A fan, who had pit road access at the Daytona 500, committed a big no-no following Sunday’s Great American Race, and now NASCAR and its security team are trying to identify them.
After collecting a 13th-place finish to kick off his tenure with the No. 7 Spire Motorsports team, Daniel Suarez was on pit road conducting interviews with the media on pit road at the 2.5-mile superspeedway, when the fan approached the driver.
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As Suarez was answering questions from FOX Deportes, which had the broadcasting rights for the event, the fan leaned into the microphone, looked at the camera, and said, “47, 47, baby,” and slapped Suarez’s shoulder.
The fan was likely referencing Donald Trump, the 47th president of the United States, or potentially Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the driver of the No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet, who finished the race with a runner-up finish. Either way, the interruption of a televised interview and putting your hands on a NASCAR driver on pit road are two pretty big offenses for a fan who had been approved to have pit road access in the biggest race of the season.
On this week’s edition of the Hauler Talk Podcast, NASCAR’s Mike Forde says the sanctioning body and its security team are aware of the situation and are trying to nail down the fan’s identity. If the identity is discovered, Forde says it won’t end well for the fan.
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“Our security team is aware. Tom Bryant is aware and is working with the security team, and if we do find out who this person is, it’s certainly not going to end well for this particular person,” Forde explained.
While NASCAR grants closer access to its stars during its events than just about any other major sport in America, the sanctioning body rarely runs into issues with fans over-stepping the boundaries set forth in the credential agreements. However, Forde says this fan certainly did, and NASCAR is taking the situation seriously.
“99% of the time [people with passes and access don’t abuse it]. That everyone is there to have a good time. And then for someone to do this is really disappointing,” Forde said. “We’re looking into it, TBD if we’re able to find out who this person is, but certainly an unfortunate incident that we are taking seriously and looking into.”
Amanda Ellis, another member of the NASCAR communications team, says that she hopes the individual can simply own up to what they did.
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“Hopefully, whoever this particular gentleman is, there’s a part of me that hopes he does the right thing and makes a phone call and turns himself in, and you know, lets people know who he is,” Ellis said. “That may end up a lot better in his world if he does that versus having a viral video and never owning up that you were that guy.”
As of now, NASCAR has not announced any changes to the credentialing process for this weekend’s events at EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, GA.
Here is the entire post-Daytona 500 episode of Hauler Talk, where the panel discusses the fan that interrupted Suarez’s post-race interview, beginning at the 35:45 mark of the show.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/onsi/racing-america as NASCAR Trying to Identify Fan Who Interrupted Suarez Interview.
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