Daytona 500 Cancelled

It would be a trend that began back in the early days of organized drag racing. In some ways, it was like what black entertainers encountered in Las Vegas 50 years ago. The racers had few if any problems participating at the tracks, but finding hotel rooms that would accommodate black people in some of the surrounding areas was a problem.
Black Drag Racing History

It was you that moved at least part of the discussion to drivers and team owners, and that is an area where there is very little diversity.

The NASCAR fan base has become more diverse over the last 10-20 years because the venues are no longer concentrated in the deep south. I think you'd find the racial makeup of the crowd at a Cup event at Chicagoland to more closely resemble that of the country in general than it ever was at Darlington 25 years ago.

Something most NASCAR fans don't know....NASCAR used to be a drag racing sanctioning body. They had 29 sanctioned drag strips back in the mid-1960's. They ran two successful seasons in direct competition with the NHRA and AHRA. Bill France Jr. saw definite potential, and he was behind NASCAR becoming actively involved in the promotion of straight line auto racing. His dad wasn't as confident. When France Sr. was going to semi-retire in 1968, he made the passing the torch to his son contingent on Jr. dropping drag racing from their program. That was a shame. I would really like to see what they would have done had they stayed with it.