Brian Vickers, driver of the #83 Red Bull Toyota, drives with damage to his car during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway on June 26, 2011 in Sonoma, CaliforniaTom Pennington
A crew member of the Red Bull Sprint Cup team has been fired for tweeting an anti-gay message Sunday night following the race earlier that day at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.
Prior to catching a late flight Sunday night back to the East Coast, Jeremy Fuller, a contract employee and tire changer, allegedly posted on Twitter a photo of a gay pride banner on a car with the post, "This is way [sic]I don't live here!"
One of Fuller's followers responded with another derogatory comment towards gays, writing, "if we could get rid of them, it'd be a lot better."
According to media reports, Fuller later replied to that tweet by adding, "lol .. Don't we all wish!"
Fuller claims the latter tweet was not posted by him, and that he was in the air when it was posted. He deleted the posts Monday morning when he arrived back home, but by then the furor had begun to build. He was then fired by Red Bull Racing and also Turner Motorsports, for who he also works part-time as a tire changer in the Nationwide Series.
"It was a joke between two friends and it cost me both of my jobs," Fuller said. "I'm not racist and I do not hate gay people. It wasn't intended to be what [it appeared] ... I didn't write anything about getting rid of them or 'ha ha,' or 'laughing out loud.' "
Red Bull would not identify Fuller but did issue a statement that it had fired one of its crew members.
"Red Bull Racing Team was made aware of comments posted to a contractor's Twitter account following this weekend's race," the statement said. "After investigating the matter, Red Bull Racing Team terminated the contractor's employment effective immediately.
"The race team regularly conducts diversity training and strictly enforces our team policies against any form of discrimination. We have zero tolerance for such violations and in no way support any of the comments posted by this individual."
NASCAR also has a Code of Conduct in its rule book that states, "A NASCAR Member shall not make or cause to be made a public statement and/or communication that criticizes, ridicules, or otherwise disparages another person based upon that person's race, colour, creed, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age, or handicapping condition."
Fuller again insisted he does not hate gay people and that the whole incident was a joke between two friends gone bad.
"I don't have any negative thoughts about gay people," Fuller said. "I got rid of everything because I did not want it to go this far. ... I've got gay friends. It was like, 'Hey, look, this [banner]is something you don't [typically]see. It's like, 'Wow, let's post this.' "
A gay web site, Queers4Gears.com received about 30 comments about Fuller's posts, said site manager Michael Myers. Myers said that he had just completed an interview about never experiencing any anti-gay bias in the sport when he saw Fuller's tweet.
"My first unfortunate negative story went up [Tuesday]" Myers said. "That was kind of sad to have to post that. ... I don't want his actions to reflect on NASCAR. I really have been blown away how easily this has gone for me and how everyone has accepted me in the sport. I've had nothing negative at all until this one time."
Had it been an isolated incident, Myers would likely not have written anything on his site, he said.
"I couldn't overlook this one," Myers said. "If it had just been the sign, I probably would have let that go. But it was the agreement and re-tweeting ... of the statement that we should get rid of them all."
Fuller said Tuesday night that the person who replied to his original tweet apparently deleted his or her account after the incident.
"The only thing I posted was the picture and this was the reason I don't live here," Fuller said. "That is the only thing I've done and I don't know how it got to be where it's at now."