By Jerry Jordan, Editor
The use of the N-word by Kyle Larson has not only cost him sponsors but now he is out of a ride and he has lost the backing of Chevrolet, which announced that it was terminating its relationship with the 27-year-old driver.
“As previously stated, Chevrolet does not tolerate the inappropriate behavior exhibited by Kyle Larson. As a result, Chevrolet is immediately terminating its relationship with Mr. Larson,” a spokesperson for the company stated.
The news came on the heels of an announcement from Chip Ganassi Racing, Tuesday morning, that it had parted ways with Larson.
“After much consideration, Chip Ganassi Racing has determined that it will end its relationship with driver Kyle Larson,” stated a release sent to media via email. “As we said before, the comments that Kyle made were both offensive and unacceptable especially given the values of our organization. As we continued to evaluate the situation with all the relevant parties, it became obvious that this was the only appropriate course of action to take.”
On Monday, McDonald’s, CreditOne and First Data/Clover all announced the were severing their ties with Larson. The moves came after Larson made a derogatory utterance while driving in a virtual racing simulator event on Sunday night. He appeared to be having trouble connecting his headset with a person spotting for him and remarked, “You can’t hear me? Hey, ni****.”
That brought an immediate reaction from other drivers on the video streaming service “Twitch” and lit up social media in a firestorm.
“Hey Kyle, you’re talking to everyone, bud,” said one driver in response.
Another asked, “No way, did that just happen?”
The following day, the fallout began as Chip Ganassi Racing and NASCAR announced he was suspended. Shortly thereafter the sponsor fallout began.
There has been no word, yet, from the World of Outlaws on whether he can still race there. Larson owns Kyle Larson Racing and fields, at least, one full-time team in the dirt racing circuit.
Clearly Kyle should pay a serious price for his lapse in judgment in using a racial slur. However due to one mistake in the “heat of battle” should he lose his entire career? In this country today we see very one sided outrage. People on the left can commit acts against women (Joe Biden) and it is dismissed while Associate Justice Kavanaugh continues with threats of impeachment on totally unfounded allegation. The Governor of Virginia gets caught in black face and it is ignored but let a Republican get caught and he is pilloried. Hip Hop “stars can use the same word and talk of killing hors and police and they get music awards.
As a minority himself I am sure Kyle tremendously regrets his actions and deserves another chance. I hope a good second tier team picks him up after completing his sensitivity training (i don’t believe any top tier tier has the testicular fortitude to do so) and leads them to multiple victories and possibly a championship.
I totally agree. If this word is so bad, which I believe it is, it should be dismissed by all ethnic groups. When blacks freely use this word among themselves, do not jump on the political correct bandwagon when a white person uses the word. For that matter, who made Bubba Wallace the black spokesman for NASCAR?