Sports
Business Journal reported last week that NASCAR is attempting
to secure sponsorship for free-agent drivers Bubba Wallace and Danica Patrick, an
effort that includes “trying to entice its own sponsors to extend relationships
with the drivers.”
NASCAR has traditionally
assisted teams in sponsor procurement. In the early days of the sport, founder
Bill France, Sr. would often line up local sponsors and “travel money” to
assist drivers down the road to the next race. He also vouched for competitors
when they approached local banks for loans to finance their racing operations.
Procuring multi-million dollar
sponsorships directly, however, is something entirely new, and last week’s
report prompted cries of favoritism from some corners of the sport.
NASCAR’s efforts on behalf of Patrick
and Wallace (an African-American graduate of the sport’s Drive for Diversity
program) are probably unfair, since other drivers do not receive the same level
of assistance. But in the 60-odd year history of NASCAR, “fair” has not gotten
the job done.
It’s time to do more.
In the year 2017, it is
unconscionable that the headline Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series has just one woman
and no persons of color in the starting lineup.
The Drive 4 Diversity has begun
to show signs of life, with Kyle Larson and Daniel Suarez now full-time
competitors in the MENCS ranks. It has been more successful in producing minority
crewmembers, but it has not done nearly enough, fast enough.
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| The Force sisters are major stars. |
Virtually every other major form
of motorsport boasts women and minorities in their starting fields on a weekly
basis. Willy T. Ribbs (Sports Cars) Lewis Hamilton (Formula
One) and Antron Brown (NHRA) have all won national and/or world championships. Shirley
Muldowney, Angelle Sampey and Erica Enders-Stevens are former NHRA World
Champions, while Shelly Anderson, Melanie Troxell, Leah Pritchett, Alexis Dejoria and the Force sisters – Ashley, Courtney
and Brittany – are all winners in NHRA National event competition. Lyn
St. James won twice at the 24 Hours of Daytona
and again at the 12 Hours of Sebring, while Jutta Kleinschmidt won the grueling Dakar Rally in 2001.
In marked contrast, prior to
Wallace’s four “fill-in” races with Richard Petty Motorsports earlier this
season, NASCAR had not had a black face in the starting field since Bill Lester made two fleeting starts for Bill Davis Racing in 2006.
At a time when women and
minorities play major, winning roles in virtually every other branch of
motorsports, NASCAR’s optics are beyond abhorrent. Is it any wonder that
outsiders view stock car racing as an exclusively white-male sport?
We can do better, and we must.
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| Wallace delivered for RPM |
Bubba Wallace deserves a shot
at the brass ring. In four 2017 starts at RPM in place of the injured Aric
Almirola, the Mobile, Alabama native finished 26th at Pocono Raceway, 19th at Michigan,
15th at Daytona and 11th at Kentucky. He improved in every start, despite
racing with a crew and crew chief that he had never met before. His average
finish for those four races was 17.8; nearly three spots better than Almirola’s
season average of 20.5.
Almirola is expected to move
to the elite Stewart-Haas Racing organization next season, with full-season sponsorship
from Smithfield Foods. Wallace, meanwhile, saw his Roush Fenway Racing NXS team
shut down after just 12 races this season due to lack of sponsorship.
He was fourth in the
championship standings at the time.
Patrick has admittedly not
been as successful as most observers -- and even Danica herself -- would have liked.
But over the last six decades, thousands of white male drivers have been given the
opportunity to fail at the highest level of our sport. That opportunity has
been extended to less than a half-dozen women.
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| Did Johanna Long get a fair shot? |
When Erik Jones won the 2012
Snowball Derby, that win led directly to a handful of ARCA starts and a seat
with Kyle Busch’s potent NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team. When Johanna
Long won the same race in 2010, it earned her two part-time seasons with the chronically
underfunded ML Motorsports Xfinity Series team and an unheralded exit from the
sport.
If that doesn’t bother you, it
should. Something, my friends, is not adding up.
Critics say it is not NASCAR’s
job to help some drivers, but not others.
“Just wait,” they say. “Give
it some time. The sport will integrate itself, eventually.”
Well, we’ve been waiting since
1948. The strategy of patience has failed, and it’s time to take action.
Other teams may react badly to
NASCAR’s new, hands-on policy of selective sponsorship assistance, wondering
why the sanctioning body never helped them the way they are reportedly
helping Wallace and Patrick.
That reaction, while perhaps
justified, is flawed. What team owners should be thinking is, “Maybe we should
find a Danica or a Bubba of our own.”
After 68 years of exclusion,
it’s time for NASCAR to tilt the scales unfairly in the other direction for a
while, by any means necessary.
