NASCAR Cup Series stars Jimmie Johnson, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch have all respectively severed ties with a racing helmet designer after the brand account lashed out online about NASCAR's decision to ban the confederate flag at racing events. What began as some tweets fired off in the mentions of NASCAR media people in defense of keeping the flag -- or, as Jason Beam of Beam Designs puts it, in defense of preserving history, whatever that means -- grew to calling Bubba Wallace's Black Lives Matter car "garbage."
Here are some samples of the tweets Beam Design fired off over the past day or so -- the phrase "tweeting through it" comes to mind.
For what it's worth, there was a brief period where it looked like that the account had understood the error of its ways, or was at least trying to do some damage control. In one now-deleted tweet, the account posted "Thank You NASCAR and Bubba Wallace, I fully support the removal of the confederate flag. 🇺🇸 will rise above the challenges of equality." There was even a level of supposed understanding as to why Johnson and Blaney dropped the brand, for whatever that's worth.
Now the tone has shifted as BEAMdesigns has returned to leaning into the aforementioned stances that got the helmet designer into hot water, and even started bragging about the growth in Twitter followers the account has gained since this whole thing started. Surely those extra social media pals will make up for the lost publicity and revenue that working with four of the biggest names in the sport brings.