NASCAR seeks recruits at JCSU

Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009

The NASCAR College Tour visited Johnson C. Smith University last week, and a group of about 50 students gathered at Biddle Hall to hear from African Americans the stock car racing company hopes represent a significant part of its future.

There was Marc Davis, a 19-year-old driver and team owner in NASCAR's Nationwide Series. There was Arionne Allen, a 23-year-old who went through NASCAR's Diversity Internship Program. There was Mike Phillips, a senior manager for track services, who helps run emergency crews at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

For the past nine years, NASCAR has sent a team of officials every year to historically black colleges and universities. The goal is to recruit minorities into a sport that hasn't always welcomed them.

During a discussion about job opportunities in the sport, Phillips, a former firefighter and EMT, said he doesn't care much for racing. He never has. He loves his job, though.

"Think about this: Right now, in this economy, there are 4,800 people with jobs at Lowe's," he said. "I want to see some faces like mine in NASCAR before I leave it ... There is opportunity for each and every one of you."

The message is starting to sink in, said Brandon Thompson, a 26-year-old African American and NASCAR's senior account executive for diversity affairs. He organized the panel on Thursday.

Since the college tour began, it's drawn bigger and bigger crowds, and the list of applicants to the Diversity Internship Program has grown. "That's why we're doing these sorts of things, bringing NASCAR to this demographic rather than expect the demographic to come to NASCAR," Thompson said.

It's how Thompson himself got involved. Seven years ago, as a student at Clark Atlanta University, he attended a NASCAR college tour presentation.

Before then, he had no interest in racing. So when students at historically black colleges and universities tell him the same thing, he can relate.

JCSU was the last of five stops on this year's tour; the others were at Clark Atlanta and Morehouse College in Atlanta, Virginia State University in Petersburg, and Delaware State University in Dover.

At each stop, Thompson says, he encounters students like Brittany Andrews, a 21-year-old communication arts major at JCSU who asked Thursday:

"Are there a lot of female minority drivers?"

"No, there are not," Thompson said.

Actually, there are none.

He said he looks forward to the day when minority women take the Danica Patrick route.

The answer, Andrews said later, "kind of piqued my interest."

"I like being different, trying things other people wouldn't," said Andrews, who plans on a career in public relations. "This is definitely a good step. You generally don't see NASCAR at HBCUs."

On occasion, you get the unusual African American student who is a fan. Andrew Dill, a 19-year-old computer engineering major, said he's followed NASCAR since his boyhood in Maryland, where his grandmother watched races every Sunday.

"I remember seeing Daytona, Dale Earnhardt Sr., all that," Dill said.

His childhood dream was to become a driver, "but if I could be incorporated into NASCAR, somehow, some way, that'd be great."

The college tour dovetails with NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program, a 5-year-old initiative that tries to develop minority and female drivers and pit crew members. "I've known about Drive for Diversity for a year now," Dill said. "I feel as if they're on the right track."

Earlier, Dill had asked the panel how the sport can shed its association in the minds of minorities, especially African Americans, with the old, segregated South.

"I've seen, not barriers, but opportunities," said panel member Willie Engram, a senior account manager in NASCAR's licensing division. The scant fan base among minorities, and the sport's active attempts to recruit them, means chances for development that minorities might not find elsewhere.

"It's that huge of a sport," Engram said. "If you're willing to work hard ... this is very fertile ground."

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