If NASCAR's effort to be more diverse needed a boost, well, it just got 225 million more reasons to switch into high gear.As I'm sure you've seen everywhere -- heck, this made front page on nearly every news web site -- NASCAR is being sued by a former official claiming discrimination, sexual harassment, and other things. The official, who is black, worked for NASCAR in the Nationwide Series side of things for a couple of years before being terminated in 2007.
In the lawsuit, she claims many things with direct accusations of actions or words said by named series officials while heading to race tracks and while working in the garage and pit area. Nationwide Series director Joe Balash was even named in the documents.
NASCAR responded Wednesday with CEO Brian France saying that Mauricia Grant -- the official -- never reported the claims to the appropriate avenues in NASCAR management.
I'd say at this point NASCAR's reputation has taken a nice blow in the past few days. Of course, that's the way the American legal system works: the plaintiff makes the first sensational arguments in the media and then the defense is left to defend itself via a public relations statement.
Ok ... injure might be a little strong, but we're definitely in pain here. From a 
