Ray Ciccarelli, a NASCAR Truck Series driver, announced on social media Wednesday that he plans to quit the sport shortly after the release of new guidelines that include a ban on Confederate flags at races.
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Ciccarelli, 50, took to Facebook to announce that it has been a “fun ride and dream come true” to race, but he is concerned about NASCAR’s direction and will stop racing after 2020.
“I don’t believe in kneeling during Anthem nor taken ppl right to fly what ever flag they love,” he posted. “I could care less about the Confederate Flag, but there are ppl that do and it doesn’t make them a racist all you are doing is (expletive) one group to cater to another and i ain’t spend the money we are to participate in any political BS!! So everything is for SALE!!”
Ciccarelli’s social media accounts were closed sometime after the post.
NASCAR announced on Wednesday that it will prohibit any images or displays of the Confederate flag at future events.
“The presence of the Confederate flag at NASCAR events runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry,” NASCAR said in a statement. “Bringing people together around a love for racing and the community that it creates is what makes our fans and sport special. The display of the Confederate flag will be prohibited from all NASCAR events and properties.”
The Houston Chronicle reported that Ciccarelli races part-time on the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series. The report said that he raced 18 times in the last three years and never won a race.
Now that NASCAR has approved political and racial slogans “BLM” for example. Other teams are now free to use the car exterior for White, Blue or any other political or racial movement. Lets see who makes it to the finish first!
How can NASCAR have a commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, if the start telling you what flag(s) you can and cannot display. NASCAR has succumbed to the the LEFTIIST and are allowing them to dictate what goes on at a race track. WELCOME to the DESTRUCTION of FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN AMERICA!
I’m with you Ray. that flags got nothing to do with race and everything to do with FREEDOM!
Really who cares if he won any races or not. As he said, it was fun and a dream come true, I care that he has a backbone and is a true patriot!
The communist are here. Don’t think they are not. Nascar is just another organization to beaten into submission. After over 50 years of watching Nascar, I will not go to another race or watch another race. My children and grandchildren won’t either. They have forgotten there roots.
If the Democratic Party and the KKK brought the racist connotation to the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia (1861-65), the better recourse would be to promote the true meaning of the flag by discrediting the organizations that brought the connotation, and to fully restore the original intent to honor those Americans of the South who fought and died for a cause they believed in. Review the song “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” by The Band to get a sense of the sadness for the lost cause.
We should erase no part of our five hundred year history to begin teaching a heavily revised and “enlightened” version where the truth is always best. As for slavery and its aftermath, look at the black culture of those who escaped to the free states and Canada via the Underground Railroad conducted by Araminta Ross (aka Harriet Tubman), how the inner cities of the north developed the ghetto and the story of good black people in the South after the Civil War.
For context about the reasonable nature of memorializing historic events, Germans and we of German descent honor Hermann der Cherusker who led an alliance of Germanic tribes at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9 that destroyed three Roman legions.
The Confederate Flag and the war memorials should remain, for the good of these United States.
So Nice Car wants to lose a whole bunch of good white folks just to save those two black folks that go to watch Bubba ? Good luck with that !!!!!!
He’s smart, and strong. Hopefully more will follow him. NASCAR is tearing it’s self apart.
The banning of the Confederate flag and removal of Confederate statues won’t appease the Black Lives Matter/Antifa bunch. They want destruction and lawlessness funded wholly by George Soros and the DNC. You can’t make a deal with the devil. He won’t honor it. Look at Africa, Haiti, Central and South America. Anarchy and chaos. Let’s stop the crazy! Don’t give in! Vote Trump/Pence this fall and let’s take back the House and Senate! MAGA 2020!
I like watching NASCAR and all sorts of racing. I don’t see what the big deal about the confederate flag being removed is all about. It’s the side that lost. You don’t see the Nazi flag or Union Jack at our races. Only the American flag should be allowed along with the state flag that the race is scheduled to be in. I’m still a fan and always will be. Why politicize a great American tradition with a flag that stands for nothing but bad history?
So excluding anyone who likes to fly the Confederate flag. How very inclusive!
I agree with Ciccarelli. I am not even a racing fan but NASCAR has to pull its head from its behind. I cant believe that racing fans will go along with this and they should boycott the sport and fight back for their right to voice their opinion
Frank Mazzarella
I’m inclined to agree with him. This country has been giving preferential treatment to certain groups at the expense of others for way too long now. I don’t care what kind of slogans or symbols they put on their cars but I agree that making this political is a bad move and only breeds resentment. And kneeling during the national anthem is anti-American, in my opinion.
I’m 78 and been a NASCAR fan all my life. But that has all ended now that they’ve become noting more than a political tool serving the progressive/socialists. I just incinerated all of my NASCAR fan and support items.
If you support Confederate monuments and everything related to the Confederacy but oppose the right of NFL players to kneel during the National Anthem, then you are being inconsistent! Those who feel taking a knee for the anthem is disrespectful to the flag and veterans should know that the Confederacy fought against the American flag and fought against Union veterans! Those who support the Confederacy but condemn those who kneel for the National Anthem are intellectually dishonest and are major hypocrites!
Thanks Eliot. I couldn’t have stated it better myself. it appears some here want to have it both ways. You can’t have a flag that no longer represents the National anthem and represented enslavement of a people and a ask people not to kneel to a flag that is suppose to represent freedom and liberty.
I agree
Haven’t missed a Brickyard 400 since 1995 but this PC BS has cut me to my deepest feelings for NASCAR.
Been a fan since Rusty and Dale were the big dogs but now I can’t even stand watching on TV.
NFL, NASCAR, NBA, all of the sports are spoiled by mass media’s propaganda effect.
I’m gone. Ooorah!
Sigh, wonder how long it’s gonna take someone to figure out this coin is about to flip and all black people statues and monuments will be vandalized.
Remember Madeline O’Hara??
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