#Black racer drivers#
#Black racer driver#
#Black racer full#
#Black racer tv#

#Black racer driver#

That driver was Darrell “Bubba” Wallace, who will make his third start this Sunday in the 62nd version of The Great American Race.

#Black racer full#

That same year, among the three levels of NASCAR’s top series (Cup, Xfinity, and Truck), out of about 50 or so full and part-timers, there was just one African-American driver. In 2019, the National Hockey League had 25 African-American hockey players. If you regularly attend NASCAR events, you’re probably seeing fewer flags each year. The governing body released a statement leaning towards “an all-inclusive atmosphere” at races, asking fans to “refrain from displaying the Confederate Flag at our facilities and NASCAR events.”Ĭonfederate flags are still a common sight at races (infield, souvenirs, apparel), though NASCAR itself does not include the flag in any official capacity. In the wake of national protests against Confederate monuments, in 2015, NASCAR also made an effort to distance itself from the Confederate flag. Aside from pushing for more diversity inside the race car, D4D also looked at increasing diversity among sponsorship, ownership, and support roles in the sport.

#Black racer drivers#

DiversityĪfter a pilot project by three race teams in 2003, in 2004, NASCAR created Drive for Diversity, a developmental program created to help get minority and female drivers behind the wheel and on to the track. However, getting people of color interested in the sport was one thing getting them to be part of the sport was another. Stock car racing was going mainstream and both track promoters and NASCAR leadership started to recognize that to expand its fan base, NASCAR needed to move away from the idea that their racing was only appealing to good ol’ boys and descendants of the Confederacy. settled down on Sunday afternoons to watch races right alongside NFL football.

#Black racer tv#

In the following years, contracts were signed, TV coverage expanded, ratings grew, and fans all over the U.S. 18, 1979, when CBS Sports provided the first flag-to-flag, live coverage of the Daytona 500. If there was a day when the tide started to shift, it was probably on Feb.

And like it or not, NASCAR being born in the south had strong ties to its fan base with southern roots. In fact, in its first thirty-five years, NASCAR had only one series champion born outside of the south (1951 champion Bill Rexford from Conewango Valley, New York).įor better or worse, most of the sport’s big events were in southern states. In its formative years, NASCAR ran races all over the country but saw its biggest growth in the South at old tracks (Martinsville and Richmond) and new ones as well (Darlington/1950, Daytona/1959, Atlanta/1960, Bristol/1961, and Talladega/1969). Though NASCAR had its roots as the NCSCC (National Championship Stock Car Circuit) with races up and down Daytona Beach, the very first “official” NASCAR race was run in Charlotte, North Carolina. The sanctioning body was founded in 1948 by Bill France Sr. Although there haven’t been many when an African-American driver did come into the series, sometimes it made big news and sometimes it went completely unnoticed.Įxactly how many drivers are we talking about? Eight.Īnd of the eight, only one has ever made it to Victory Lane.Īfter World War II, as America grew, so did NASCAR. There have only been a handful of African-American drivers to ever race in NASCAR’s top tier event, known as The Cup Series. To mark Black History Month and The Daytona 500 kicking off NASCAR’s 2020 Cup Series season this week, we thought this might be a good time to take a look at the influence of African-American drivers on American stock car racing.

– Race fans, here’s a trivia question for you: has an African-American driver ever won a NASCAR Cup Series race?