Full Throttle

Rick Clark and Boris Said have announced a merger between Rick Clark Motorsports (RCM) and No Fear Racing for the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup campaign. The new organization will run with majority minority ownership with Said at the wheel of the #60 entry for 12-18 events during 2009.

One is tempted to equate this to the age old question, “if a tree falls in the forest will anyone hear it.”

But there’s more here than a talented journeyman driver with ten starts over ten years and a fledgling car owner who first came on the scene in late fall 2007 with the announcement he was putting together a NASCAR program for the 2008 season.

Those initial plans never materialized mostly due to funding. Until now, and this merger.

What makes this merger more significant than the proverbial falling tree is Rick Clark’s background.

As an African American he joins Randy Moss and Brad Daugherty as the only minority owned teams in the sport.

Although RCM has not made a big on track splash Clark’s mobile marketing program that targets anything from shopping malls to inner city schools, educating the uninformed about the possibilities within motorsports in general and NASCAR in particular has been very active.

Reportedly RCM are in negotiations with an A-List movie star to headline an animated movie about stock car racing, one Clark claims is Cars-like in nature but with an underlying message of progress.

RCM also plans to create a platform from which other marketing programs will be launched to increase inclusion in the industry.

“We have several verticals that all work together to create a comprehensive program,” said Clark. “Those verticals will not only work to encourage minorities to attend races, but to make NASCAR part of the various minority cultures to create a feeling of ownership in the sport among those groups.

“We have an urban-wear clothing line in the works called Krewe Wear with the tag line ‘Who’s in your Krewe?’ The clothing line is one of several reasons why No Fear is such a good fit for us, as they are an established brand among 18 to 24- year-olds with a global distribution network.”

Some had feared the recently settled racial discrimination lawsuit would set back both NASCAR’s image and it’s diversity program, Clark says the reverse is true.

“I was fearful at first that it may impact some of the investors that we were dealing with,” he said. “But it’s allowed us to see who really wants to come into the sport and make a difference, and is willing to put their money where their mouth is.”

“The sponsors looking to get into the sport seem to be more geared to the multicultural aspects of the sport — because that’s where the demographics are. So everybody is saying that this is an opportunity that may never come again. So they’re excited, and they want to be a part of it. Even for sponsors that are currently in NASCAR, it’s an opportunity to look at their current demographics and see, ‘How can we reach out?’ What can we do?’”

Marcus Jadotte, who oversees NASCAR’s diversity program admits it’s not an easy sell.

“Are there challenges there? Sure,” said Jadotte. “The challenge is to get those opportunities and, ultimately our sport, in front of individuals. But what we’ve found is once we do that, there’s great interest.”

Bringing diversity to NASCAR is a long tough road but with people like Clark, Randy Moss and Brad Daugherty, in addition to drivers Marc Davis and Aric Almirola, progress is starting to show.

NOTE for you Said Heads: Here is a Boris Said interview and in keeping with his devil may care attitude it’s conducted via phone while Said was teeing it up on the golf course Monday.