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For over 20 years, NASCAR has celebrated its Drive for Diversity program. And yet, a major change was recently made that could ruffle feathers.
NASCAR's Drive for Diversity initiative has been quite successful. For starters, Kyle Larson was a graduate of the program. We can't forget about Bubba Wallace and Daniel Suarez. They've both established themselves as quality Cup Series drivers.
That being said, DEI has become a hot topic ever since President Donald Trump took over the White House. He has made it abundantly clear over the past few months that he won't tolerate DEI programs.
"My administration has taken action to abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense," Trump said in February. "These are policies that were absolute nonsense throughout the government and the private sector."
Although we highly doubt Trump's plan was geared towards altering NASCAR's DEI-related program, he'll probably be thrilled about the latest update.
It was reported by Sports Business Journal that NASCAR changed the name of its Driver for Diversity program. It's now being called the Driver Development program.
Even though NASCAR has changed the name of its diversity program, it's not completely ditching its DEI efforts.
From Sports Business Journal's report:
NASCAR still has a section of its website about its diversity efforts, and the Drive for Diversity name remained there as of Tuesday night. Some drivers involved with the program now have Driver Development Program in their social media biographies
Despite the name change, NASCAR has no plans to move away from the Driver Development Program itself, the person familiar with NASCAR’s thinking said
According to Sports Business Journal, this name change has been under consideration for the last couple of years. NASCAR's top decision-makers just finally pulled the trigger.
NASCAR's 2025 season will resume this Saturday with an Xfinity Series race at Rockingham Speedway.
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