NASCAR announcer takes heat for controversial statement

NBC NASCAR announcer Rick Allen took heat on social media for a controversial statement he made during Monday’s Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.

23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace took the lead of Monday’s rain-postponed NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway late in the second stage, and the weather forecast looked anything but promising.

Drivers were justifiably treating this part of the race as if it included the final laps of the scheduled 188-lap event around the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked oval in Lincoln, Alabama.

As a result, a multi-car crash was triggered behind Wallace on the back straightaway, forcing NASCAR to throw the caution flag.

It was during this caution flag period that the rains came, forcing NASCAR to red-flag the race. With Talladega Superspeedway having no lights, it was pretty obvious to all of those watching that this race was over and Wallace was going to become a first-time winner.

But before the implied was confirmed, NBC announcer Rick Allen referenced Wallace’s history at Talladega Superspeedway, including the happenings of June 2020.

The only problem was that what he said didn’t actually happen.

Allen, who hesitated a bit before saying it, said that Wallace had to deal with “racial slander in the garage” last year at the track.

That was news to…everybody.

The real issue last summer was that a garage pull rope in the stall of Wallace’s team looked suspicious, leading to an FBI investigation which ultimately proved that no hate crime (or “racial slander”) was committed, and that Wallace, the lone full-time African-American Cup Series driver, was not being targeted for his stances or his skin color.

While nobody in the booth corrected Allen on-air, Twitter, of course, went wild afterward (Facebook and Instagram didn’t, obviously), with many irritated not just that he was rehashing a racially sensitive issue that turned out to be nothing, but the fact that he basically said something that wasn’t true to try to make his point.

https://twitter.com/WRXLarsen/status/1445127940816052229

These two individuals made a great point.

https://twitter.com/randyunsbee/status/1445134536971460614

Let’s not forget that Wallace had absolutely nothing to do with what happened last summer. He was told false information, like everybody else, and took it at face value. He even admitted, when it was proven false, that it looked bad. Yet some still like to take it out on him.

The frustration is understandable, but why take it out on him?

While nobody was defending what he said, some defended Allen’s decision to bring up the subject, noting that the Cup garage rallying around Wallace was an iconic moment for the sport.

While that case can be made even with the whole “noose” issue aside, if it was such an “iconic moment”, how the heck does it get confused for “racial slander”?

Why is that the first thing to come to mind, 15 and a half months after it was determined that fortunately no racially motivated — or any — hate crime had been committed?

But to be fair, in defense of Allen, he later admitted that he had made a mistake, and he admitted that no harm had been done to Wallace or to anybody in the situation which he had tried (maybe?) to describe.