Feb 26, 2018 2 min read

This isn’t your father’s NASCAR.

In fact, most fans wouldn’t recognize the racing series after so many changes in recent years.

The death of Dale Earnhardt in the final turn of the 2001 Daytona 500 could have been a shocking blow to motorsports. But what followed over the next decade or so was unprecedented growth in advertising revenue, race attendance and television viewership.

That all has changed. TV ratings are sinking and the money brought in from lucrative sponsorships has dropped significantly. The recent retirements of popular drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards didn’t help.

But there was a glimmer of hope in last weekend’s Daytona 500.

In the 60th running of the “Great American Race,” there was the most diverse field of drivers NASCAR has ever seen.

Drivers on both sides of America’s borders – Mexican native Daniel Suarez and D.J. Kennington of Canada – completed in the race, along with Danica Patrick, NASCAR’s most successful female, who drove a stock car for the final time.

But most impressive was the run by Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr., only the second black driver to race full-time in NASCAR’s top series. Wallace finished second in the race driving Richard Petty’s famed No. 43 car. The rookie was overcome by emotion in the post-race interview, signaling how meaningful the accomplishment was to him and his family.

Stock car racing long has been viewed as a Southern sport, where the Confederate flag once flew proudly at the track.

Those times are changing. This year’s Daytona 500 shows NASCAR is becoming an increasingly diverse sport at a time when it needs as many new fans as possible.