has put in. And he most likely would say he is good with all that happening as it has made him a better person in that sense.  However;  the disruption it caused his family, his good name and value will take a long time to return and I wonder what will happen with these others?  Or was he made an example by NASCAR ? 

My extremly liberal grandmother in-law still uses colored and N's all the time. 

They are words, should we use them? No. Will they dissapear? No. Should pay attention to ourselves rather than chastize other people? Yes. I dont hear or see any movment on canceling music, movies, comedians, etc... 

I'm sure this thread will be incredibly productive as it changes the minds of many and enlightens several. 

Justin Thomas' incident is a little different in that he is not necessarily employed but a team or organization. He for all intent and purposes is his own boss and cannot be fired. Now depending on who is sponsors are, some may decide to terminate their relationship with him, the PGA might even suspend him for some events, who knows, its their organization. What made Kyle's situation worst was the race team fired him due to sponsors threatening to pull away from the team. That made it easier for Nascar as an organization to keep it's indefinate suspension. Plus you have an Organization in Nascar who is disperate for sponsors and cannot really operate without them vs PGA who does need them to operate, but due to the class of the audience is not in as much desperation. That desperation effects the sequence of events that happens.

Deegan is somewhat similar due to the sport but different due to relationship with her sponsors. From what I have seen, her and Monster are pretty attached at the hip and it would take something probably bigger than what Larson did for that relationship to be broken.

The 3 are similar in the fact tha all 3 said something very stupid and opened themselves to ridicule. I have/had zero sympathy for all 3 in whatever punishments they have or will receive no matter what the scale and I am a Larson fan. If they don't want to deal with the double standards or the consequences, don't say the word. These are things we learned in kindergarten so it isn't that hard to figure out. I have said all 3 words, one of which almost cost me a friendship and I had no one to blame but myself, the other 2 I was being a stupid P.O.S. If any consequences happened with those the only person I would have had to blame would have been myself.

Yes, thanks to everyone in advance for their insights. 

Any BOZO that's in the spotlight, as all athletes are, says anything derogatory today is just a fool. Smartphones, hi tech mic's that can pick up sounds from a distance are everywhere. What does it teach them, not one thing, on 2nd thought yes it does. They make there circle of friends and places much smaller.

Your first two sentences say it all.   I couldn't believe Larson was stupid enough to say anything like that wearing a mic.  

Perfect sarcasm

Moderators... drop the thread before it goes too far?

Despite having worked in an extremely dangerous job launching planes on a carrier and learning every nasty variation of every insensitive and vulgar word and phrase in the English language I was able to restrain myself when appropriate.  I probably didn't make more then $500 per month in the early 7'0's even with hazardous duty pay.  I would assume that race car drivers could learn to use just a little bit of self control yet here we are again.

Stan Meissner

     I guess the only fair thing to do would be to suspend Justin Thomas and Hailie Deegan from all NASCAR races until they've learned a lesson. Otherwise it will appear as if the Kyle Larson punishment was too severe.