The Only Race That Matters

NASCAR Is Working to Cultivate New, and Diverse, Talent. Introducing the Simmons Brothers -- Catch Them if You Can.

Jason Simmons gently massages the exterior of his navy blue racecar with a soft towel, leaving the sharp scent of polish to waft in the air. A few feet away, his brother, Keenan, kneels on the gravel with a lug gun and tightens the bolts on the front tires of his own white-and-orange racecar in a quick succession of pop-pop-pops.

Inside their trailer at Old Dominion Speedway in Manassas, an assembly line of food is set up in aluminum trays. Crew members in baseball caps and T-shirts bide their time before the race in lawn chairs, smoking cigarettes, sipping sodas and referencing old jokes.

"The cars are running good this week," Keenan says with a grin, a red baseball cap yanked backward on his head. "We're all excited to see what happens."

The scene is not that different than that at the rest of the track, other than this detail: Keenan, 20, and Jason, 19 -- as well as their crew -- are black. Only one other driver at the track, which opened in 1952, is a minority.

Outside of their pit, men in cutoff T-shirts and NASCAR hats wander about the grease-speckled infield, some with tattoos of crosses, dragons or Yosemite Sam with pistols raised. Most of the racers at ODS come from Virginia outposts such as Broad Run, Warrenton and Stephens City, but Keenan and Jason make the 3 1/2 hour drive from their neighborhood of red-brick row houses and duplexes in the Mount Airy section of northwest Philadelphia.

"Being out here at the track -- this is what we love to do," said Jason, who, like his brother, races in the Legends division. "This is where we want to be."

"It's cool to have them here," said Roger Austin Jr., a 23-year-old from Nokesville who is one of the top Legends drivers. "Racing traditionally, they say, is a Southern sport. But it's starting to change. You're starting to see more diverse fields."

Cars in the Legends divisions look like vintage automobiles, but are smaller and use a motorcycle engine. Racing in that division at a small track such as Old Dominion, Keenan and Jason are far from their long-term goals of racing on a NASCAR circuit. But they represent a demographic NASCAR is seeking to reach as it tries to broaden its audience.

According to Marcus Jadotte, NASCAR's managing director of public affairs and also its head of diversity efforts, NASCAR has sought to cultivate minority talent through its Drive for Diversity program, which provides racers financial support and an opportunity to compete in a season-long NASCAR-sanctioned series. One product of the program -- 17-year-old Marc Davis, who is from Silver Spring -- recently signed a developmental contract with Joe Gibbs Racing; he competes in the Grand National division, NASCAR's premier developmental series.

Minorities also are targeted through the NASCAR-sponsored Urban Youth Racing School. Keenan and Jason enrolled in the school in Philadelphia in 1999; a second chapter opened last year in the District.

So far, the 10-year-old program has included 1,300 participants, according to founder Anthony Martin. It aims to teach inner-city youths the intricacies of the motorsports industry, and though a marquee driver has yet to emerge from its ranks, graduates have gone on to NASCAR internships and jobs on racing teams, Martin said.

"They're making inroads, but they need to accelerate the pace," said truck series driver Bill Lester, the only black driver currently racing in any of NASCAR's top professional divisions. "We've had the Drive for Diversity program for a number of years now, and haven't really had anyone graduate into NASCAR in any significant way."