Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy has asked Rupert Murdoch to not air a NASCAR race sponsored by the National Rifle Association on Fox Sports on Saturday.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup “is inappropriate in the immediate wake of the Newtown massacre,” the Democratic senator wrote Murdoch on Thursday,
CNN reports.
Murphy was referring to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December in which 20 children and six adults were killed.
Murdoch is the chairman and CEO of News Corp., which owns Fox Sports.
The Sprint Cup, held at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, is the first signature NASCAR race sponsored by the NRA. It has played host to smaller races in the past.
The winners receive revolvers, while the fastest qualifier is given a shotgun, CNN reports.
The race is being advertised on the NRA’s website.
Murphy said in his letter that the race “not only brings national attention to an organization that has been the face of one side of this heated debate, it also features the live shooting of guns at the end of the race,” CNN reports.
NASCAR, which approved the NRA sponsorship, said on Friday that it would review future naming-rights deals more closely, according to the Sporting News.