Four Charges Against NASCAR in $225 Million Suit

            June 13, Chico, CA--- AP Auto Racing Writer Jenna Fryer is reporting that a former NASCAR Official has filed a lawsuit against NASCAR for $225 million, alleging racial and sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination.

            Mauricia Gant’s, who is African American, worked certifying cars in the NASCAR Nationwide Series from January 2005 until October 2007 when she was fired.

            "I loved it. It was a great, exciting, adrenaline-filled job where I worked with fast cars and the best drivers in the world," Grant told The Associated Press. "But there was an ongoing daily pattern (of harassment). It was the nature of the people I worked with, the people who ran it, it trickled down from the top. It's just the way things are in the garage."

            Grant stated that she was subjected to sexual advances from male co-workers, two of which she says allegedly exposed themselves to her and made graphic and lewd jokes.

            "NASCAR perpetuated, condoned and actively participated in perverted and disgusting sexual conduct designed to demean and diminish (Grant) and the handful of other women employed by NASCAR as officials," according to the suit. Also stated in the suit, is when she was allegedly referred to as a “Nappy Headed Mo” and “Queen Sheba” by co-workers. She was also allegedly told that she worked on “colored people time” and was frightened when one official routinely made comments about the Ku Klux Klan.

            NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston issued this statement:

            "As an equal opportunity employer, NASCAR is fully committed to the spirit and letter of affirmative action law," Poston said. "NASCAR provides equal opportunity employment to job candidates and employees without regard to race, religion, creed, age, gender, or any other characteristic protected by law. Personnel decisions are made based on factors such as performance and adherence to corporate policy."

            Grant says that she told her supervisors many times about how she had been treated, but nothing was done. She stated that she was told to "deal with it" by her immediate supervisor.

            The lawsuit details a series of alleged incidents:

  • Grant was forced to work outside more often than the white male officials because her supervisors believed she couldn't sunburn because she was black.

  • When she was riding in the backseat of her carpool at Talladega Superspeedway, co-workers told her to duck as they passed race fans. "I don't want to start a riot when these fans see a black woman in my car," she claims one official said.

  • When she was packing up a dark garage at Texas Motor Speedway an official told Grant: "Keep smiling and pop your eyes out 'cause we can't see you."

  • When she ignored advances from co-workers, Grant was accused of being gay. She also claimed co-workers questioned the sexual orientation of two other female officials.

            According to the lawsuit, Grant reported her claims many times to her supervisors about how she was being treated, but nothing was done. She claims that on one instance her immediate supervisor, Nationwide Series director Joe Balash, dismissed her complains, and that Balash said that her co-workers were “former military guys”, and had a “rough sense of humor” and that she would just have to deal with it.

            Balash allegedly was a part of the harassment, on occasion, when he asked Grant, “Does your workout include an urban obstacle course with a flat-screen TV on you back?” She claims this happened during the week of July 28^th, 2007 while at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

            Grant said that she was warned a few weeks after her last complaint that she had engaged in "conduct unbecoming of a NASCAR representative", and that she would be dismissed unless she changed her actions.

            About 2 months later Grant was fired, NASCAR said due to her poor work performance. The lawsuit states that she had never been disciplined for her job performance, other than a warning for using "street" language, and that she received positive reviews.

            "It is time for NASCAR to realize that not everybody is going to be bought off and not file a complaint," said Grant's attorney, Benedict P. Morelli of Morelli Ratner PC. "Not everybody is going to be intimidated and not file a complaint. Not everybody is going to be blackballed and not file a complaint."

            Long Island Motorsports News is curious on how an amount of $225 Million was determined. We consulted a prominent New York Attorney, who explained that the amount is totally subjective. In large part, the huge amount demanded in the suit is to attract the attention of the media. Should a jury find in favor of Grant, it is extremely unlikely that she would be awarded that large a sum.

            In addition, the suit claims official Heather Gambino was fired in 2006 for complaining about a sexually hostile work environment. The suit also claims former official Dean Duckett, who is black, was reprimanded and ultimately fired last November for using "aggressive language toward a white co-worker."

            Others identified in Grant's suit are Balash, assistant series director Mike Dolan, supervisors Alan Shephard and Dennis Dillon, NASCAR's senior manager for business relations, the human resources director and 17 of Grant's fellow officials. All of who are white.

            "My supervisors all praised me. I was hanging in there with the guys," Grand said. "I am an athletic person. I went over the wall and faced malicious crews and competitive crew chiefs, and I was right there and held it down and was never lazy about it.

  "And I knew that once I was terminated, there wasn't going to be an opportunity for me to find another industry like NASCAR to practice my craft."

            NASCAR Chairman Brian France says that this was the first NASCAR had heard of any type of problems. France said:

            "The disappointing thing is, she makes a lot of claims,'' France said. “None of them are reported. It's inconsistent with anything of our policies and how we operate the company and the sport and so the fact that it went on as she stated ... for many months I guess but never bothered to tell anyone in management what was going on, which is what our policy says, is very disappointing because we would like, if those type of things were in fact going on, we would have loved to have been able to do an investigation and review of such an allegation and we'll still do that because now that she has made these claims, we'll do like what we always do which is a very clear review. She didn't do that and that's what every employee at NASCAR is instructed to do if they think they're in a situation of discrimination or harassment or whatever it might be. She just didn't do that. Then in fact has filed a lawsuit as a remedy to this problem. We'll deal with that as well. That's really where we are.''

            Q: Did you have any indication that this was coming?

            "No. I knew about it this week when the suit was file. Again, our policy is such that it's very clear. We talk to employees all the time making sure that their work environment is a good one.  If it's not, if there's any problems, they have a very clear path to get it solved. It's just inconsistent with anything that we would tolerate at NASCAR.''

            The full lawsuit can be seen here: LAWSUIT. 

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Don Runkle has worked for Causey Motorsports in Hampton, Va. for 4 years, was a part-time Crew Chief for Rette Causey,  driver of #33 INEX/Legends car in 2005 at Langley Speedway in Virginia, as well as being a crew member for Brad Causey in Grand Stock division at Langley Speedway.  He's currently the webmaster of CauseyRacing.com.

Runkle has been racing "online" for about 5 years, served in the US Navy as a Gunners Mate in the Navy Seabees and is currently living in Chico, Ca. in the beautiful North Valley of California, with his even more beautiful wife, Kristina. God Bless all of the troops serving around the world!

For any question, comments, complaints, or just to say “Hi” feel free to email him at DRunkle@LongIslandMotorsports.com.