LOUDON, N.H. – NASCAR announced that Whelen Modified Tour and Whelen Southern Modified Tour team owner David Hill has been reinstated following an indefinite suspension that began on Sept. 2.
Hill had been suspended by the sanctioning body after posting a racial slur on Facebook directed at Berlin’s Ryan Preece following a Whelen Southern Modified Tour race on Aug. 30 at Langley Speedway in Hampton, Va.
To satisfy the terms of returning from suspension, NASCAR required Hill to attend a NASCAR mandated sensitivity training program.
A statement from NASCAR read: “On September 2, 2014, NASCAR penalized David Hill, a former team owner in the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour, for using offensive language in a social media post. Hill has satisfied the requirements mandated in the penalty, including completing sensitivity training, and has been reinstated. He will remain on indefinite probation.”
Hill’s posting on Facebook, directed a racial slur at Preece, the reigning Whelen Modified Tour champion, and also included a veiled threat directed at Preece (Click the link to see Hill’s Facebook post).
Hill owns the Westfield, N.C. based Hill Enterprises racing team. The team had fielded a full-time car on the Whelen Modified Tour for more than two decades before leaving the series last year to run full-time on the Whelen Southern Modified Tour. The team has made three Whelen Modified Tour starts this year with Spencer Davis driving.
Preece, a regular on the Whelen Modified Tour, was at Langley Speedway making a special appearance with the Whelen Southern Modified Tour for the Bayport Credit Union 150. Preece finished ninth in the event driving a family owned car. Davis, driving for Hill, finished 14th in the 17-car field.
The comment about “payback” in the posting was making reference to the fact that Hill’s team had been scheduled to be competing, against Preece in the Whelen Modified Tour season finale at Thompson Speedway on Oct. 19. Preece drives for the Flamingo Motorsports team on the Whelen Modified Tour.
Hill deleted the comment not long after posting it.
“It was never meant to be a racist remark,” Hill said the day after posting the comment. “You know it’s a figure of speech. It wasn’t meant anything the wrong way. It was took the wrong way. I should have had a better choice of words. And you shouldn’t be typing on Facebook when you’re upset that a really good run was taken away. I need to do better with my choice of words. … I did do it. But it’s definitely not the way I am. … I’m sorry for posting that. That’s not me.”
After the suspension the team continued in competition with Hill’s wife Susan Hill now listed as the owner of record for the team with NASCAR.
Were the people who liked Hill’s post suspended by NASCAR and sent to sensitivity training too? LOL
Preece by the way is white as far as I know.
It’s over.
Let’s move on.
It never ceases to amaze me how so many people do not have a chance at a clue.