Jeremy Clements has seen his name in the news a lot since Daytona, just not for the right reasons. The 29-year-old driver has been suspended for a racial slur he said in an interview off camera prior to the Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
Clements made the comment in the presence of an MTV reporter and NASCAR publicist.
After the news of Clements’ suspension made waves it was finally revealed what he said early Friday. It was eventually found out that the MTV reporter was Marty Beckerman who spoke to MTV News.
“I was there to do a fish-out-of-water story about going to NASCAR and having a wild, crazy weekend. And, we were doing interviews with many of the drivers, and I was on the way to another interview we were looking for [driver] Johanna Long’s trailer and the NASCAR publicist called Mr. Clements over and asked him for help finding her,” Beckerman said.
“He walked us toward where she was, and on the way over, I explained to him that Guy Code is rules for guys, how you treat your friends, how you treat your ladies, things like that. I was there to do a humor piece, so I asked him what would be Guy Code for race car drivers, and he blurted out [a phrase that used the n-word].” Beckerman said that Clements didn’t use the phrase in reference to any specific driver, but was instead illustrating that “if you drive roughly, you’ll be treated roughly.”
While Beckerman wrote the quote down he opted not to use it since the blog he was writing for ‘Guy Code’ is meant to be humorous.
“The fact is that NASCAR made this a national story, and then Clements explained a bit of what he said to ESPN … I never wanted to be part of the story.”
Clements finished 33rd at Daytona after breaking an oil line.
He will not race his No. 51 car at Phoenix due to his suspension. Charles Lewandoski Ryan Sieg will drive his car instead.
