The Sporting News ran an article this week on budding NASCAR driver Tia Norfleet, former Cup driver Bobby Norfleet's daughter. What makes her different than most drivers is not that she's a woman but that she is also an African-American. As she works her way through the feeder systems of NASCAR, Tia is breaking down barriers every step of the way, helping to integrate a sport whose roots lie in the Jim Crow South.
It is important to NASCAR both financially, and much more significantly culturally, to be bring down the gender and race barriers. The social need is clear. NASCAR has long had a history checkered with racial and gender inequality and insensitivity. Some of that still remains as exemplified by Mauricia Grant's 2008, $225M lawsuit claiming discrimination and harassment. NASCAR continues however to push forward, seemingly whole-heartedly and genuinely, to integrate the sport. NASCAR's Drive for Diversity programs helps to fund and promote potential stars in the world of stock car who make up a minority in the world of racing, usually African-Americans and women.
The financial ramifications are tremendous as well. With the current recession still hampering the American pocketbook discretionary spending is down. NASCAR weekends can be an expensive endeavor: ticket prices can run into the hundreds of dollars for a seat, parking, hotel or lodging, food, fuel, and the potential for lost income from taking a couple of days off from work. Many tracks are reporting significant dips in attendance which hurts not just the tracks but sponsors and the communities surrounding the track, some of which exist solely due to the venue. By expanding into the African-American market NASCAR would be opening a potentially significantly large revenue stream that is sorely needed in NASCAR. With the sport moving into the mainstream and out of the backwoods there is no better time or opportunity.
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