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Siegel the Right Pick, But It Will Take Support for Him to Succeed

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David Poole, That’s Racing, January 15, 2009

NASCAR hit a ringing double on Wednesday, making a deal that puts Max Siegel in charge of managing the Drive for Diversity program.

In hiring Siegel, stock-car racing’s leadership took a big step toward bringing a level of credibility to its diversity initiative. {snip}

Siegel left Dale Earnhardt Inc., where he was president of global operations, to go back to Baker & Daniels, an Indianapolis legal firm where he’d worked from 1992 through 1994. That firm, with Siegel leading the effort, will take over management of the Drive for Diversity program.

{snip}

I’ve said it before and I still believe that NASCAR needs to put a lot money behind the whole function of driver development, and diversity is a big piece of that process. Developing drivers of all colors and genders is an investment in this sport’s future, and especially in these tough times NASCAR needs to put its money where its future is.

NASCAR officials will tell you that they don’t think it’s proper for the sanctioning body to pick out drivers to support financially over others. But that’s the whole reason the Drive for Diversity program was set up to be run by an outside agency like Access Marketing and now Baker & Daniels in the first place. NASCAR supports the program and then the program picks the drivers and administers the financial support.

{snip}

I think 5 percent of every deal NASCAR has or makes with an “official” sponsor should be earmarked for driver development. If it costs a company $2 million a year to be the “official” tofu of NASCAR, then $100,000 of that should go toward driver development.

That sounds like a pittance, but the 5 percent rule should apply to every deal NASCAR makes—including the title sponsorship deal with Sprint and the television contract. Sprint’s deal is supposedly right at $70 million a year. That’s $3.5 million for development. The television contract averages about $500 million a year. That’s $25 million. (All of that shouldn’t come out of NASCAR’s share of the TV money—the 2 percent should come off first before the drivers and owners (through race purses) and the tracks get their share. Everybody should be contributing to this.)

According to a list on NASCAR.com, there are about 50 “official” sponsorship deals in place. At $100,000 a pop (and that’s just a wild guess), that’s another $5 million for development. So we’re at $33.5 million. Even if that’s 10 percent off, we’re still looking at $30 million a year that could be used to help develop young drivers.

{snip}

Original article

Email David Poole at dpoole@charlotteobserver.com.

(Posted on January 15, 2009)

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Comments

1 — sbuffalonative wrote at 6:02 PM on January 15:


“NASCAR officials will tell you that they don’t think it’s proper for the sanctioning body to pick out drivers to support financially over others.”

Let them fund and sponsor anyone they believe has a chance to beat the white man at his own sport.

Regardless of who they sponsor and how much they spend, at some point the rubber meets the road. Despite backing, a driver of any gender or ‘social construct’ has to be capable of competing with the big boys.

If they search long and hard enough in a large pool, I’m sure they’ll find one non-white who will hold their own. The questions as always are how large a pool and how many can cut it and at what capital investment?

These people would spend the wealth of the world just to find one non-white so they can prove that any non-white can beat a white man.

An aberration doesn’t prove anything other than if you search large enough of a pool, you’ll find an exception.

2 — Obscuratus wrote at 6:11 PM on January 15:

Damien Walker, I await your thoughts on diversity (and the lack thereof) in the “meritocratic, efficient business model” of NASCAR racing.

3 — Fletcher wrote at 6:19 PM on January 15:

The mainstream media and other guardians of PC orthodoxy simply despise any institution that remains a bastion for white males. The only answer is to “diversify” it, or, if that fails, vilify it.

4 — Anonymous wrote at 6:57 PM on January 15:

The whole point of going to a stock car race is to relax among your fellow Whites. Siegel and his kind are out to destroy NASCAR, just like they destroyed country music.

5 — Anonymous wrote at 6:59 PM on January 15:

OK Mr. Euro-NASCAR fan, here is your big chance to kick Diversity where it will be felt. Stay away from all NASCAR events and products, until NASCAR stays away from Diversity.

6 — Ron wrote at 7:14 PM on January 15:

Maybe when I see organizations dedicated to bringing whites into basketball and football, I will not feel so irritated over these kinds of groups. But right now I see sports dominated by black players and yet still hear constantly how there are not enough blacks in sports. Sorry but this just seals my resolve not to watch Nascar.

