NASCAR Nationwide Series
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NNS: Report – Clements Admits Racial Slur
Nationwide driver Jeremy Clements was suspended by NASCAR indefinitely for comments at Daytona…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted February 28, 2013   Avondale, AZ
Jeremy Clements said he regrets using a derogatory racial term while speaking with an MTV writer. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Jeremy Clements told a reporter Thursday that he was suspended by NASCAR for using a racial slur.

In an interview with ESPN, Clements refused to repeat the word he used during a brief session with a writer from MTV last week at Daytona International Speedway.

“When you say ‘racial’ remark, it wasn’t used to describe anybody or anything,” Clements told ESPN. “So that’s all I’m going to say to that. And it really wasn’t. I was describing racing, and the word I used was incorrect, and I shouldn’t have said it. It shouldn’t be used at all.”

NASCAR called Clements’ comment “intolerable and insensitive” and suspended him indefinitely from NASCAR competition.

Clements answered questions for MTV writer Marty Beckerman prior to Saturday’s Nationwide race at Daytona Beach. He told ESPN he was walking with the reporter in the Nationwide garage, showing him how to get to driver Johanna Long’s transporter.

“He started asking me questions,” Clements told ESPN. “And it wasn’t recorded. We were just talking. So I said one remark about how I wouldn’t…” Then he said, “I can’t say that part.”

Clements drives for his family’s Spartanburg, SC-based team. Charles Lewandoski apparently will replace him in the No. 51 car this weekend at Phoenix.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 31 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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