NASCAR suspended Noah Gragson on August 5, 2023
For liking a meme on Instagram that made light of the death of George Floyd. The meme showed the face of George Floyd Photoshopped onto a movie character from Disney’s Little Mermaid — Sebastian — with the caption, “under the knee.”
Legacy Motor Club, Gragson’s race team, announced the suspension first, saying that Gragson’s actions “do not represent the values of our team.” NASCAR followed up with its own statement, saying that Gragson had violated the Member Conduct section of the 2023 Rule Book and had been placed under indefinite suspension.
Gragson apologized for his actions, saying that he “messed up plain and simple.” He said that he did not mean to offend anyone and that he was “truly sorry” for his mistake.
It is unclear how long Gragson’s suspension will last. NASCAR has not yet said when he will be eligible to return to racing.
This is not the first time that Gragson has been in trouble for his behavior. In 2020, he was fined $35,000 for intentionally wrecking another driver during a race. He was also suspended for one race for making contact with an official.
Gragson is a talented driver, but his history of bad behavior has called his future in NASCAR into question. It remains to be seen if he will be able to overcome this latest controversy and continue his career in the sport.
