DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 1, 2009) – Thir­teen stu­dents from across the United States have been selected to par­tic­i­pate in the 2009 NASCAR Diver­sity Intern­ship Pro­gram that starts today and gives minor­ity col­lege stu­dents the oppor­tu­nity to com­plete 10-week, paid sum­mer intern­ships within the NASCAR industry.

More than 200 stu­dents have par­tic­i­pated in the pro­gram since its incep­tion in 2000. These interns have gained expe­ri­ence work­ing in mar­ket­ing, engi­neer­ing, pub­lic rela­tions, licens­ing and var­i­ous other areas. Par­tic­i­pa­tion in the pro­gram has led to full-time posi­tions in the indus­try for a num­ber of past interns.

“The NASCAR Diver­sity Intern­ship Pro­gram has intro­duced dozens of stu­dents from diverse back­grounds to pro­fes­sional oppor­tu­ni­ties in NASCAR,” said Mar­cus Jadotte, NASCAR’s man­ag­ing direc­tor of pub­lic affairs, who over­sees the diver­sity depart­ment. “The pro­gram has played an impor­tant role in NASCAR’s efforts to attract the best and bright­est to our industry.”

The pro­gram fea­tures intern­ships offered by NASCAR offices, spon­sors, licensees, teams, tracks and broad­cast part­ners. In addi­tion to NASCAR cor­po­rate offices in Day­tona Beach, Char­lotte, and Con­cord, the fol­low­ing com­pa­nies are par­tic­i­pat­ing in 2009: Cat­a­lyst Pub­lic Rela­tions, Day­tona Inter­na­tional Speed­way, Inter­na­tional Speed­way Cor­po­ra­tion (ISC), Joe Gibbs Rac­ing, Just Mar­ket­ing Inter­na­tional, Octa­gon, The SPEED Chan­nel, and The 909 Group.

The cur­rent intern class began their NASCAR expe­ri­ence with an ori­en­ta­tion ses­sion dur­ing the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race week­end at Lowe’s Motor Speed­way in Con­cord, N.C. The group vis­ited the NASCAR Research and Devel­op­ment Cen­ter in Con­cord, the Sam Bass NASCAR Art Gallery, Roush Fen­way Rac­ing head­quar­ters, attended the NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Chal­lenge pre­sented by Crafts­man, and the NASCAR Camp­ing World Truck Series race. In addi­tion, the group met with a num­ber of key peo­ple in the NASCAR indus­try includ­ing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series crew mem­bers, dri­vers, and NASCAR executives.

Each year, the intern­ships are avail­able to col­lege sopho­mores, juniors, seniors and grad­u­ate stu­dents across the coun­try. To be eli­gi­ble, stu­dents must be in good stand­ing with their school and com­mu­nity and have a min­i­mum 3.0 grade-point average.

In addi­tion to the intern­ship pro­gram, NASCAR awards diver­sity schol­ar­ships in trib­ute to NASCAR leg­end Wen­dell Scott, has an at-track diver­sity men­tor­ship pro­gram and a col­lege tour that vis­its his­tor­i­cally black col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties and Hispanic-serving institutions.

Attached is a list of the stu­dents and their col­leges. More infor­ma­tion on the intern­ship pro­gram is avail­able at www.diversityinternships.com.