NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Daniel Dye is facing questions from the online NASCAR community following the resurfacing of a clip of him recounting an interaction with rising IndyCar star David Malukas during a live stream.
UPDATE March 17, 6:00 PM EST: Both NASCAR and Kaulig Racing have suspended Dye for an indefinite amount of time following his comments on Whatnot. As part of his suspension, NASCAR says he must complete sensitivity training.
In a lengthy statement on social media, Dye said, “I chose my words poorly, and I understand why it upset people. I’m sorry to anyone who was offended. That’s not how I want to represent myself.”
Over the past year, many athletes, both in and out of NASCAR, have turned to the website Whatnot as a platform to stream “breaks” of trading cards, showing off what they can pull from their packs.
While selling the cards is part of the process, the live stream gives athletes a chance to connect with fans and speak candidly in a more casual setting than most fans would get to see them.
Alongside the livestream, users can clip certain moments of the streams, be that for a funny interaction or a rare pull during the break.
One of these clips, which appears to feature Kaulig Racing’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Daniel Dye, is currently receiving backlash from the NASCAR community.
In this clip, Dye, who is opening NASCAR trading cards, is said to be referring to Team Penske IndyCar driver David Malukas, with Dye sharing an exchange he had with the 24-year-old Chicago native, during a promotional event for the crossover weekend the IndyCar Series shared with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in late February.
Though the clip is out of the entire context, Dye states that he was unsure what series Malukas raced in, as the two series were sharing the street circuit with the Mazda MX-5 Series and the Indy NXT Series.
Dye said that he asked Malukas if the series he raced featured oval tracks, with Dye saying on the stream Malukas was “distraught that I asked him that question,” and mocking Malukas’ response.
“He was like, distraught that I asked him that question, like, ‘Yeah? We race Nashville and Iowa.’ I’m like okay, I didn’t know the Miata’s went to Nashville.”
While this seems like a funny interaction in which Dye was confused as to who Malukas was, Dye continued re-stating the Team Penske driver’s response to him in a mocking way, in what he went on to call a “David Malukas gay voice.”
“He’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, yes, we race Indianapolis, love Indianapolis, and Roger Penske, I love Roger. Love you Roger’,” Dye said.
The 22-year-old driver then went on to say that as soon as he did this voice, he pulled a gold card from a pack, and that he would continue doing the voice until he didn’t pull a gold, before the clip of the stream ends.
“As soon as I start doing a David Malukas gay voice, I had a gold, so let’s keep it going. We’re just going to keep talking like this till I miss a gold. I’m on fire.”
Posts of and about the clip of Dye, which first appeared on the r/Whatnot subreddit, have gained over 14,000 views on X and 150 upvotes on the r/NASCAR subreddit, in a post that called Dye’s comments “homophobic.”
Daniel Dye goes on mocking homophobic rant about David Malukas.
by u/Dry-Membership3867 in NASCAR
The reactions to Dye’s comments range from anger regarding his impression of Malukas to people tagging his race team and others comparing his racing resume to that of Malukas.
One user on the r/NASCAR subreddit said in response, “Said this in another thread but I’d be pissed if I was RAM. Truck is straight up sponsored by them entirely, Suicide Awareness program has sponsored him too. Shitshow of the week award winner here.”
Others on the subreddit have called out Dye for his personal background, with one user responding, “NASCAR has an unlikeable nepobaby problem. It’s one thing to be rich, it’s another to be rich AND an insufferable prick too.”
On X, the attention has turned to tagging his NACAR Truck Series team, Kaulig Racing, in the clip’s responses, and continued comparisons of Malukas as a rising star in IndyCar to Dye’s NASCAR career.
As of presstime, neither Dye nor his team has commented publicly on the clip circulating on social media.
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