7 — Ranger wrote at 8:10 PM on January 15:

“I’ve said it before and I still believe that NASCAR needs to put a lot money behind the whole function of driver development, and diversity is a big piece of that process.”

NASCAR is just now beginning to see smaller crowds, because people have far less money for discretionary spending than they did last year and projections are for a substantial drop throughout the next two years at least.

If they go through with this diversity ridiculousness, I’m looking to see them hurting for money, and I’d really like to see them collapse altogether.

The housing market was repaid for their diversity program by causing a world wide financial disaster. If NASCAR suffers the same fate, I’m wondering if anybody in the corporatre world will begin to catch on that forcing a situation instead of allowing it to develop naturally is a recipe for disaster?

8 — Cynical over this one wrote at 8:23 PM on January 15:

He’ll probably do the same things that Gary Bettman has done over in the NHL, and every one of his “programs” designed to increase diversity seems to actually be designed to destroy the sport because it’s too white.

9 — GenX in Oz wrote at 8:46 PM on January 15:

The organisers should make the white drivers fill their cars with lead bricks.
That will ensure results that will make everyone ‘feel good’.

And they’ll also need to put on extra mandatory sexual harassment training sessions to discourage the white males prevalent in NASCAR, to stop flashing their genitals at the black female co-workers as was historically proven.

http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2008/12/nascar_settles.php

10 — Terese wrote at 9:01 PM on January 15:

My understanding of Nascar is that it is primarily a white male bastion. And what’s the matter with that? Can’t they have something to call their own?

Live theatre (plays, musicals, opera, ballet) generally caters to an all-white audience. And it’s not because of the price. In my city, which has a lot of live theatre, there are always free and low-priced alternatives. That’s when you see the white college students, not the non-whites. It simply isn’t their cup of tea, even if the cast is predominantly black, such as the last time I saw Raisin in the Sun, Porgy and Bess, and the Wiz.

Where there is no solution, there is no problem.

11 — BonBon wrote at 9:45 PM on January 15:

“…These people would spend the wealth of the world just to find one non-white so they can prove that any non-white can beat a white man….”

Reminds me of Stephen Hawking scouring the African veldt in his motorized wheel chair looking for the next African Einstein.

Stated M. Hawking:

“…’The world of science needs Africa’s brilliant talents and I look forward to meeting prospective young Einsteins from Africa!’…”

http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2008/05/stephen_hawking.php

Wonder if he’s had any luck.

Bon

12 — Anonymous wrote at 10:14 PM on January 15:

“Developing drivers of all colors and genders is an investment in this sport’s future…”

Recall last week, the leader of the Boy Scouts insisted that Hispanics are the future of the Boy Scouts of America.

Now, this…

Friends, the same thing will continue to happen until Whites pull the plug on financing our own destruction and close our wallets to organizations like the Boy Scouts and NASCAR.

13 — flyingtiger wrote at 12:25 AM on January 16:

The most basic skill in NASCAR is to drive a car about 200 MPH for at least a lap without crashing. If you vcannot do that, no amount of diversity programs can help you.

14 — Soprano Fan wrote at 2:37 AM on January 16:

This guy wants every deal a sponsor makes with NASCAR to include 5% to go to (minority) “driver development”. That sounds nothing more than another LBJ Great Society “War on Poverty” subsidy.

I’ve posted at other times on this issue, that driver development and recruiting in motorsports is absolutely nothing like the recruiting for the stick and ball sports. There are no high school or college auto racing teams, to begin with. NASCAR is not going to sends dozens of scouts in the inner city ghettos, like they do in football, baseball, basketball and boxing. No juvenile Bantu with a criminal record is going to be hired by NASCAR, especially if it involves drug possession or felonies.

It takes a lot of money at the grass-roots level for a driver to develop, even racing go-karts or midgets. For example, that’s why Jeff Gordon’s parents moved from California to Indiana - Jeff could continue his development at a lower cost. A ghetto youth who lives with his mother and seven siblings is not going to have the money to get into motorsports, to begin with. They don’t have auto racing scholarships, like I said before.

Even if they find a black with deep pockets like Bill Cosby (who sponsored Willy T. Ribbs in open-wheel racing a few years ago), there’s no guarantee of success. If blacks see they haver to spend so much money out-of-pocket, they’ll balk at continuing to do so.

