{"id":30866,"date":"2016-10-03T13:18:06","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T20:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=30866"},"modified":"2016-10-03T13:18:06","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T20:18:06","slug":"nascar-drive-for-diversity-program-opening-nascar-to-new-faces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/nascar-drive-for-diversity-program-opening-nascar-to-new-faces\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Drive for Diversity Program Opening NASCAR to New Faces"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"NASCAR
Images courtesy NASCAR Drive for Diversity and NASCAR Hometracks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

New drivers show up in the ranks of NASCAR national series drivers every year. Both the XFINITY and Camping World Series both have a number of new faces this year. Some of these new drivers have come to these series by way of NASCAR\u2019s Drive for Diversity Program (D4D).<\/p>\n

A couple years ago, Kyle Busch signed a new driver for his Camping World Series truck team. This new driver was Daniel Su\u00e1rez from Monterrey, Mexico. Su\u00e1rez got his start with NASCAR driving in the NASCAR Mexico Toyota Series, in Mexico. He now drives full-time for JGR in the number 19 Toyota Camry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
Mexican D4D alumnus driver Daniel Su\u00e1rez is having a great year.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

This year, at Mid-Ohio, NASCAR fans saw the first Israeli to drive in one of the sport\u2019s major series, this time in the XFINITY Series. This new driver is Tel Aviv, Israel native Alon Day. Day is currently driving part-time for MBM Motorsports in the numbers 40 and 13 Dodge Challengers. Day is also the first Israeli to drive in the IndyCar Series. He got his start in big-time racing competing in various racing series in Europe.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"NASCAR<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Each year, NASCAR picks a number of the most promising young drivers and gives them a chance to win a spot on either a NASCAR K&N Pro Series East team or a NASCAR Whelen All-American Series team for one year. There are a total of 17 drivers from all over North and South America competing for these spots, 13 of whom are young women.<\/p>\n

The youngest of these 17 is Macy Causey of Yorktown, Va. Causey was the youngest driver ever to compete for a spot last year at the ripe old age of 14. Two other notable young drivers who are competing are 15 year old Hailie Deegan of Temecula, Calif. and 19 year old Hope Hornish, of Defiance, OH. Deegan is the daughter of freestyle motorcycle great Brian Deegan, while Hope\u2019s dad is Sam Hornish, Jr.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
One way driving skills are tested\/evaluated is through the use of high-tech driving simulators. Here we see a few of the competitors from last year trying their hand on the simulators.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

How does the Drive for Diversity work? Well, these 17 drivers will compete against each other over a three-day period at Florida\u2019s New Smyrna Speedway between Oct. 10 and 12. Participants will have their driving skills evaluated. Since driving in NASCAR is a highly physical activity, they will also undergo extensive physical fitness testing. Finally, they will participate in additional training provided by Bethune-Cookman University.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
Kyle Larson, driving the Chip Ganassi number 42, may be the most high-profile D4D alumnus as he garnered his first Cup Series win at Michigan this year and made it through the Elimination Round of the Cup Chase.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are currently a number of NASCAR Drive for Diversity graduates competing in the three national series. In the XFINITY Series, Su\u00e1rez and Darrell Wallace, Jr. are both in the inaugural NASCAR XFINITY Chase. Cup Series driver Kyle Larson is in the Sprint Cup Chase. Wallace drives for motorsports legend Jack Roush and Roush-Fenway Racing, while Larson is on Chip Gannassi\u2019s Gannasi Racing team.<\/p>\n

Current NASCAR Drive for Diversity drivers are proving the worth of the program. In the NASCAR K&N East and NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, they\u2019ve garnered four top fives and 13 top tens combined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New drivers show up in the ranks of NASCAR national series drivers every year. Some of these new drivers have come to these series by way of NASCAR\u2019s Drive for Diversity Program (D4D).<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":30875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3424,3470],"tags":[4490,3105,3108,4904,4903,683,4902,1074,127,4607,41,1632,19],"class_list":["post-30866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-nascar","category-news","tag-alon-day","tag-daniel-suarez","tag-darrell-wallace-jr","tag-hailie-deegan","tag-hope-hornish","tag-kyle-larson","tag-macy-causey","tag-mike-aguilar","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-drive-for-diversity","tag-news","tag-racing","tag-young-racers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/lead.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-81Q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30878,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30866\/revisions\/30878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}