Trump's national anthem brouhaha is dividing the NASCAR community

Several NASCAR team owners responded to NFL protests over the weekend by saying they would not tolerate their own members kneeling during the national anthem, a policy President Trump praised Monday morning:

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has been voted NASCAR's Most Popular Driver a record 14 consecutive times, apparently didn't agree with NASCAR's stance. He tweeted his disapproval on Monday:

Earnhardt is apparently of the minority opinion, though. No drivers protested during the national anthem on Sunday before the race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, The Associated Press reports.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Football players like Colin Kaepernick, formerly of the San Francisco 49ers, have declined to stand for the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice in America. While more than 60 percent of NFL players are black, NASCAR has had just four black drivers in cup history, ABC News Radio's Brad Mielke reports.

Richard Childress, who was the owner of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s father's team, said that kneeling during the national anthem would "get you a ride on a Greyhound bus."

"Anybody that works for me should respect the country we live in," Childress said. "So many people gave their lives for it. This is America."