The 5% of every deal, is nothing more than involuntary taxation - throwing good money after bad - whether the sponsor wants to or not. If you were the CEO of a Fortune 500 company looking to make a $ 500,000 sponsorship deal with Hendrick Motorsports, would you want $ 25,000 to go to NASCAR trying to find a “black hope”, especially if it was a Lumumba Sobukwe Washington from Bedford-Stuyvesant, who has a criminal record, and is a 10th grade dropout? I wouldn’t think so.

In fact, I think NASCAR should completely eliminate it useless “Drive For Diversity’ program, thereby saving millions of dollars. It isn’t going to increase the percentage of Bantu fans anyway, no matter what they do. NASCAR howls about how it should be cost-cutting, so DFD is a logical choice.

Remember, there are only 43 spots on any given Saturday or Sunday race. If Bantus are so eager to get into motorsports, then why TF don’t they develop their own series? They could call it LASCAR - the Liberian Association of Stock Car Auto Racing.

15 — David K wrote at 4:30 AM on January 16:

Steve Saylor said it best: NASCAR is an ethnic pride festival for people who aren’t allowed to have ethnic pride festivals.

Despite the boos you hear at the races, Juan Pablo Montoya is an example of how diversity could actually work. I have never seen an interview with JP in Spanish. He is a tolerated presence in NASCAR mostly because he is a proven quantity and he personally does not make a big stink about being Hispanic, though the “diversity” folks - including some in NASCAR - like to constantly harp on it. Not to use an old cliche… but he knows his place.

I think there can be plenty of room for minority and women drivers in NASCAR, as long as they acknowledge that it is a WHITE sport and act accordingly. There is no room in NASCAR, however, for politicizing race… any driver that attempted to do so would be booed off the track, not to mention that any company stupid enough to sponsor them would face a huge hit. It is not smart in the USA to be a anti-white company.

All that said, I am completely distrustful of all of the “diversity” programs in sports, which are designed solely to punish white athletes. All of these people need to answer the question - publicly - “what is so wrong about a sport (or any cultural institution) dominated by white people?” Because that is the real problem, isn’t it?

16 — Gay Conservative wrote at 9:12 AM on January 16:

Where are the diversity programs for basketball?

17 — Yorkshireman wrote at 9:36 AM on January 16:

They couldn’t possibly win, what with regular stops to sell drugs and cappin’ black spectators who give the wrong gang signs. Should be fun watching the african mechanics working at their best possible speed to fix things, always assuming they can agree on whose turn it is to wake up and do stuff. How many on each black team would have to be mexican to pad out the requisite numbers?

18 — Anonymous wrote at 10:07 AM on January 16:

Is there ONE THING on this planet that can remain white and male without having white guilt or snobbery elitism to it? It’d be nice to find something that consisted of regular, hard-working white guys that were pro-american, weren’t intimidated/brainwashed with multiculturalism and were like our grandfathers, great-grandfathers, etc were.

19 — Anonymous wrote at 11:05 AM on January 16:

“Maybe when I see organizations dedicated to bringing whites into basketball and football, I will not feel so irritated over these kinds of groups.”

No one is stopping you from starting one. Get off the sidelines if this bothers you, you are a white man, creator of society!

20 — Anonymous wrote at 12:06 PM on January 16:

this is another embarassing bit of whites doing for blacks what they cannot ever do for themselves; what will they do when whites become extinct?

21 — EyesWithVoice wrote at 1:36 PM on January 16:

The truth is we are in a very tough position. It took time and effort to develope nascar into what it is today. If we keep supporting it, the outcome will be like everything else has become, another chapter in the multicultural nightmare. If we do not support nascar, we again lose another staple of American idendity.
Our only hope of allowing any American institution, organization or tradition to survive is to withdraw and regroup.
I would rather be one of 30 million Americans living in harmony than be a White man in an endless sea of dark aggression.

22 — Anonymous wrote at 3:21 PM on January 16:

“what will they do when whites become extinct”?

Rejoice! It’s all about attitude. They are being prepared for that now.

23 — Whiteplight wrote at 8:32 PM on January 16:

Fencing, a traditional, European sport is dominated by Whites, even though all races have national teams at the Olympics. The United States Fencing Association now has a committe for developing “minority” participation. Of course for years, the organization itself has been dominated by women. I think the basic thing is that people worry that if they don’t show some non-white faces here and there, they will eventually be accused of racism within the sport. That can destroy all support for a sport in the most practical senses. As one poster said, if they can’t integrate it, they destroy it.

