Sport and Politics: NASCAR endorses Donald Trump

On February 29th, 2016 my American Sport in the 21st century class talked about sports 


Brian France has received a lot of
criticism after endorsing Trump.

and how they are used in the political world. In an article wrote by Jordan Bianchi for sbnation.com on March 2nd, 2016 he wrote an article explaining how Brain France, CEO of NASCAR, has been friends with Donald Trump for 20 years and is going to endorse him in his 2016 presidential campaign. In class we talked about government candidates and how they use sport to connect with voters. Government candidates use sport to connect to voters because it is relatable to the many sport fans in the U.S. With this new endorsement Donald Trump can connect with the fans of NASCAR and obtain more publicity for his 2016 presidential campaign. This endorsement has become controversial do to the outlandish remarks about immigrants coming from Donald Trump. Bianchi talks about Darrell Wallace who is an African American driver that races in NASCAR's Infinity Series and Camping World Truck Series. Wallace is a driver who likes

Barack Obama uses the sport of basketball to connect
with the American people as we discussed in class.

the way that NASCAR is trying to become diverse especially after adding a female driver, Danica Patrick, and a Japanese- American, driver Kyle Larson. Wallace is upset because this endorsement may hurt the diversity of NASCAR. With this endorsement NASCAR wants Trump to promote them as well, but instead he might be more harmful to the sport. In class we talked about how candidates can promote sport and economic development, but NASCAR could lose fans do to this endorsement. You can read Bianchi's full article here: http://www.sbnation.com/nascar/2016/3/2/11140342/brian-france-donald-trump-endorsement-nascar

Do politicians use sport to connect to voters? Yes.
Is it easier to connect to voters through sport? Yes.

Below are the connections between sport and government that we discussed in class:

-          Safeguard the public order

-          Maintain fitness & physical abilities

-          Promote the prestige & power of a community or nation

-          Reproduces dominant values

-          Increase Support for political leaders and political structures

-          Promote economic development