NASCAR suspends Daniel Dye after mockery of IndyCar's Malukas - ESPN

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR driver Daniel Dye was suspended Tuesday — the second known major penalty of his racing career — for mocking IndyCar driver David Malukas during a recent livestream.

In the video, which circulated Tuesday on social media, Dye used voices, including mimicking Malukas' voice, that made implications about Malukas' sexuality.

Dye is a Truck Series driver for Kaulig Racing, which also suspended him. NASCAR ordered Dye to undergo sensitivity training.

He apologized to Malukas in a social media post, calling his comments «careless.»

«I chose my words poorly, and I understand why it upset people,» he wrote. «I'm sorry to anyone who was offended. That's now I want to represent myself.

»I have some close friends in the LBGTQ+ community who I would never want to feel less of themselves because of what I said, and that's exactly why I should hold myself to a higher standard."

He said conversations with those friends made him recognize that «a true friend would know better than to act the way I did.»

Malukas, a 24-year-old driver for Team Penske, often posts pictures on social media with a girlfriend.

This is the second time Dye has been suspended.

He was 18 and racing in the ARCA series when he was arrested at a Daytona Beach, Florida, high school and charged with felony battery for approaching a classmate and punching the student in the groin area. The victim was treated at a hospital for a potential ruptured testicle.

Dye said it was a game and that he would be exonerated. He was instead indefinitely suspended by ARCA, which is owned by NASCAR. Dye was reinstated when the charge was reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor.

In his third full season in the Truck Series, Dye moved to Kaulig Racing this year to