Gaughn's crew chief suspended after racial slur

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Gaughn's crew chief suspended after racial slur | NASCAR Nationwide Series News

Bryan Berry, crew chief for the No. 62 Rusty Wallace Racing Chevy, was suspended indefinitely on Thursday after an altercation with driver Marc Davis at Nashville Superspeedway.

NASCAR's release stated that "Berry was suspended for violating Section 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing; involved in an altercation with another team) of the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series rule book."

Davis was involved in an pit-road collision with Brendan Gaughn on Saturday. As Davis tried to take his car with mechanical issues to the garage area, Gaughn tried to enter his pit stall, colliding. Upset, Berry confronted Davis in the garage area and uttered a racial slur to the 18 year old driver.

“It was just a stupid move by the other guy,” Gaughan said after the race. "… I was coming down pit road for our last stop and turned into my stall as I usually would for a green flag stop. Then, all of a sudden, there's a car turning directly in front of our pit stall. There was nothing I could do."

 

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"Bryan looked me in the eye and told me he didn't say it," Wallace said. "But NASCAR said they had two people, two sponsorship representatives [for the Davis team] who heard it. I don't know who to believe."

Wallace said he did tell Berry directly, "I hope to God you didn't do what they said you did."

Wallace said he scheduled a team meeting for the entire Rusty Wallace Racing team for Friday at 8 a.m., with the intention of telling all personnel, "I'd better not ever hear that out of our team."

None of the parties involved would reveal the exact nature of the alleged epithets, but one source familiar with the situation called it "worse than Hickory" and "ugly."

When Marc Davis was a developmental driver in 2006, a group of fans at Hickory Speedway in North Carolina reportedly chanted "[n-word] go home!" after he was involved in a bumping incident with a white driver.

Brendan Gaughan's crew chief Bryan Berry suspended for racial slur directed at Marc Davis - ESPN