NASCAR backs moves on Confederate flag

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Dark clouds move across the sky before the NASCAR Xfinity series auto race at Chicagoland Speedway, Saturday, June 20, 2015, in Joliet, Ill. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — NASCAR is backing South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s call to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds in the wake of a massacre at a Charleston church.

The motorsports series issued its statement Tuesday, one day after Haley said “the time has come” to remove the flag.

NASCAR bars the use of the flag, saying that while “freedom of expression is an inherent right of all citizens, we will continue to strive for an inclusive environment at our events.”

Nine people were slain last week at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and Dylann Storm Roof, 21, is charged with murder. The white man appeared in photos holding Confederate flags and burning or desecrating U.S. flags, and purportedly wrote of fomenting racial violence.

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