After successfully running the rainbow paint schemes with Andretti Motorsports, courier company DHL will continue the pride-themed liveries with new partner Chip Ganassi Racing, on two-time IndyCar champion, Alex Palou’s No. 10 car at the Indy 500.

This will be the fourth season in a row that DHL will sponsor LGBTQ+ pride livery for an IndyCar driver. Ryan Hunter Reay was the one who kicked off the trend back in 2021. However, Townsend Bell and the broadcast team sparked controversy after reportedly trying to avoid acknowledging the pride-themed car.

Trying to justify Palou’s special car scheme during his qualifying runs, the broadcast team compared it to NASCAR icon Jeff Gordon’s iconic Du Pont paint schemes. “Introduced himself to us as a rookie, as a self-destruct warrior. So the rainbow colors here maybe tribute to the 24 of Jeff Gordon. Maybe we call him the rainbow warrior, and that’s a nice pairing with Conor Dayl’s,” Townsend Bell and his broadcaster partners said during the broadcast.

Given that the team and the driver themselves were supporting the pride scheme and representing the community, it was surprising to see the broadcast team seemingly not acknowledge the initiative. On the first view, this conversation was skipped by the viewers, but upon the second hearing, they uncovered the deliberate attempts by the broadcast team to ignore Alex Palou’s pride theme.

Perhaps the broadcasters were truly unaware of the significance but, who knows, as fans soon started to discuss the motive behind the broadcaster’s supposed ignorance. NASCAR fans took to their social media handles trying to get to the root of the issue with their views and opinions.

Fans react to rainbow warrior remarks by the Indy Car broadcast team

It’s not that the pride theme car was making the last appearance. It was just the qualifying rounds, and the No. 10 car will be back for the main event. So it will be interesting to see how the broadcasters will improvise and avoid it. “I wonder if they’ll go the whole next week and through the race without saying the qord “pride”?”, said one user.

Fuming with the choice of words by the broadcast team, another user expressed their discontent and wrote, “This type of covering-over marginalized people for merely existing is WHY pride themes exist.”

Some NASCAR fans, in a sarcastic manner, added that this was also a Kyle Busch tribute scheme. “To me that looks more like a Kyle Bush M&Ms tribute than anything”.

It looked like Townsend Bell and his team reportedly turned a blind eye towards the pride car, and this was pointed out by the users online, who wrote, “Do… do they not know what the Pride car is for” and “Jeff Gordon tribute” n-no. no no”.

On the other hand, some users didn’t take offense to the remarks and tried to justify the fumble made by the broadcasting team. “I think he’s saying they should call him the rainbow warrior and comparing him to Gordon, not saying the scheme is? It just seems like an awkward segue into talking about how good he’s been, not like something offensive”.

It will be interesting to see the choice of words the IndyCar broadcast team will use for the No. 10 car during the Indianapolis 500 race.