France defends NASCAR in former official's lawsuit

Reiterates that plaintiff did not register any complaints
By Joe Menzer, NASCAR.COM
June 14, 2008
04:25 PM EDT

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Brian France, chairman and CEO of NASCAR, visited the media center at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday and attempted to give a broader defense of his company in the wake of a $225 million lawsuit filed against it by a former employee last Tuesday.

France's impromptu news conference came after two Nationwide Series officials were placed on indefinite leaves of absences by NASCAR as part of the organization's ongoing investigation into the claims of racial and sexual discrimination by the plaintiff in the lawsuit, Mauricia Grant.

France stressed that the suspensions of the two officials should not be construed as any admission of wrongdoing on their part or the part of NASCAR.

Former official sues
Mauricia Grant is suing NASCAR for $225 million, alleging racial and sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination.


Two officials suspended
"We haven't completed our investigation. It is still ongoing," France said. "Obviously we found some violations of our policy. I would not jump to conclusions to assume that all of the allegations that were made over the many months that the plaintiff has made against us are accurate. I would be very, very cautious in making a leap of faith, even if we take action on any official in this investigation."

Grant, 32, is black. In her lawsuit, she cites 23 specific incidents of sexual discrimination and 34 specific incidents of racial or gender discrimination. She also is suing for wrongful termination in her lawsuit after being fired from her job as a technical inspector responsible for certifying cars in the Nationwide Series.

Grant was employed from January of 2005 through October of 2007, when NASCAR terminated her employment, citing poor work performance. France declined to elaborate on the specific reasons behind her termination Saturday, but Grant has claimed it was done in retaliation for complaints she had made about the way she was being treated in the workplace.

The problem is, according to France, that the ongoing internal investigation by NASCAR has turned up no evidence of any such complaints ever being made by Grant.

"The most disappointing thing to me is that we found out about these alleged claims after you did in the media via a national lawsuit that seeks a lot of money," France said. "That's very disappointing because if any of those claims turn out to be accurate and have substance, we would have liked to have known about that two years ago so that we could have reacted and done something about it -- because it's inconsistent with anything, from a policy standpoint, about how a work environment for our officials should be."

France insisted that all NASCAR employees are repeatedly schooled in the company's policies regarding proper conduct in the workplace. That includes procedures for reporting incidents of alleged discrimination, he said, that were never followed by Grant.

"Some of these claims go back years or longer in the past," France said. "So here again, it is very, very disappointing that was not brought to our attention -- if these claims actually happened. If they would have been brought to our attention right when they happened, we could have investigated it right then and taken any action that we needed to.

"It just didn't happen. She chose to make this about money and about a lawsuit -- and we'll deal with that. That's the nature of the court system."

The crux of the lawsuit appears to center around the difference of opinions concerning Grant's claims that she reported several incidents of alleged harassment, and NASCAR's claims that it has been unable to uncover any evidence that she ever did. France repeatedly insisted the latter was the case on Saturday.

"She just didn't report anything to anybody," France said. "It was quite the opposite. She was very pleased with her colleagues and most of the comments that we have heard are that she liked her job, enjoyed being there, liked the camaraderie with the other officials. We just haven't had anyone who reported a claim [being made by Grant]. We have not found it yet.

"The other reality is there is a very clear process that you go through if you feel there is any discrimination by NASCAR. And everybody in the company knows what it is. They have been trained to observe it and make sure that the proper officials within the company are notified. Any employee who has an issue can e-mail me directly. They can certainly go to HR [the human resources department]. There are dozens of ways to report such an incident, and it just didn't get reported."