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PITPASS: NASCAR embraces diversity

by Timothy J. Raub
Weekender Correspondent

For years, NASCAR has tried to find a way to bring more minorities and women into the sport. Whether it be as drivers or crew members or front office personnel, a proper integration has been one of NASCAR’s biggest initiatives. Earlier this week, that initiative took one step further towards reality in the driver ranks with the start of the new look Drive for Diversity combine’s on-track portion at Motor Mile in Radford, Va.

Each of the 30 drivers that are part of the Drive for Diversity program are taking part in this week’s combine, which included racing late models and legends at Motor Mile.

The 909 Group, which manages the Drive for Diversity program for NASCAR, announced the formation of Revolution Racing and the subsequent formation of an academy-style training program featuring six NASCAR Whelen All-American Series drivers and four NASCAR Camping World Series drivers under the same roof.

“We wanted to get the best possible candidates in the program,” said The 909 Group CEO Max Siegel. “Once they were in the program we wanted to get consistently good equipment so we could evaluate them against each other and their progress over the year. We also wanted to get them more seat time, training, coaching, best in class operators and wanted to measure the overall progress of the program.

The drivers competing for the 10 available spots got to work over the weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway racing in Legends cars on Sunday, followed by iRacing.com simulator work on Monday at Motor Mile

Drivers from a number of different backgrounds earned invitations to the combine, including Jorge Arteaga from the NASCAR Mexico Series; Paulie Harraka, who was 2009 NASCAR Camping World Series West Sunoco Rookie of the Year driving for D4D; Sloan Henderson and Natalie Sather, who earned NASCAR Whelen All-American Series rookie of the year honors running Late Models in Ohio and Washington, respectively; Jason Romero, who captured the Late Model championship at All American Speedway in Roseville, Calif.; and a trio of 16-year-olds, Ali Kern, Sergio Pena and Darrell Wallace Jr.

“We’ve had some very talented drivers over the life of the program, and we’re all very proud of the opportunity that NASCAR and the D4D program has produced for those drivers,” said Marcus Jadotte, managing director of public affairs for NASCAR. “There is no question in my mind that top to bottom this is the best group that we’ve seen.”

FIVE TO GO

With only five races left in the 2009 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship, three-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson is starting to run away with his fourth title.

He leads second-place Mark Martin by 90 points, and is heading into a Martinsville Speedway track where he’s won the last two races and five of the last six.

The 90-point lead is the largest ever after five Chase races, surpassing Johnson’s previous high of 69 points last season and Jeff Gordon’s 68-point lead over Johnson in 2007, according to racing Web site Jayski.com. Johnson rallied past Gordon in 2007 for his second title.

THIS WEEKEND

The Chase heats up this weekend as NASCAR returns to Martinsville for the Tums Fast Relief 500 (1 p.m., ABC). This could be a trap race for Johnson if he can’t get out in front early on and stay out of the congestion that is commonplace at the extremely tight, half-mile track, where multi-car wrecks are commonplace and one slip-up could mean the difference between winning the race and heading to the garage area for an early start on your trip to Talladega.