{"id":321568,"date":"2023-08-05T21:15:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-05T21:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=321568"},"modified":"2023-08-06T01:00:19","modified_gmt":"2023-08-06T01:00:19","slug":"distasteful-instagram-post-lands-nascar-driver-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=321568","title":{"rendered":"Distasteful Instagram post lands NASCAR driver ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> driver Noah Gragson has been suspended indefinitely for liking a distasteful social media post making light of George Floyd's death.<\/p>\n

An image circulated on social media showed Gragson had liked an Instagram meme, which drew immediate criticism.<\/p>\n

Action was taken swiftly and his NASCAR team Legacy Motor Club stood the 25-year-old down from his driving duties.<\/p>\n

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Floyd was killed after policeman Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, suffocating the 46-year-old who was arrested after allegations he made a purchase using counterfeit cash.<\/p>\n

\"Noah<\/p>\n

Floyd's death was the catalyst for the social movement Black Lives Matter, which was endorsed by NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace Jr, the series' only full-time black driver in the Cup Series.<\/p>\n

"We have made the decision to suspend Noah Gragson effective immediately regarding his actions that do not represent the values of our team," a statement from Legacy Motor Club read.<\/p>\n

"Josh Berry will drive the No. 42 entry for this weekend's NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/NASCAR\/status\/1687865058347618305<\/a><\/p>\n

Gragson, a rookie in this year's NASCAR Cup Series, offered something of an apology on social media and blamed inattentiveness for the faux pas.<\/p>\n

"I am disappointed in myself for my lack of attention and actions on social media," he wrote.<\/p>\n

"I understand the severity of this situation. I love and appreciate everyone. I try to treat everyone equally no matter who they are. I messed up plain and simple."<\/p>\n

NASCAR supported the team's decision to suspend Gragson, who will be replaced by super sub Josh Berry.<\/p>\n

Berry has already made a handful of Cup Series stars this season for Hendrick Motorsports in place of Chase Elliott, who suffered an injury while snowboarding.<\/p>\n

He then replaced Alex Bowman who suffered a back injury in a crash competing in sprint cars.<\/p>\n

The NASCAR Cup Series continues on Monday at Michigan International Speedway.\ufeff<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASCAR Cup Series driver Noah Gragson has been suspended indefinitely for liking a distasteful social media post making light of George Floyd's death. An image […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":321570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=321568"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321571,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321568\/revisions\/321571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/321570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=321568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=321568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=321568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}