senor honda

[h=2]INSIGHT: NFL star tackles NASCAR diversity[/h] Friday, 21 April 2017



By Mark Glendenning / Images courtesy of Shawne Merriman, Jesse Iwuji Racing

Between 2005 and 2007, Shawne Merriman was the stuff of NFL quarterback nightmares. The San Diego Chargers linebacker was a three time All-Pro and Pro Bowl selection during his eight-year career, and his résumé fell just half a sack short of an NFL record for the most sacks in the first three years of a player's career.

Although injury ultimately contributed to his football career being cut short, he has stayed busy ever since walking off the field for the last time as a Buffalo Bill in 2012. TV pundit. Clothing entrepreneur. Budding MMA fighter. And now, NASCAR team owner and diversity advocate.
Merriman has entered into a partnership with NASCAR K&N West racer Jesse Iwuji (pictured) and his Patriot Motorsports Group team; a deal that serves the standard purpose of supporting Iwuji's career and promoting Merriman's "Lights Out" clothing label, but which the duo also plans to use as a platform for encouraging African-Americans to engage with NASCAR.

Iwuji's badass credentials stack up well against Merriman's: in addition to his racing, he played college football (for Navy), and remains an active-duty member of the armed forces – the first to compete in NASCAR. He and Merriman first met at a Lights Out fashion show in Los Angeles.
"I got introduced to Jesse through a mutual friend of ours, [YouTube and Vine personality] Jay Mendoza," Merriman recalls. "Jesse was telling me that he was a former football player, and active in the military. And because I'd been with the Chargers for many years, I had a lot of ties with the military – we used to have our training camps and practices at some of the military bases there; places like Camp Pendleton and Miramar. So I had a lot of ties there.
"And then as the last nugget, he tells me, 'Oh, and by the way, I also drive a NASCAR.' So I was like, 'OK, when were you going to tell me that?'
"So we spent about 20 minutes or 30 minutes talking at the fashion show. And then three weeks later he drove five hours to my office in L.A. from Monterey, and that's when I knew that he was really dedicated and serious about his future, and about our partnership going forward."