There have been suggestions in the past that the Winter Olympics be eliminated altogether because they focus on European winter sports and are therefore culturally biased.

EyesWithVoice is coming near it. It may be that Whites will have to assert its own beauty and sports pageants, it own scholarships and institutions. The way may be to invent a new religion only for Whites or prone to White participation like the Amish communities or the FLDS. But there would have to be a big shakeup for that to actually occur.

24 — GetBackJack wrote at 9:52 PM on January 16:

Whites are more interested in which teams will be competing in the Super Bowl, than they are in their ongoing dispossession. So, no, even NASCAR fans will not get my sympathy. There is a part of me looking forward to the Big Bang not too far ahead.

25 — David K wrote at 5:58 AM on January 17:

If NASCAR really wants to do the diversity thing, they have to do it the way the NHRA has. The NHRA has two black drivers in top fuel - Antron Brown and JR Todd - but listening to them talk you’d never know they were black. They are both big on America, the army, family, and are perhaps the two most non-ghetto blacks you’ll ever see on TV!

There are a lot of women drivers in NHRA, who are popular mostly because they WIN.

NASCAR has not had a competitive female driver since the 50’s, but I think it’s only a matter of time before a female driver joins one of the major series and is not just eye candy. That driver will, of course, be white.

As for blacks, I just don’t see it happening. I don’t see the teams or the fans rallying around a black driver, especially if they’re just there for “diversity” points. The media will, of course, make a big stink out of it, how we’re “turning a corner” on NASCAR’s “racist past,” but it won’t work. The only way a black driver will succeed in NASCAR is to look, act, and talk white. He will have to be a family man (with a BLACK wife!), and a flag-waving America-firster who would punch Rev. Wright in the face if he saw him on the street!

26 — Michael C. Scott wrote at 5:41 PM on January 17:

Curiously, white drivers don’t seem to need this extra “support” that Siegel advocates extorting from drivers and owners. Does Formula One feel the need to do this, or is this mental illness a peculiarly NASCAR thing?


27 — Soprano Fan wrote at 2:36 AM on January 18:

To Michael C. Scott:

I believe this is a peculiar NASCAR “thing”, Michael:

A few years ago, the CEO of NASCAR, Brian France claimed that NASCAR would “make everyone in America, fans of NASCAR”. Sounds kinda Stalinist to say something like that. Anytime you say something like that, somebody else is sure to bring up the subject of blacks in NASCAR. He should have kept his mouth shut, instead.

In 2006, Kasey Kahne won the spring race at Atlanta. To the contrary, the media kept hyping the fact that Bill Lester, a mediocre driver in its truck series, finished the race down in 20th place, I believe. Lester is black. At its awards banquet in New York later that year, NASCAR actually nominated Lester qualifying at that Atlanta race as “one of its top five highlights” of the year.

You may recall, a few years ago, NASCAR paid Jessie Jackson some $ 600,000 in “hush money’, after he threatened to boycott NASCAR for “lack of minority representation and opportunities”. They were besieged with angry e-mails on the NASCAR website, by bitter fans, for doing so.

Formula One has one British-born black in it - Lewis Hamilton - who won the title under what I consider suspect circumstances. He’s there because he’s the favorite pet of McLaren team boss Ron Dennis, who has wetnursed Hamilton since he was a teenager. It is absolutely sickening to hear how the F1 announcers Bob Varsha and (especially) David Hobbs gush all over Hamilton, like teen girls used to do over Shaun Cassidy years ago.

In Formula One, you need more money and support to start a team, than in NASCAR. A driver in F1 has a short learning curve to show results and to prove he belongs. So, if a black driver from South Africa- let’s call him Sobukwe Luthuli - crashes in his first five races in F1, he won’t be around very long.

28 — Billy wrote at 7:28 PM on January 18:

Can anyone verify that earnheart jr,when asked in a interview who was the greatest American past or present his answer was Martin Luther King? Our family used to be big fans of nascar,never missing a race and even making long drives to attend but no more after this. I will also let nascar know they just lost some costomers already.

29 — SKIP wrote at 4:03 AM on January 26:

I guess NASCAR didn’t learn their lesson after paying the black female those few million dollars huh!! I personally have no use for NASCAR and even less now.


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