“NASCAR Drive For Diversity Initiative Building Off Historic Season”
NASCAR Drive for Diversity
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 26, 2012) — NASCAR and Rev Racing announced today the six drivers that will compete for Rev Racing in the 2012 season. The announcement was made during the preseason NASCAR Sprint Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway stop at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, where the drivers were introduced.
Rev Racing, formerly known as Revolution Racing, operates under the ownership of Max Siegel and will field four teams in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series and two teams in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series.
“We have a great lineup of drivers,” said Siegel, owner and CEO, Max Siegel, Inc. “They offer an outstanding mixture of skill, experience and talent. Together with our championship winning crew chiefs and leadership, we are extremely excited about what the 2012 season has in store.”
The team is coming off the most successful season in the history of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity, which is entering its ninth season as NASCAR’s leading on-track initiative. Rev Racing collected six wins in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and had three drivers finish in the top 10 in series points last year.
The drivers (Twitter handle in parentheses) who will compete for Rev Racing in 2012 include:
Jorge Arteaga (@JorgeArteaga46) – Arteaga, 25, from Aguascalientes, Mexico, will run his first full season in NASCAR K&N Pro Series. He competed in NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Models for Rev Racing last season, and also drove in the NASCAR Mexico Series, where he was voted Most Popular Driver by the fans.
Mackenna Bell (@MackenaBell) – Bell, 21, from Carson City, Nev., will be in her third year with Rev Racing having competed in both the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series and NASCAR K&N Pro Series. This will be her second full-time season in Late Models.
Trey Gibson (@TGibsonRacing) – The 19-year-old from Easley, S.C., will enter his second season driving a Late Model with the team after finishing seventh in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series South Carolina standings last year.
Ryan Gifford (@RyanGifford2) – The 22-year-old driver from Winchester, Tenn., will return to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East for his third full-time season in the series. He became the first African-American in series history to win a pole award in 2010 and has finished in the top 10 in the standings in each of his two seasons with Rev Racing.
Kyle Larson (@KyleLarsonRacin) – The 19-year-old open-wheel standout from Elk Grove, Calif., will move into the NASCAR K&N Pro Series ranks after he became the first driver to win a World of Outlaws race and score victories in all three USAC divisions in the same season last year.
Bryan Ortiz (@BryanORacing) – The Bayamon, Puerto Rico native will move up to NASCAR K&N Pro Series from Late Models in his second season with Rev Racing. The 22-year-old has a strong road-racing background and will also compete in select events in the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.
The Twitter hashtag for Thursday’s announcement and throughout the season is #D4D2012.
“The NASCAR Drive for Diversity initiative achieved unprecedented success in 2011 on the race track, and created momentum for driver advancement to opportunities beyond the program,” said Marcus Jadotte, NASCAR vice president of public affairs and multicultural development. “In 2012, our partnership with Rev Racing will continue to deliver best in class driver development opportunities to the outstanding group of drivers announced today.”
The four NASCAR K&N Pro Series drivers will compete in the East, which opens its season at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 17. Bell and Gibson will compete in the Late Model division at multiple NASCAR Whelen All-American Series tracks in the southeast.
The year-long NASCAR Drive for Diversity consists of three training and development components: classroom, physical fitness and racing. Additionally, an interactive fan engagement asset travels throughout the country to educational institutions and racing venues as part of the Fueling Dreams Tour, which uses a combination of iRacing simulators, show cars, deejays, driver meet/greets and career panels.
The Rev Racing team drivers were chosen after they competed in the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Combine last fall. This driver assessment event brought selected drivers together to demonstrate their abilities in a head-to-head evaluation session both on and off the track.
Toyota, Sprint and Goodyear are the primary partners supporting Rev Racing and NASCAR Drive for Diversity.
Complete information on the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and NASCAR Whelen All-American Series is available at NASCARHomeTracks.com or by following @NASCARHomeTrack (hashtags: #KNEast & #NWAAS); Rev Racing’s official website and Twitter is RevRacing.net and @RevRacin; information on the NASCAR Drive for Diversity can be found at NASCARDiversity.com or on Twitter @NASCARDiversity.
- NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications Press Release
