NASCAR driver Conor Daly is being penalized for his father’s misdeeds.
Daly’s father, Derek, a former Formula One and Indy 500 driver, used the N-word during an interview in the 1980s which has recently resurfaced, and now one sponsor is steering away from his son. Lilly Diabetes announced they would be parting ways with the younger Daly for his father’s mishap.
“Unfortunately, the comments that surfaced this week by Derek Daly distract from this focus, so we have made the decision that Lilly Diabetes will no longer run the No. 6 at Road America this weekend,” the company said in a statement. “We remain committed to our mission of supporting people with diabetes.”
The decision was announced in advance of this weekend’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race (The Xfinity series is like NASCAR’s minor league, with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series considered the major league). According to USA Today, Daly himself is a type 1 diabetic, which is why the sponsorship was so fitting.
Daly responded to the news respectfully on Twitter.
The last 24hrs have been quite an unnecessarily difficult ride for my family. There is A LOT I want to say… but I’m still here and still racing. I appreciate the support from @roushfenway and ALL of you. @LillyDiabetes has been a big part of my career and Im very thankful. #6
— Conor Daly (@ConorDaly22) August 24, 2018
Of course Lilly Diabetes has the right to cancel their sponsorship, but it was still a silly decision.
What Derek Daly said is terrible and should absolutely be condemned, but one must also keep in mind it was not his son who said it — Conor Daly was not even born when the now-infamous interview occurred in 1983; he was born in 1991.
The logic used to penalize Daly is dangerous. This is like saying Al Gore shouldn’t have been vice president because his father, the late Sen. Albert Gore, D-Tenn., was one of the most staunch opponents against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. If anyone wants to criticize the younger Gore, it should be for his awful global warming predictions, not for his father’s vote.
Does anyone think former Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s daughter, Peggy, should be harassed because her father was a segregationist? Absolutely not; she voted for Barack Obama and is mortified by her father’s legacy.
In the United States, we are supposed to judge people not based on their collective identity, but as individuals. This is why it is almost universally accepted that racism is evil. It’s also why someone should not be judged for something that someone they know did.
Everyone is different and having a parent who did something bad doesn’t make the child a bad person. They have the opportunity to outshine their predecessors — so let’s give them the chance to do such.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a freelancer writer who has been published with USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Federalist, and a number of other media outlets.
