NASCAR Driver Loses Sponsorship For Racist Remark. Made By His Dad. 35 Years Ago.

We thought we’d probably seen the worst of it when it came to celebrities and other public figures losing their jobs under public backlash from a nation of outrage vampires, but this is undoubtedly the worst, most flagrantly PC idiocy we’ve seen to date. This week, Lilly Diabetes has chosen to remove their sponsorship of NASCAR driver Conor Daly thanks to a racially controversial remark. Which would be one thing – comparable to what happened with Roseanne Barr earlier this year. The only problem? The remark was made not last week but in the 1980s. Oh, and it wasn’t made by Daly…it was made by his father.

Uh, what the hell?

In a statement, the organization said their focus was on finding treatment options and resources for people dealing with diabetes.

“Unfortunately,” they said, “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.”

Derek Daly reportedly used the n-word to describe the lack of black drivers in the world of auto racing when talking on a radio show back in the 1980s. When news resurfaced of the interview, Daly lost his job with an Indianapolis TV station and immediately apologized for use of the offensive racial slur. He said that due to his upbringing in Ireland, he’d misunderstood how offensive the word was to African-Americans.

“I quickly learned what a derogatory term it was,” he told reporters. “When I was first informed of this, I was mortified at the offense I might have caused people. I have therefore never used the word since. I made this mistake once, but never again.”

If this is really the only example of offensiveness they have when it comes to Derek Daly, then frankly it is absurd that even HE should suffer any professional punishment for it. It was more than thirty years ago. And while that word is understandably frowned upon, come on. He didn’t lynch his neighbor. He didn’t burn a cross in the front yard of the local black city councilmember. He said the n-word one time on a radio show. Are we really going to make a federal case out of it three decades later?

But the idea that his SON must now lose a charity sponsorship because of this nonsense? We’ve really crossed over into the land of idiocy.

“The last 24hrs have been quite an unnecessarily difficult ride for my family,” tweeted Conor Daly. “There is A LOT I want to say…but I’m still here and still racing.”

We bet Conor does have a lot to say. We’d love to hear it.