The NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina was vandalized on Friday night or early Saturday morning, local news station WRBC 6 reports. Police are investigating who spray painted “All Lives Matter” and “ALM” on the side of the building.
The Hall of Fame wasn’t the only building targeted. Similar graffiti was found in at least 10 nearby areas, including on a Buffalo Wild Wings.
Racial tensions have been high in the United States all summer as protests regarding police brutality have sprung up around the country, often as part of the Black Lives Matter movement. As a result, counter-protests under the All Lives Matter banner have also kicked up.
NASCAR has also taken a stand, choosing to ban the Confederate flag at its events and organizing displays of solidarity for Bubba Wallace, the series’s only Black driver, after what appeared to be a noose was found in his garage. Teams and sponsors, too, have taken the initiative to remove drivers using racial slurs from their repertoire. Publications have been using their platform to advocate for restitution for the impacts of systemic racism.
That said, the backlash is still evident within the paddock. Wallace’s Black Lives Matter car was met in kind with Blue Lives Matter or Back the Blue liveries, which some fans and drivers have claimed NASCAR banned. (It hasn’t. The car in question was flagged only because its roof number was illegible.)
This stint of vandalism in Charlotte could be connected to any number of things, both NASCAR-related and not, but it does seem almost symbolic that the HoF was one of the vandalized buildings.