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Time for NASCAR to Park the Drive for Diversity

Posted by Troy Harrison at 10:54:29 AM

Got a couple of interesting press releases last week.  The first concerned Juan Pitta, a late model driver who is part of NASCAR's "Drive for Diversity" class of 2009, who scored his second late model feature win in a row at All American Speedway, in Roseville, CA.  The win was said to be the 30th for D4D participants in the six years of the program.

The second concerned D4D driver Kristin Bumbera who left Bobby Hamilton Racing after finishing 15th in a Camping World East race at South Boston, saying she is "used to running up front and winning, and dissatisfied with running midpack."  A bit of research on Ms. Bumbera shows that she's won a handful of late model features in Texas with no track championships - yet she's dissatisfied with running midpack in a major touring series.

NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program began as a well-intentioned effort to elevate minorities and women through the admittedly white-male dominated world of stock car racing.  Six years later, by nearly any measure, it's a failure.  Its failure has multiple causes, but perhaps its biggest flaw is the fact that its key assumption flies in the face of what it takes to make it in racing.  The formula for NASCAR stardom hasn't changed for decades:  Win and dominate locally, move up and win regionally, then win in the lower NASCAR series, then move to Cup.  Look at all the stars in NASCAR, and you'll find out that this is the way it's been done.

The basic approach to the program has been to select minority and female applicants who would then be funded in short track and developmental series.  Given the appropriate funding, it was thought, drivers would then get the necessary experience and accomplishment to ramp up into NASCAR's "Big three" series.  The result has been underqualified and overfunded kids destroying cars - their own and their competitors - at a frightening rate.

In a recent Sports Illustrated article, Ed Hinton pegs NASCAR's current investment at $6 million per year, up from its initial $4M per year.  So it's safe to say that, over the course of the D4D, NASCAR has put over $30M into the program - or over $1 million per weekly feature win scored by D4D participants.  Do you like that number?

Incredibly, however, Hinton's belief is that the program is UNDERFUNDED.  Hinton wrote, "So let's estimate a current outlay of $6 million annually. That's barely enough to fund one decent effort for one Nationwide driver for a season. Now subtract administrative and public relations costs, and divide by 12. Twelve drivers comprise NASCAR's current, and sixth, D4D class. D4D funding, such as it is, simply isn't enough to fund competitive rides, even in the developmental series. Teams have to seek additional sponsorship on their own. "The reality is, it [the funding per driver from D4D] is just enough to run a partial late-model program," says J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing. "It's just not enough funding to do it.""

Wow.  Considering that nearly all D4D participants are running weekly late models or in one case, USST, let's look at a number.  Let's even assume that half of NASCAR's outlay is eaten up by non-team-funding costs.  That's still a quarter-million bucks per year per team.  How many late model teams do you know of that are that well funded?  Hinton may have lost touch a bit.  Of course, unlike most late model teams, the D4D teams are blessed with paid crewchiefs and in some cases crew, nice transporters, etc.

This also brings up another problem inherent with these types of programs; in the public eye, whatever you do never seems to be enough if the desired result isn't achieved.

Today, NASCAR's biggest success story from the D4D program is Marc Davis, who has elevated himself to the Nationwide series this year.  However, Davis spent two years in Camping World East, scoring 8 top-five finishes in 26 races, no wins, and not scoring higher than fifth in season standings.  Davis didn't really "graduate" to Nationwide so much as move up.

One must also wonder about the selection criteria for the D4D program.  If you were to look at the pictures of the seven young women chosen for this year's program, you might be forgiven for thinking you were looking at the cast for "America's Top Model."  All young women, very lovely, and perhaps talented behind the wheel.  But there's one problem.

Jenny White's 2003 World Cup win (to say nothing of her 2008 USLMA championship) trumps every accomplishment by every driver in the 2009 D4D class; in fact, no D4D participant has ever put together a resume' to equal Jenny's.  So why is she on the outside looking in?  You can make your own guesses.  That's not to say that Jenny isn't an attractive young woman - from this corner, she is - but it's unlikely that Maxim will feature her in a "Danica" pictorial anytime soon.  Where Jenny stands out is behind the wheel, which may or may not be the criteria used for the D4D.  It would be interesting to see what she could do running CRA with a quarter-million bucks of D4D money behind her, though.

Of course, none of this would be a reason for cancelling the program if there were no downsides to it.  But there are.  NASCAR's efforts have been rewarded with bad press in numerous instances and a lawsuit.

Young Davis has been the (unintentional) focus of bad press a couple of times; once when racial epithets were shouted at him after one of his crashes at Hickory Speedway, and more recently when a Brendan Gaughan crewman was accused of making a racial remark to him and suspended indefinitely.  In the crewman's defense, Davis turned left right across pit road and crashed Gaughan (something that's not been uncommon with D4D drivers, right, JJ Sonneveldt?).

And of course, there was the racial discrimination lawsuit brought by Mauricia Grant last year.  Never mind that Grant had been elevated to Nationwide Series officialdom despite a resume' consisting of a half-season's internship at Irwindale Speedway, or that she had received negative evaluations.  A few ill-made comments by officials resulted in Ms. Grant getting a lucrative out of court settlement.

A sexual harassment suit might be next.  Danica Patrick's willingness to be photographed and filmed wearing little more than a green flag has, unfortunately, led some marketing executives to assume that all young female race drivers are willing to do the same.  Bumbera has posted on her Web site that at least one sponsor relationship went sour because she was unwilling to pose in various states of undress as part of an advertising campaign.  If this is the expectation of sponsors, team owners, etc., this will inevitably result in NASCAR being hauled into court yet again.

Does all this mean that I don't think NASCAR should include women and minorities?  Not at all.  There isn't a single major sport that hasn't benefited from integration, and NASCAR would be no different.  However, no other major sport has forced integration.  Jackie Robinson wasn't a social experiment and "development" for Major League Baseball; he was an incredibly talented ballplayer capable of competing at the MLB level - and in doing so, he proved that others could do so as well, and that MLB teams that ignored blacks did so at their own competitive disadvantage.

At some point, there will be a female race driver, and a driver from nearly every minority category you can imagine, that will do so as well in NASCAR.  Lewis Hamilton has done so in F1, but he didn't do so as part of any "drive for diversity" program.  He simply strapped into the race cars and kicked ass.  Maybe Pitta will be that guy in NASCAR; maybe Bumbera will end up being that woman.  But overfunding these guys and having them beat up on weekend racers proves nothing - as they find out when they get to the touring series level.

One thing I love about this sport is that the only race that matters is the one that starts with the green flag and ends with the checkered.  NASCAR needs to remember that.  While it's perfectly legitimate to make sure that no artificial barriers exist to keep women and minorities from the same access to talent progression as white males, the D4D has done little to advance the cause of women and minorities and has in fact only created opportunities for damage to NASCAR's public image.  It's time to park the Drive and find other uses for that money.

 

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