Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon back NASCAR on Confederate flag in SC

Two of NASCAR’s biggest stars expressed support Friday for NASCAR’s stance this week on removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina State House grounds.

Four-time Cup series champion Jeff Gordon and NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., said they agreed with NASCAR’s support this week of the efforts of S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley and others to remove the flag.

A national groundswell of support for removal of the flag has grown since last week’s shooting deaths of nine African-American members of the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

“As far as the Confederate flag, I think that … I know how we approach it at Hendrick Motorsports and that is everything that we can control. We have eliminated the ability to use it in any way or it show up in any of the things that we are involved with,” Gordon said at Sonoma Raceway. “I think that is the stance I see that NASCAR has taken.

“To me, I’m in support of what they are doing. It’s a delicate balance. We race all over, but the South is an area where we have a lot of fans. Everyone has different opinions and expression of that.”

Earnhardt was much more succinct.

“I think it is offensive to an entire race,” he said. “It really does nothing for anybody to be there, flying. It belongs in the history books, and that’s about it.”

‘A new challenge’

Kevin “Bono” Manion enters his sixth race as crew chief with driver Sam Hornish Jr. at Richard Petty Motorsports.

Asked to evaluate his brief tenure, Manion called it a “fun and exciting new challenge.”

“We’re obviously off on speed just a little bit, but I think we’ve taken positives out of every race and had some good feelings about the way the car is running,” he said.　

“We may not have collected the finishes that we wanted, but every week we’ve been making the cars better here at the track and at the shop and that’s what has been encouraging.”

Hornish, a former IndyCar series and Indianapolis 500 champion, is currently 25th in the series standings with one top-10 finish.

Crew chief swap

Richard Childress Racing has swapped crew chiefs on its No. 3 and No. 33 Chevrolet teams in the Xfinity Series.

Crew chief Nick Harrison will move to the No. 3 team with driver Ty Dillon, while Danny Stockman will move to the No. 33 team. Cup driver Austin Dillon and Paul Menard split most of the races in the No. 33.

“Like many teams this time of year, we are making some midseason personnel changes to improve the overall performance of our teams this season,” said RCR owner Richard Childress.

Double duty

Cup drivers Austin Dillon and Trevor Bayne are scheduled to compete in Saturday’s NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Sonoma.

This story was originally published June 26, 2015 at 7:31 PM with the headline "Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon back NASCAR on Confederate flag in SC."