The NASCAR race sponsored by the NRA at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday was controversial heading into the event and after a man apparently killed himself in the infield with a gun by shooting himself in the head, according to a medical examiner.
The report from ESPN.com, the incident occurred on Saturday at the NRA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway and after investigating, the Tarrant County medical examiner's office said they concluded the death of Kirk Franklin, who was 42-years-old from Saginaw, was a suicide. The police said that the man was camping in the infield and he dies from a "self-inflicted injury" soon after getting into an argument with others near him at the race.
The police added that alcohol could have played a factor in the death and that despite there being a number of witnesses to the act, no one else was injured. Texas Speedway spokesman Cpl. Tracey Knight said the death happened near a "pickup truck" that was near the backstretch part of the infield. The race had some controversy entering it because of the Newtown shootings and the sponsorship from the NRA.
According to Yahoo Sports, NRA had the chance to buy a "premium ad package" for the race, but instead declines, leaving the broadcast to have no sponsor on the graphics in the race and with the name, likely due to the controversy surrounding the decision. NASCAR officials said the NRA passed all of the "guidelines" for sponsorship, but that in the future they would look closer at it.
The gun incident only highlights that issue as the legislation is being debated in Congress and took some attention away from Kyle Busch, who won both the Nationwide and the Sprint Cup races over the weekend. Busch did it for the second time on the circuit this season after doing it at Fontana and he won the pole for the race on Saturday earlier in the week.
Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski had issues prior to the race after failing inspections and Busch had another win overshadowed by other track events after his last double dip had Denny Hamlin and Logano get into a late and controversial crash. Martin Truex came in second ahead of Carl Edwards, while Greg Biffle and Joey Logano rounded out the top five. Jimmie Johnson and Aric Almirola followed ahead of Brian Vickers, Keselowski and Ryan Newman in the top 10.
