NASCAR officials announced Thursday that Nationwide Series crew chief Bryan Berry has been indefintely suspended from the sport. The suspension stems from a confrontation in which Berry - crew chief for Brendan Gaughan - reportedly made racial comments to African-American driver Marc Davis following last week's race at the Nashville Superspeedway.

In a strange incident, Gaughan and Davis got together on pit road when Davis attempted to pull his car into the garage on Lap 192. As Gaughan attempted to pull into his pit stall under green flag stops, Davis slowed to head to the garage and Gaughan - who was pitted just past the opening for the garage - drove hard into the back of the No. 10.

"Find me that dumb wanna-be college graduate, do not let him leave this race track, at all," an angry Gaughan said over the team radio following the incident. "He's not leaving the track until he sees me."

Gaughan was running in the top-15 at the time of the incident and was charging hard to be in position for the free pass. The unexpected incident with Davis ruined the night for the driver of the No. 62 Chevrolet and set the team off.

"I don't know if his crew chief's dumb, he's dumb or his spotter is dumb," Gaughan told ESPN reporters after the race. Clearly upset with Davis, Gaughan went on to say, "but the middle of a race you end up turning left while guys are coming in for green flag stops is asinine - maybe he needs to look that word up - I don't know."

According to a number of reports, Berry and other members of the No. 62 team approached Davis following the race. NASCAR was informed Berry used raial slurs in addressing Davis and has penalized him accordingly for stepping over the line.

NASCAR found Berry in violation of Section 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing; involved in an altercation with another team) of the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series rule book.

Only 19-years-old, Davis is still cutting his teeth on the NASCAR circuit. With four starts thus far in 2009, the Silver Spings, Maryland-native is struggling to find his way in the top-tiers of NASCAR racing. ESPN.com's Ed Hinton reported the incident last weekend was worse than an incident in which fans at the Hickory Speedway chanted "[n-word] go home" while Davis was a development driver in 2006.

Racism has no place in today's NASCAR. Born in the depths of Dixie, NASCAR needs to move past this part of its history and put it all behind them. NASCAR's decision to suspend Berry indefinitely was the appropriate call and is a strong message that racial threats will not be tolerated in the sport.

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