Track president defends ‘Duck Dynasty’ star’s controversial pre-race prayer

Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage defended the controversial prayer delivered by Phil Robertson prior to Saturday night’s Sprint Cup Series race, in comments made to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Prior to the Duck Commander 500, Robertson, a star on the popular Duck Dynasty reality TV show, opened the traditional invocation by saying, “All right Texas, we got here via Bibles and guns. I’m fixing to pray to the one that made that possible.”

Robertson went on to thank the military before concluding with: “I pray father that we put a Jesus man in the White House. Help us do that and help us all to repent, to do what is right, to love you more and to love each other. In the name of Jesus, I pray, amen.”

Although the prayer elicited scrutiny for politicizing a sporting event, Gossage took no issue with Robertson’s remarks.

“He said what he felt and believed and there are a lot of people that agree with him and a lot that disagree with him,” Gossage told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Nowadays, you cannot say what you think because of political correctness. So I guess everyone has a right to free speech or nobody does.”

Gossage went on to compare Robertson’s prayer to Bruce Springsteen canceling a recent concert in Greensboro, N.C., following legislation prohibiting transgender individuals from using restrooms of their own volition and requiring that they instead use bathrooms corresponding to their “biological sex” as registered on their birth certificates.

“Bruce Springsteen cancels his show in North Carolina on his viewpoints and a lot of people agreed with him and a lot of people disagree with him,” Gossage said. “I defend Bruce Springsteen’s rights to take his position and, if you do that, then you’ve got to defend everybody else’s, too.”

NASCAR executive vice president Steve O’Donnell explained that the sanctioning body assists in bringing celebrities to tracks in an interview with SiriusXM Radio on Monday, but in this instance TMS recruited Robertson, whose family’s business served as race entitlement sponsor Saturday night. Members of the Robertson family also drove the pace car, sung the national anthem and waved the green flag.

“Those are track assets, so those are usually sold as part of their race entitlement,” O’Donnell said on The Morning Drive. ”... We do have a group in (Los Angeles) who work with the tracks to try and bring celebrities in whenever possible. We saw a huge group come to (Auto Club Speedway), so from time to time, if the tracks don’t have that position filled, we’ll try to work with them.

“In this case, Texas had that as part of their race entitlement.”