@marcusjiles

   N ASCAR was my first sport, my first love. Before I ever witnessed the gladiators on the football field, or the giants on the hardwood through my television screen, too many cars going circles for hours was my shit on Sunday afternoons. The precision of the drivers demanded by each track, the intensity of a close race in the final laps. I was even a fan of qualifying on Friday afternoons – who was the fastest straight up? But as a youngin, I often noticed there was no one that looked like me in the starting field in most of NASCAR’s leagues. The only driver at the time I had any emotional connection to was Jeff Gordon. We were both born in Vallejo, and he’s had the best paint scheme s in the history of motorsports… and paint schemes. Plus he was winning everything in the late 90’s, so it was easy to jump aboard the bandwagon. But how long would I have to wait for a driver that was any type of minority to root for in NASCAR?  NASCAR has long operated in a space that is free