Neither Iwuji nor Merriman followed conventional gateways into motorsport. Iwuji was an amateur drag racer and doing track days in his Corvette when he struck up a conversation with a Dodge representative who was running an SRT Experience at a car show. An inquiry by Iwuji on whether he could take the used tires home afterward turned into a conversation about whether he'd ever considered racing a stock car. (He didn't get the tires.)
"He asked me [about stock cars], and I was, 'what?'" Iwuji recalls. "And he says, 'stock car racing – like, NASCAR stuff.' And I said, 'I've never thought about it, but I'm definitely open to it. I want to pursue a professional racing career eventually, and that would be something that could help. So I went and did a test with his team about a month and a half later, it went well, and that was my entry into the sport."
Merriman's introduction to racing was more ceremonial, but nonetheless instructive.
"In 2008 I was invited out to be the grand marshal of the NASCAR race at Fontana," he says. "Back then I'd never been to a race. I'd watched it on TV growing up; I knew who some of the big drivers were, but I didn't really know the sport that well. To me it was just cars going fast in circles; I didn't know anything more about the sport.
"So I was grand marshal, and I've never been so nervous in my life as I was when I had to wave that [green] flag. I've run out to a crowd of 80,000 people, and millions more watching on TV, and yet I was terrified of waving that flag at the start of the race. And that was because of the energy that was there at the start ... it's something that can't be explained, and that's why I try to encourage people to get out there to the track and see what's going on, because the energy level is completely different to when you're watching it on TV."
Many of the barriers that stand in the way of greater minority participation in motorsport are the same as those faced by anybody trying to get in: It requires expensive equipment, it requires access to a racetrack, and it requires money. But it also requires exposure to light the fire that makes someone want to be involved in the first place, and Merriman believes that this is why racing wasn't on his radar when he was younger – and an area where he hopes this new program can make some inroads.
"I come from Prince George's County, Maryland, a little bit outside Washington D.C.," he says. "We grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood, and we just didn't have the knowledge or information we needed to go [to a race] in the first place, let alone having the means to go. It wasn't a possibility for us. We knew what NASCAR was – even in a predominantly black neighborhood, you knew exactly how big NASCAR was because you'd see it on TV. But we had no information to go; it wasn't available to us.
"What I'm hoping to do, and what really makes me excited, is to be able to team up with Jesse and connect some dots. I would say that is the biggest issue – being able to connect the dots for kids in the inner city like where I grew up. How can they get to a racetrack? How can they experience the excitement and know the feeling of being at a track for a NASCAR race? Once that happens, I can almost guarantee you that it's going to change young minority kids' mindset in how they view the sport. It's a totally different experience to anything that they have probably been around."
From Iwuji's standpoint, an equally big hurdle standing in the way of greater minority involvement in racing is relatability.
"One thing I've seen is that for African-Americans – and really any other race that's not typically seen in NASCAR – a big issue, and another reason why they're not paying attention to it and not really trying to be a part of it, is that they don't see people in there who are just like them," he says.
"A 15-year-old, 16-year-old [African-American] can't turn on the TV and start watching NASCAR and see somebody who used to be them, or is just like them, looks like them, can relate to them, comes from where they come from, can understand their culture, and can understand what they're going through. There are barely any people in NASCAR like that.
"So for us coming into the sport, I think we represent different backgrounds and different types of people coming into NASCAR – Shawne coming from where he came from in Maryland; me coming from Dallas, me being Nigerian and my parents being immigrant from Nigeria and having to start from nothing and built themselves up, and now their son has been to the Naval Academy, played football there, was in the military, and also racing in NASCAR – we're bringing in different backgrounds to the sport.
"And I'm seeing it a ton with the fans; people are looking at us and saying, 'Wow, I'm just like you, or I was just like you, and now you're doing this crazy awesome thing, I can support it because I relate to you. I know where you came from; you know where I came from'."
Iwuji is aiming to progress from K&N into NASCAR's national championships and eventually work his way up to Cup, whereupon he hopes to then use his status as a platform to encourage other African-Americans to follow his path – and his K&N team as a vehicle for them to do so.
"My current team is just a K&N team," he says. "K&N, and below. So as I move up ... I wouldn't be running Xfinity with Patriot Motorsports Group. But we'll still have the ties, still have the relationship. The plan is to continue building something bigger for those who are going to come after us.
"If we can get more minorities into the sport, get them in as drivers and things like that, I think we can build that with what we have right now with the team, as I'm still moving up and using my platform to help bring people in, saying, 'Hey, I started here, and I got to the top level. You can start where I was at, and make it happen too'. With Shawne and me putting our heads together, I think it's going to be able to happen."
Merriman, too, sees the program as a long-term effort.
"I'm in it for the long haul, period," he says. "I don't get involved in anything to half-ass it. Jesse has been a great ambassador in the sport, not only for NASCAR, but also for the Lights Out brand. He works. He works his ass off. And that's something I can appreciate, and something I want to see in somebody who is representing my brand and my company.
"This needs a lot of groundwork. It's not going to happen overnight, and it's going to take a lot of energy, a lot of effort and a lot of willpower for Jesse to be able to climb up through these series, and bridge the gap with some of the diversity issues that NASCAR may be having. This is a long, long process, and we don't plan on it being a 180-degree turn overnight.
"And that's why I wanted to get myself and my company involved in Jesse early on – we want to let him know, and let NASCAR know, that we're in it for the long haul. We want to be around."
A broader demographic – whether it be among drivers, team personnel or fans – ultimately translates into a healthier sport. Merriman's declaration that "we want to be around" is a first step in a very long journey. But it will be fascinating to see where it leads.