Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Ray Brewer:

NASCAR wishes it had more fans like this one from Sunday’s race

2015 NASCAR Kobalt 400

Steve Marcus

Flags fly from an RV in the infield during the NASCAR Sprint Cup series Kobalt 400 race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday, March 8, 2015.

NASCAR Kobalt 400: Las Vegas 3/8/15

Kevin Harvick celebrates with his team in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt 400 on Sunday, March 8, 2015, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
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Drew Strickland walked into the Las Vegas Motor Speedway wearing a blue Jimmie Johnson hat and sporting a huge grin. Race day was finally here and the Fontana, Calif., resident’s excitement was obvious.

He’s been a motor sports fan since childhood and religiously follows Johnson, his favorite driver.

NASCAR officials wish there were more of Strickland at the Kobalt 400 and other races on the Sprint Cup Series. There were plenty of racing fanatics Sunday amongst the roughly 100,000 fans at the Las Vegas track. Few, though, were like Strickland, who is black. He was accompanied by his girlfriend, Isabel Alvarez, a Hispanic race fan.

Despite diversity efforts from NASCAR, minorities are far and few between in the stands at tracks on the circuit. NASCAR is dominated by Caucasian competitors, and its fan base is largely the same. Most are from the South, a part of the nation where some still have backward views on race relations.

A confederate flag, which is offensive to blacks because of its connotation to slavery, was proudly displayed by one fan in Turn 4 during Sunday’s race. In the area where motor homes camped out for the weekend, more confederate flags were spotted.

While Strickland stands out at races because his skin color is different, he has never felt out of place. For him, it’s not an issue of black or white. It’s about the thrill of watching cars zooming around the track.

He’s right: Liking fast cars isn’t limited to Caucasians.

“At first, they look at me kind of weird,” he said. “But when they ask me questions, I know all the answers. I know everything about racing. I feel at home. These are my people.”

The NASCAR Drive for Diversity development program, which attracts minority drivers, owners and sponsors to racing with hopes of opening doors to a minority fan base, has operated for more than a decade with limited success. Black driver Bubba Wallace, who took seventh Saturday in the Nationwide Xfinity Series race in Las Vegas, is the first from the initiative to appear in a top national series. Daniel Suarez from Monterrey, Mexico, also races on Xfinity Series and is part of Joe Gibbs Racing.

The hope is Wallace, or one of the others, could win races and have an influence similar to Tiger Woods in golf.

Click to enlarge photo

Race fans Drew Strickland, left, and Isabel Alvarez before the Kobalt 400 Sprint Cup Series race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 8, 2015.

If there’s a driver to support, then maybe nontraditional fans will have someone for which to root. It’s more than attending races. It’s about increasing television ratings and apparel sales, and creating a buzz to take racing from the fringe to mainstream.

When Tiger is in contention to win a golf tournament on Sundays, viewership spikes — all walks of life, not just golf fans. While NASCAR has the likes of Johnson or Jeff Gordon, two household names even to nonracing fans, they desperately lack someone who appeals to the untapped demographic of minorities.

“(Minorities) need someone they can relate to,” said Strickland, who owns a telecommunications company.

They need another Wendell Scott. In the 1960s, despite immense racial tension, Scott was the first black driver to compete in NASCAR, becoming the first to win a race on the top series during a 13-year career. He was posthumously inducted this year into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Maybe that someone will be Las Vegan Jay Beasley, a successful driver on the minor league K&N Pro Series east. Beasley, 23, won seven times in 11 starts in 2013 while racing super late model cars and was the first black driver to win at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He’s only been racing a few years and should get a chance to compete in the NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series — one of the stepping stones to Xfinity Series and Sprint Cup — if he continues to progress.

Unfortunately, the lack of minorities on race day won’t be solved anytime soon. Short of having Gordon spend his retirement making appearances with his car at inner city schools in areas where tracks are located to generate interest, another generation will miss out on appreciating the awesome spectate of cars racing around the track at speeds of about 150 mph.

It’s something Strickland has appreciated for years. If only there were more like him, right NASCAR?

“If you need to like a driver to get into the sport, then find a driver and have that be your reason,” he said. “But you don’t need that reason. When you have 43 cars within a feet of each other you know something big is going to happen. It’s the drama of the race.”

Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21

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