WPLN News Archive; Willie T Ribbs (Scott H) 2 13 01; News Archive 2/13/01-3/7/01

a couple weeks ago flew a bobby hamilton racing near nashville spent an average afternoon standing pounding and adjusting their nascar racetracks like every other team preparing for this year's first race the daytona five hundred new revenue stream building bring you a stressful for a new driver but their comments show that there's something special about this thing have driver you know i'm sure the meteors and put more stipulation on their visas we weren't the letter said or all function on in our homeland we don't care it was a forbidden from him not more lessen demand on this factory and it was a big government for him whether he was black want no race driver willie p ribs is not purple but he is black and in nascar racing a sport so white it makes hockey look multicultural purple might've been less startling wait for a while that's ray

richard the program manager for nascar truck operations at dutch motor sports and he's explaining why died after discussions with nascar the sanctioning body of the explosive with popular stock car racing circuit decided to sponsor a new race team with the specific goal of having an african american driver this will make ribs the first ever black driver to compete fully sponsored on one of nascar's top levels we thought that the best way to push a program was to enter it with a role model driver and that was a high profile very visible so many other teams have failed in the past approaching the diversity issue with a minority owner julie's irving's bush series team for example has struggled badly more important in a sport where hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on sponsorship and advertising every year and where two point four billion dollar television contract has expanded coverage from cable onto weekly broadcast television black team owners are highly visible even jesse jackson's rainbow sports team competing only on the sports lower levels won't have much of a national profile and

that's what nascar wants once a purely southern sport with purely southern fans nascar has recently expanded to tracks in the west and midwest and it is constantly seeking new fans and customers a glance at a white nascar crowd leaves no doubt about one under represented group and no doubt about his motivation says team owner bobby hamilton himself a racer at nascar's when some club level and everybody knows what our studios and is a good deal is coming here for everybody and it's really good for bob reisner is going to be good for what it really is going to get for nascar it's definitely good for a lot of the high profile sponsorship of a black driver in a white sport raises the profile of a dodge that sell the dodge trucks and helps nascar sell everything else to new fans black and white still deitch is also funding a scholarship program for black students to motor sports training schools so dismissal of its motives as purely mercenary may be cynical ribs a forty two year old driver who was the first african american to start the indianapolis five hundred has been successful in many racing circuit but nascar

has had only the very occasional black driver so ribs pays respect to dodge is groundbreaking choices diane reporters done i've gotta be applauded by the american public and they are making a great statement and great well branding ricky beaird we're all american robert l peter bradford instead looking backwards at what this opportunity didn't come until he was forty two he just plans to turn this new attitude to his advantage of it you can be a part of empowering and i are a bit annoyed that's the direction we would've been tough being competitive and everywhere and trying to be that kind of but the numbers on the board so will rigsby nascar's jackie robinson nascar's tiger woods

at the moment he's hoping just to be nascar's willy t ribs and on that he's in complete accord with his crew chief james cox or knees buckle electro that the helmet on specialists for fly zone when he cares who can tell he's a competitor as for nascar's legendary rowdy fans their input starts today qualifying lapse for the daytona to fifty begin this morning for national public radio