Daniel Dye Suspended Indefinitely For Using ‘Gay Voice’ To Mock Fellow Racer On Stream

Daniel Dye has been suspended indefinitely by NASCAR for homophobic comments. 

Dye was opening trading cards on a livestream. Someone in the chat said that fellow NASCAR driver David Malukas “plays for the other team,” which is a crude way to describe someone as gay.

Dye responded to this chat by talking in a high-pitched “gay” voice to mock Malukas. 

“It’s like, ‘Oh my gosh.’” Dye said.  “We race Indianapolis. Love Indianapolis and Roger Penske, I love Roger, love you, Roger.” 

This is a violation of NASCAR’s driver’s code of conduct. The code of conduct says that drivers are not allowed to “criticize, ridicule, or otherwise disparage another person based upon that person’s race, color, creed, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age, or handicapping condition.”

Dye later apologized for his comments. Although he didn’t apologize to Malukas personally, he did apologize to the LGBT community.

“I have some close friends in the LGBT+ community who 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,” Dye said. “In talking with them, I realized that a true friend would know better than to act the way I did, and for that, I need to be a better friend.”

This is not the first time that Dye has gotten into trouble. In 2022, he was suspended from NASCAR for allegedly punching a high school classmate in the groin. Dye was charged in a Florida court with felony assault. However, the crime was later reduced to a misdemeanor due to Dye’s age and the fact that the alleged victim had pushed Dye first. The charges were later dropped. 

The next NASCAR event is the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina.