Rusty Wallace Racing crewman suspended for alleged racial slur

By Lee Montgomery and Bob Pockrass

Thursday, June 18, 2009

RSS Feed
Email to a Friend
Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size RESIZE
Share
- Facebook
- Del.icio.us
- DIGG This
- Reddit
- Newsvine
- Stumbeupon
0 Comments

Rusty Wallace Racing crew chief Bryan Berry was suspended indefinitely for allegedly using a racial slur after the June 6 Nationwide Series race at Nashville Superspeedway.

NASCAR suspended Berry on June 11 after what it said was an “altercation” with another driver, later confirmed as Braun Racing’s Marc Davis, an African-American.

Davis and RWR driver Brendan Gaughan collided late in the Nashville race as Davis headed to the garage while Gaughan was coming in for a pit stop. Berry allegedly used the racial slur while approaching Davis’ car in the garage. Berry, through Gaughan and team owner Wallace, denied using the slur.

“All I can say is my guy has promised that he never said that,” Wallace said June 12. “He did admit that he was screaming his butt off, he was mad, he was cursing. And he said he did not say that.”

Gaughan’s comments during a postrace TV interview drew the ire of Davis’ father, Harry. An angry Gaughan chided Marc Davis, saying that people must get a better education at Georgetown, Gaughan’s alma mater, than Howard University, whose radio station sponsored Davis’ car. Howard is a historically black university.

Harry Davis called Wallace to offer an apology for the incident on the track since no one had, though he blamed Gaughan’s comments for causing the situation to escalate.

“I was taking the high road and I was reaching out to him,” Harry Davis said in a phone conversation June 13. “Nobody reached out to me or Marc, so I reached out to [Rusty]. I did use the word ‘apology’ because everybody was a victim to what Mr. Gaughan misrepresented in the accident and he inflamed everything and it was all his fault.”

Wallace said his team would not appeal Berry’s suspension, noting there was “nothing to appeal.”

“I understand how everybody’s so nervous about this thing with what they’ve been through,” Wallace said. “I’m not going to raise hell about it. I didn’t see it. … If we’ve got to do this to set an example and make sure we’re right, we’ll do it. There’s no more to it.”

Wallace said he hopes the suspension lasts two weeks at the most and that NASCAR President Mike Helton told him his goal is to get Berry back as soon as possible. NASCAR Chairman Brian France said the actions were “unacceptable.”

“Mike Helton made that clear that it’s zero tolerance in that area,” France said June 14. “We’re not going to let one incident, no matter how ugly it is, one way or the other … reflect all this sport is doing, although it’s disappointing.”

Gaughan shouldered some of the blame for the incident.

“Should a crew chief go to the window net of another driver? No,” Gaughan said. “… The crew members need to make sure they stay away from [the other car].

“Shame on him for putting himself there. Shame on me for losing my temper about things.”