The first NASCAR event following the organization's call for the removal of Confederate flags at races revealed that many fans do not share the same perspective on taking down the flag.
At the Coke Zero 400 in Daytona Independence Day weekend, the American flag was not the only one flying. AP reports that while Old Glory could be seen waving all over the event, finding a Confederate flag was "easier than finding a souvenir shop, restroom or beer stand."
The first motorhome located inside the Turn 4 tunnel has one flying high above it, and it doesn’t take long to reach double figures when counting them on a stroll through the infield. They’re on clothing, coolers and cars, and even tattooed on skin.
AP spoke with one NASCAR fan, Larry Reeves of Jacksonville Beach—a 66-year-old Navy veteran—who flew a tattered Confederate flag over his motorhome. When Reeves realized the ban was voluntary rather than mandatory, he chose to put his up, as has been his tradition for decades.
"It's just a Southern pride thing," said Reeves. "It’s nothing racist or anything. I've been doing this for 30 years. My family is from Alabama and we've been going to Talladega forever. It isn't a Confederate thing so much as it is a NASCAR thing. That’s why I fly it."
Daytona International Speedway president Joie Chitwood III said that the voluntary flag exchange program, which offered fans an American flag in exchange for their Confederate flags, was appropriate "right now” given the "limited window that we had coming into this weekend," but suggested that the organization might take further action.
I think what happens in this situation is you have people on both sides who feel very strongly about something and they’re very passionate about it. You can’t argue with someone’s passion or their opinion. That creates something that ends up on the front page of the newspaper or is the headline in the news. …In something like this, the more thoughtful we can be, understanding and really taking the time to really vet through, I think that’s going to be the important thing moving forward.
"It's not a big deal one way or the other," Reeves said about the potential of a future mandatory ban. "If I can't fly it, I won't. But if I don’t have to take it down, I'm just going to leave it up."
Another fan, Steven Rebenstorf (57), who flies several flags every race, said he won’t take his down no matter what NASCAR requires.
"The Confederate flag has absolutely nothing to do with slavery. It has nothing to do with divisiveness. It has nothing to do with any of that," Rebenstorf said. "It was just a battle banner until the Ku Klux Klan draped it around themselves. Now, all of a sudden, it represents slavery and that’s not at all true."
