How many of you had “NASCAR driver suspended for toaster strudel swastika” on your 2020 sports bingo card? Josh Reaume, a driver on NASCAR’s truck-racing circuit, was suspended indefinitely this week for posting a Snapchat story featuring a toaster strudel with icing that appears to depict a swastika. The California-born Reaume has since apologized to anyone who took offense to his ill-advised Snapchat, though he insists the post was not meant to be anti-Semitic.
“What happened was, I made a toaster strudel, I put icing on it. I put icing on it arbitrarily,” Reaume recounted in an exclusive interview with TobyChristie.com. “When I was done, I took a picture, I wrote, ‘Snack time,’ and posted it to my Snapchat, which I had no idea it was even more than my immediate friend group.”
It’s hard to fathom Reaume, who owns a team (Reaume Brothers Racing) in NASCAR’s Gander RV & Outdoor Truck Series, could inadvertently apply icing in the shape of a Nazi symbol, but that’s the 30-year-old’s contention and he’s sticking to it. “Now, shame on me for maybe not fully understanding SnapChat and I don’t care to get on social media in the immediate future, but somebody obviously screen-shotted it or did something with it and pushed it to NASCAR. I don’t know what the image looks like.”
NASCAR has weathered an unusual amount of controversy this year. Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s only African American driver, was a central figure in the Black Lives Matter movement this summer, pushing for the sport to ban Confederate flags at races (which NASCAR eventually did). Wallace was also the subject of an FBI investigation after a noose was found in his garage at Talladega Superspeedway. More recently, Mike Wallace was suspended by NASCAR for an overtly racist Facebook post in criticism of Joe Biden’s running mate, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Wallace appealed the ruling twice but didn’t get very far with NASCAR upholding his suspension in both instances.
Reaume last competed at the Lucas Oil 150 in Phoenix on November 6th. He was unable to finish that race, bowing out with a brake malfunction after 44 laps. Per Yahoo’s Nick Bromberg, he was behind the wheel for 12 of 23 NASCAR truck events this year.
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