NASCAR To Stop Holding Banquets At Trump’s Miami Hotel

NASCAR will no longer hold the sport's Xfinity and Camping World Truck series banquets at the Trump National Doral Miami "after Donald Trump's comments about Mexican immigrants," according to Jeff Gluck of USA TODAY. The new location for the banquets "has not been determined." NASCAR VP/Integrated Marketing Communications David Higdon said that NASCAR "had no official stance on Trump's comments." But Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis, who is a Lebanese immigrant to the U.S., called them "blatantly bigoted and racist." Lemonis "made his comments in a June 30 letter addressed to NASCAR Chair & CEO Brian France." USATODAY.com

Higdon: "We looked at obviously everything that we saw coming down and what we heard from our sponsors and our partners and what we feel we should be doing, and that is what led us to the decision." ESPN.com's Bob Pockrass noted in Camping World, "one of the biggest NASCAR sponsors lobbied to have the event moved." NBC Sports Network "is scheduled to air this year's banquet." Higdon said that the decision to move the banquet "was not requested by NBC, which recently dropped Trump's beauty pageants from its network." ESPN.com.