Maybe NASCAR drivers need to stay away from the livestreams…
A driver in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is facing backlash for comments he made about an IndyCar driver that many online are criticizing as homophobic.
Daniel Dye, the driver of the #10 RAM for Kaulig Racing, was opening trading cards during a livestream on shopping platform Whatnot when he began discussing a conversation he had with IndyCar driver David Malukas, who drives the #12 car for Team Penske.
While doing his effeminate impression of Malukas, he joked about his “David Malukas gay voice” while continuing to mock the open wheel driver.
NASCAR fans immediately began criticizing Dye and calling for the sport and his team to take action:
“What kind of idiot in the year 2026 knowingly does this on camera when they are in a job where stuff like this can get you fired. You’d think the PR guys teams have attached to the drivers would’ve taught some sense into him.”
“NASCAR continues to fail miserably at beating the allegations.”
“It’s just not that hard to be nice to people. You’d think individuals with public facing careers, especially public facing careers funded by corporate partners would get that.”
Others, however, called the response and calls for punishment an overreaction to a simple joke:
Neither Dye, Kaulig Racing nor NASCAR have yet to comment on the situation, so it’s still to be seen whether the driver will face any punishment for his comments. The most likely scenario though is that he’s forced to attend a sensitivity training and that’ll be the end of it.
And in fairness, it’s not the worst thing a NASCAR driver has said on livestream: Back in 2020, when NASCAR was shut down due to the COVID pandemic, Kyle Larson was caught on an iRacing stream dropping a racial slur, and was ultimately dropped by his Chip Ganassi Racing team.
Obviously it didn’t really hurt his career much: The next season, Larson was hired by Hendrick Motorsports to drive the #5 car, and since then he’s gone on to win two Cup Series championships and 26 races with his new team.
Dye is only 22 years old, and his comments aren’t really anything that you wouldn’t hear from a lot of other livestreamers, but obviously they’re amplified because he’s a visible figure in the sport and under an increased microscope because of his team and sponsors.
Ultimately it will likely serve as a learning experience for the young driver, but calling for him to lose his job over an ill-advised joke on a livestream seems a little extreme.
The Craftsman Truck Series is back on the track this weekend at Darlington Raceway, with Dye entering the race sitting at 13th in points in his first season with RAM. Last season he competed full-time in the Xfinity Series (now O’Reilly Auto Parts Series) for Kaulig, scoring a career-high finish of 7th at both Martinsville and Atlanta while finishing 20th in the final season points standings.
