HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — With racing fans fully engrossed in NASCAR action, your social media feeds may include more ads or suggested posts targeted toward racing related content. While many are focused on selling merchandise like branded clothing, souvenir pennants and the like, other posts are claiming to be news articles reporting on a Pride Day event supposedly held at the Talledega Superspeedway in Alabama.
One such post, made March 14 by the account 'Interesting Facts,' has garnered more than 2,000 comments and 1,700 shares. It claims that a Pride Day event was the lowest-attended in Talladega history.
THE QUESTION
Did Talledega Superspeedway hold a poorly-attended Pride Day event?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
The viral post ultimately connects you to an article from a self-described satirical website. Before we get into that, let's discuss how we can tell the recent post is misleading you:
The Facebook photo:
Upon closer inspection of the photo claiming to be of the Speedway, it appears as if the Pride flag seems clearer than the rest of the image - an indication the photo was doctored. We ran the photo through the free reverse image search website TinEye, which shows us the photo was originally taken in 2017 - without the flag - during the NASCAR Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis.
The diverting post:
The graphic in the Facebook post encourages you to open the comments section to watch a video it promises will provide more details. When you open the comments section, what you get is not a video, but a link to the website "FullStory." FullStory reposts already-existing articles found elsewhere on the internet and does not appear to vet any content it uses.
In this case, the text of the article is credited to "Dunning Kruger Times." The DKT article was first published in June 2023. The site's "About Us" page says DKT is part of a "network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery" websites.
As to the photograph, which appears on the DKT article and the Facebook post from 'Interesting Facts,' DKT says, "All images should be considered altered and satirical."
Through those admissions, we can verify that the story is false.
A quick search on the Talladega website shows no press releases or items concerning an official Pride Day event, either in the past or planned for the near future.