Evidently Jimmy Kimmel likes auto racing.
 
At least the ABC-TV late-night talk-show host publicly has worn the "NHRA Originals" vintage T-shirt the folks at Glendora sent him in 2011, when they launched the classic-logo JEM Sportswear line in Target stores nationwide. Kimmel posted a message on the social-media outlet Twitter that included a picture of him donning the shirt.
 
He's one of the non-automotive media celebrities the NHRA is courting to join it in promoting Top Fuel champion Antron Brown.
 
But the NHRA has discovered even Brown's historic "first African-American to win a major U.S. motorsports championship" feat last November isn't necessarily a strong enough hook to attract attention to the world's quickest, fastest, and arguably most exciting form of racing.

 
Evidently Jimmy Kimmel likes auto racing.
 
At least the ABC-TV late-night talk-show host publicly has worn the "NHRA Originals" vintage T-shirt the folks at Glendora sent him in 2011, when they launched the classic-logo JEM Sportswear line in Target stores nationwide. Kimmel posted a message on the social-media outlet Twitter that included a picture of him donning the shirt.
 
He's one of the non-automotive media celebrities the NHRA is courting to join it in promoting Top Fuel champion Antron Brown.
 
But the NHRA has discovered even Brown's historic "first African-American to win a major U.S. motorsports championship" feat last November isn't necessarily a strong enough hook to attract attention to the world's quickest, fastest, and arguably most exciting form of racing.
 
Some might argue that the NHRA should do more to promote Brown and reach out to an under-tapped potential audience. Those critics might point out that drag racing clearly has trumped an envious NASCAR and the IZOD IndyCar Series in the matter of diversity. The NHRA has settled comfortably into decades of gender and ethnic diversity.
 
And that well could be the challenge of getting extra mileage from Brown's championship. When it comes to diversity, the NHRA just might be too good for its own good.
 
Jerry Archambeault, the NHRA's vice-president of public relations and communications, said Director of Media Relations Anthony Vestal and his team have crafted a "fairly aggressive plan" to publicize all four of its pro-class champions.
 
"And we did have a little more of an emphasis on Antron, because he was the first African-American to win a major U.S. motorsports title," Archambeault said. 'We did think we might have a little more traction with Antron, given the historical nature of his win."
 
Some fans might argue that to tout Brown from a "first African-American . . ." standpoint would be to betray the NHRA's nonchalance about gender and ethnicity. To talk about diversity would spoil the reality of it in the NHRA. To emphasize Brown's race would be uncharacteristic of Brown himself.
 
"I never sat back and thought about it" Brown said about his race being a factor. He was well aware of the significance of it, but the only label he cared about after waiting all day that final day of the season to find out that he had edged teammate Tony Schumacher by seven points was "Champion."
 
He said he'd be happy "if I can be an inspiration for other kids out there — not just African-Americans, just Americans period — give them somebody they can look up to that's positive that actually never settled in life for things that people told them they may not ever achieve."
 
So Archambeault understood the dilemma -- and said the media themselves sometimes throw up the roadblocks.
 
"It's sometimes a challenge for us," he said. "When we try to pitch a diversity story to the media, they go, 'Well, you've always been diverse. It's not a story.' But when other leagues create committees to try to be diverse, they get all these headlines. And when we try to tout the fact we've always been diverse -- we have African-Americans winning and Hispanics and females -- [the media] tell us, 'That's not a story.'
 
"What do we have to do -- tell them not to participate and then come back?" he asked, a bit sarcastically. "Why not tell a story about how successful our sport is?
 
"So we don't always tout it, although we did put an emphasis on [Brown's accomplishment] because of the historic nature of the championship and did try to reach out to more mainstream [non-traditional] media outlets. That was something that might resonate with CNN or some of these talk shows, someone who is not as attuned to our sport or even to motorsports. It was a unique angle."
 
However, Archambeault said, "It had a little success, not as much as we would have liked, quite honestly.
 
"It would be unfair to say that we hadn't tried to proactively pitch that story, as we make an effort to proactively pitch all of our NHRA champions each and every year. In terms of Antron, we used the angle of the historical perspective of him being the first African-American to win a major U.S. motorsports title, not that he was African-American. Diversity is not unique to NHRA. It has been, and always will be, a part of our make-up."
 
He said, "We haven't had a huge media tour, where you're doing 15, 20, 30 different things. I know he did an interview with the New York Times, with Dave Caldwell." He said the Don Schumacher Racing public-relations team indicated some interest from Ebony magazine,

He said the promotion of Brown and DSR colleague Jack Beckman, the NHRA Funny Car champion, has been a joint effort between the sanctioning body and the team.
 
"I know the team is pursuing a lot of different angles and opportunities," he said.
 
Perhaps the problem is that major "mainsteam" media choose not to pay significant attention to any motorsports (unless a tragedy strikes or NASCAR drivers and/or their womenfolk get into fights).
 
For example, U.S. open-wheel fans long have complained that they want to see more American drivers. They got that at the IZOD IndyCar Series season finale at Fontana, Calif., when Ed Carpenter won the race and Ryan Hunter-Reay clinched the championship. Yet Hunter-Reay certainly hasn't been over-exposed in the media.
 
Other factors -- such as sweeps weeks, election results, and the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy -- likely played into TV news directors' and newspaper editors' decisions at the time.
 
"The week after Pomona was sweeps week with all the national media. So a lot of them already had a ton of things booked with big-name starts to try to drive up some of their ratings for the sweeps-week period," Archambeault said. "We went ahead full-bore anyway."
 
USA Today had done a pre-Pomona feature about Brown, and AP also distributed an article about Brown following the dramatic Pomona finish. Archambeault said Ted Yerzyk,  DSR marketing specialist, also related some interest from Ebony magazine.
 
The plan, Archambeault said, was to regroup after the new year got under way and reach out again to the media outlets that were "lukewarm" earlier -- or at least to those who hadn't refused to acknowledge Brown and his fellow NHRA champions.
 
He said the thinking at the NHRA headquarters was "Let's hit it hard around the start of our season and see if we can generate some interest again."
 
Kimmel remains among the major-media targets.
 
"He had expressed an interest," Archambeault said, "not because Antron is black -- Antron was at his studio earlier in the year with Toyota."
 
Brown visited Kimmel's L.A. studio last March.
 
Said Archambeault, "Jimmy Kimmel, we know, is a motorsports fan. The producers there were interested at the time, but he was in Brooklyn; he wasn't in L.A. [Kimmel hosted the show from Oct. 29 through Nov. 2, from Brooklyn Academy of Music.] They said, 'Could you follow up at the beginning of next year?' We'll see as we get closer to Pomona if something becomes available.' That's not a 'No.' "
 
Overall, with two schools of thought playing tug-o-war with the NHRA, Archambeault conceded, "There are no easy answers. It could go either way. We always do a champions pitch at the end of the year. "
 
He's right. Does NHRA exploit something it has refreshingly not exploited for years? Or does it risk being called inept for not exploiting something it has done well for decades?
 
Archambeault said he has an advertising/marketing slogan posted on his wall: "In Marketing you pay. In P.R., you pray."
 
Certainly praying is a positive act, and sometimes praying is all one has.

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