Fired inspector files $225M lawsuit against NASCAR

As an aspiring racing official, Mauricia Grant had grown used to working in a man's world.

When she finally made it into NASCAR, Grant was appalled at the way she says she was treated beginning from her first day on the job until her firing last October.

Now she's suing NASCAR for $225 million, alleging racial and sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination.

"I loved it. It was a great, exciting, adrenaline-filled job where I worked with fast cars and the best drivers in the world," Grant told the Associated Press. "But there was an ongoing daily pattern [of harassment]. It was the nature of the people I worked with, the people who ran it, it trickled down from the top.

"It's just the way things are in the garage."

Grant, 32, who is black, worked as a technical inspector responsible for certifying cars in NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series from January 2005 until her termination. In the lawsuit, she alleged she was referred to as "Nappy Headed Mo" and "Queen Sheba," by co-workers, was often told she worked on "colored people time," and was frightened by one official who routinely made references to the Ku Klux Klan.

In addition, Grant said she was subjected to sexual advances from male co-workers, two of whom allegedly exposed themselves to her, and graphic and lewd jokes.

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said the organization had not yet reviewed the suit. *