page_title: Drive for Diversity
section_title: Graduates
hierarchical_section_title: Drive for Diversity / Impact on NASCAR / Graduates
caption_attribution_description: NASCAR driver w:Kyle Larson at the 2013 Johnsonville Sausage 200 Nationwide Series race at Road America. This file was uploaded with Commonist.
context_page_description: The Drive for Diversity program is a development system instituted by the American auto racing league NASCAR. The program's purpose is to attract minority and female individuals to the sport, primarily as drivers, but also including ownership, sponsorship, and crew member roles, and to attract a more diverse audience to the sport. Before an applicant is accepted into the program, their resumes are checked by NASCAR officials. The system is similar to a driver development program where applicants progress through minor-league and regional racing levels to prepare them for a possible shot at one of NASCAR's three national series. The program was started during the 2004 season by NASCAR marketing executives in order to attract minority fans and drivers to the historically white and male-dominated sport. The year before, Joe Gibbs Racing, along with former athletes Reggie White and Magic Johnson, had started a similar program.
context_section_description: The most successful driver to go through the program is arguably Kyle Larson, a 2012 graduate who is considered one of the most talented young drivers in the sport. Former Cup champion Dale Jarrett compared Larson's talents to 4-time champion Jeff Gordon, and Gordon himself has taken interest in the young driver. After signing a development deal with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2012, Larson won Rookie of the Year in 2013 in the Nationwide Series for Turner Scott Motorsports, and scored his first victory in the series in 2014. He moved up to Ganassi's No. 42 Sprint Cup Series car for 2014, winning the Rookie of the Year award, and earning his first win in 2016.
  Darrell Wallace, Jr., a biracial driver of African American heritage, has also found success. Wallace Jr. had three top 10s in four starts for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Nationwide Series in 2012, then moved to the Camping World Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2013. Wallace won in the Truck Series at Martinsville Speedway in his rookie season (only the second black driver after Wendell Scott to win in one of NASCAR's top three divisions). Wallace picked up four more wins in 2014 including one at the famous Eldora Speedway dirt track. Wallace signed to drive in the Xfinity Series for Roush Fenway Racing in 2015. Wallace signed with Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series team Richard Petty Motorsports in 2018. Wallace's career has been hampered at the national level by a lack of consistent corporate sponsorship.
  Another JGR driver, Mexican-born Daniel Suárez, a winner in the K&N Pro Series East and NASCAR Toyota Series, was signed to a full-time Xfinity Series ride for the 2015 season, becoming the first full-time driver of Latino descent to run the full season in the series. Suárez won his first Xfinity Series race at Michigan in 2016, becoming the first Mexican-born driver to win in the series. Suárez went on to win the 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship, becoming the first foreign-born driver to win a NASCAR national series championship. Suárez moved to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series with JGR in 2017. and moved to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2019.
  Other drivers from the program, however, have had their careers stall out after "graduating" from the program. This includes Paulie Harraka, who scored the program's first three wins, and Marc Davis who left Joe Gibbs Racing after they could not find sponsorship for him in the Nationwide Series.
caption: Kyle Larson in the Nationwide Series in 2013.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2013:06:24 21:59:33", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "192", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9090", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7112", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1600", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Action", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:06:22 15:46:37", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:06:22 15:46:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "85/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "300", "EXIF SubSecTime": "44", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "44", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "44", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1552", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1452", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "8966", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "324000/73", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2592000/583", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}