{"id":44111,"date":"2017-09-27T14:07:26","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T21:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=44111"},"modified":"2017-09-27T14:07:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T21:07:26","slug":"nascar-releases-official-statement-on-anthem-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/nascar-releases-official-statement-on-anthem-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Releases Official Statement on Anthem Protests"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"during
Dale Earnhardt Jr during qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 14, 2016 in Daytona Beach, Florida. \u00a0Photo courtesy of NASCAR.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASCAR released an official statement Monday regarding the\u00a0protests being held nationwide at the start of many major sporting events while the national anthem plays, most prominently NFL games.<\/p>\n

These protests involve players taking a knee during the anthem to acknowledge racial injustice, and players linking arms to show solidarity.<\/p>\n

From NASCAR, \u201cSports are a unifying influence in our society, bringing people of differing backgrounds and beliefs together.\u00a0Our respect for the national anthem has always been a hallmark of our pre-race events.\u00a0Thanks to the sacrifices of many, we live in a country of unparalleled freedoms and countless liberties, including the right to peacefully express one\u2019s opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement followed a weekend of controversy as several NASCAR team owners indicated that their drivers and crew would face repercussions if they took part in the protests, seeing them as expressions of disrespectful to the country and the flag. \u00a0These statements were given support on social media by President Trump, who decried the NFL and NFL owners positions, praising the NASCAR owners and drivers who rejected the protests.<\/p>\n

The owners’ statements and Trump’s response were\u00a0followed by a tweet from Dale Earnhardt Jr supporting peaceful protest:<\/p>\n

\n

All Americans R granted rights 2 peaceful protests
\nThose who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable-JFK<\/p>\n

\u2014 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) September 25, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Richard Petty took the opposite stand, according to USA Today. “Anybody that don\u2019t stand up for that ought to be out of the country. Period,” Petty said,\u00a0according to USA Today<\/a>. “If they don\u2019t appreciate where they\u2019re at . . . what got them where they\u2019re at? The United States.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASCAR released an official statement Monday on the pro sports protests seen over the weekend.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3424,3470,5029],"tags":[5555,1434,127,5554,786],"class_list":["post-44111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-news","category-racing","tag-anthem-protests","tag-dale-earnhardt-jr","tag-nascar","tag-protests","tag-richard-petty"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/NHMS_MENCS_Pack4_092417_Feature.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-btt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44118,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44111\/revisions\/44118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}