AP Auto Racing Writer
NASCAR chairman Brian France speaks to the media after a news conference at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Wednesday, June 11, 2008. France denied Wednesday that a former official complained to her supervisors about racial and sexual discrimination, claims she alleged led to her eventual firing. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
In this Feb. 18, 2007 photo, former NASCAR technical inspector Mauricia Grant is shown in the pits at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. Grant worked as a technical inspector for NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series from January 2005 until she was fired last October and is suing NASCAR for $225 million, alleging racial and sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination. (AP Photo/Laura Reitz)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two officials suspended by NASCAR are accused in a $225 million lawsuit of exposing themselves to a former co-worker, the Associated Press has learned.
Tim Knox and Bud Moore have been placed on indefinite administrative paid leave.
NASCAR will not reveal the identities of the officials sent home Friday from Kentucky Speedway, but a person familiar with the investigation confirmed to AP on Saturday that Knox and Moore were suspended. The person requested anonymity because NASCAR’s investigation is ongoing.
NASCAR did not give a reason for the men’s suspension, and chairman Brian France cautioned against assuming the officials are being punished for allegations made in the lawsuit.
“Obviously we found some violations in our policy, but I would not jump to conclusions to assume that all of the allegations that were made are accurate,” France said at Michigan International Speedway, site of Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race.
“Even if we take action on any official in this investigation — we might discover something entirely different that has been going on that has nothing to do with the claim, this lawsuit, but still is in violation of our policy. That would get you in trouble with us.”
Mauricia Grant filed her suit Tuesday, alleging 23 specific incidents of sexual harassment and 34 specific incidents of racial and gender discrimination during her time as a technical inspector for NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series.
Grant, who is black, claims her October 2007 firing was retaliation for complaining about the way she was treated on the job from her January 2005 hiring.
NASCAR sent a team of investigators from its human resources and legal offices to Kentucky and did 27 interviews away from the track Thursday and Friday. Knox and Moore were found to have possibly engaged in behavior that violated NASCAR policy.
Grant’s suit accuses both men of exposing themselves to her.
The lawsuit contends that at an April 2007 race in Texas, Knox exposed himself in the hospitality suite of their hotel at an officials gathering hosted by Nationwide Series director Joe Balash.
Moore is accused of coming out of his hotel room in Memphis in October 2006 clad only in a towel. The suit says he asked Grant if she wanted to see what was under the towel, opened it, then ducked behind a trash can.
In another incident, Grant claims Moore asked her how it felt to be black. Her suit claims Grant described being black as “a privilege,” and Moore feigned confusion and wondered aloud “how can she be proud of being black?”
Moore also is accused of making lewd sexual advances toward Grant.
France has not addressed the validity of Grant’s claims, but reiterated Saturday that the former official never made a formal complaint or followed NASCAR policy in reporting harassment. In fact, France said the investigation has shown she never had anything negative to say about her job.
“We would have investigated this claim instantly, if it had been brought to our attention. She chose to make this about money and about a lawsuit, and we’ll deal with that,” France said.
“So far, we have found she just didn’t report anything to anybody. Quite the opposite. She was very pleased with her colleagues, and most of her comments that we have heard were that she liked her job, enjoyed being there, liked the camaraderie of the other officials.”
France also insisted NASCAR has a very open path for reporting complaints, with multiple options.
“If any employee has an issue, you can e-mail me directly,” he said. “There are dozens of way to go about this.”
Grant has said she followed the chain of command all the way to Balash, but stopped short of telling human resources because she was reprimanded by that department for a separate incident two weeks after lodging her complaint. She said she viewed the reprimand, which included a threat of termination, as retaliation for complaining to Balash.
Balash was unavailable for comment following practice Saturday morning for the Nationwide Series race at Kentucky.
Named in the suit are Balash, assistant series director Mike Dolan, two supervisors, NASCAR’s senior manager for business relations, the human resources director and 17 officials who were Grant’s co-workers.
Meanwhile, France said NASCAR held a pair of meetings in Michigan and Kentucky to review its policies with its officials and remind them of the standards to which they are held.
“Obviously, we wanted to make sure, once again, they knew exactly what NASCAR’s policy was in terms of behavior, harassment and certainly racial discrimination of any kind,” France said.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
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RELATED STORY:
FORMER OFFICIAL SUES NASCAR FOR $225 MILLION OVER HARRASSMENT CLAIMS
As an aspiring racing official, Mauricia Grant had grown used to working in a man’s world.
When she finally made it into NASCAR, Grant was appalled at the way she says she was treated beginning from her first day on the job until her firing last October.
Now she’s suing NASCAR for $225 million, alleging racial and sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination.
“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.”
The 32-year-old Grant, who is black, worked as a technical inspector responsible for certifying cars in NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series from January 2005 until her termination. In the lawsuit, she alleged she was referred to as “Nappy Headed Mo” and “Queen Sheba,” by co-workers, was often told she worked on “colored people time,” and was frightened by one official who routinely made references to the Ku Klux Klan.
In addition, Grant said she was subjected to sexual advances from male co-workers, two of whom allegedly exposed themselves to her, and graphic and lewd jokes.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, lists 23 specific incidents of alleged sexual harassment and 34 specific incidents of alleged racial and gender discrimination beginning when she was hired in January 2005 through her October 2007 firing.
NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said the organization had not yet reviewed the suit.
“As an equal opportunity employer, NASCAR is fully committed to the spirit and letter of affirmative action law,” Poston said, adding NASCAR has a zero tolerance policy for harassment.
In the lawsuit, Grant said she complained numerous times to her supervisors about how she was treated, to no avail. On one occasion, Grant said Nationwide Series director Joe Balash, her immediate supervisor, was dismissive of her complaints, explaining her co-workers were “former military guys” with a rough sense of humor. “You just have to deal with it,” she says Balash told her.
On another occasion, she alleged Balash participated in the harassment.
“Does your workout include an urban obstacle course with a flat-screen TV on your back?” she claimed Balash asked her during the week of July 28, 2007, while working in Indianapolis.
Grant told the AP her two younger sisters witnessed racial discrimination against the official while visiting her at Daytona International Speedway in 2006 and encouraged her to document every incident going forward.
The lawsuit details a series of those 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.
• While riding in the backseat of her car pool 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 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.
After her termination, Grant said she went over her notes and recognized “a pattern of retaliation and discrimination.”
“It didn’t diminish my love for the sport of auto racing, but the job wasn’t always the easiest thing to go to every day,” she said.
Grant said she routinely complained to her supervisors. Two weeks after her final complaint, Grant said she was warned during the week of August 18, 2007, at Michigan International Speedway that she had engaged in “conduct unbecoming of a NASCAR representative” and would be fired unless she changed her behavior. She said the warning stemmed from a confrontation with a track official who stopped her as she passed through a gate to use the restroom.
Roughly two months later, Grant was fired, and NASCAR cited a poor work performance in ending her employment. The lawsuit claims other than a previous warning for using “street” language, Grant had never been disciplined for job performance and routinely received positive reviews.
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.”
Among those 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 the defendants are white.
“My supervisors all praised me. I was hanging in there with the guys,” she 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.”
Copyright 2008 Associated Press.
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