NASCAR to review harassment claim

Chairman Brian France said he didn’t know of any complaints until a suit was filed.

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR chairman Brian France denied Wednesday that a former official complained to her supervisors about racial and sexual discrimination, claims she alleged led to her eventual firing.

Mauricia Grant filed a $225 million suit against NASCAR Tuesday, alleging racial discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliatory termination. Grant, who is black, worked as a technical inspector for NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series.

France said Wednesday the detailed filing was the first NASCAR learned of her claims.

“The disappointing thing is she makes a lot of claims, none of them reported,” said France. “The fact that it went on as she stated, for many months, but never bothered to tell anyone at management what was going on — which is what our policy says — is very disappointing.

“We would have liked, if those type things were in fact going on, we would have loved to have done an investigation and a review of such an allegation.”

France said NASCAR will review Grant’s claims, which included 23 specific incidents of alleged sexual harassment and 34 specific incidents of alleged racial and gender discrimination she says began when she was hired in January 2005 through her October 2007 firing.

NASCAR will not disclose why Grant was fired late in the 2007 season.

She denied France’s claim that she never complained about her treatment, saying she followed the chain of command but stopped short of taking it to human resources when series director Joe Balash failed to address her concerns.

Grant claims two weeks after she complained to Balash, she received a call from the human resources director reprimanding her for her behavior.

“I expected Joe Balash to address and solve these problems. I never expected I would have to take it higher than that,” she said. “In my three seasons there, that was the first time I complained, and then two weeks later — the shock of getting a call from HR — it was so obvious retaliation.

“Was I supposed to call HR back to talk about the stuff I had to talk about?”

NASCAR’s investigation is expected to include Grant’s human resources file and interviews with everyone identified in the lawsuit.