A few hours before the green flag was waved for Saturday's Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, one group receiving a tour of the track stood out from the others thanks to a forest of boom mikes following it around. It was the newest group of participants in the latest edition of NASCAR's Drive for Diversity combine, aka D4D.

Two days later, 30 young men and women -- black, white and Hispanic -- hit the track at the Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Va., behind the wheel of NASCAR Late Model rides for two days of instruction and evaluation. NASCAR brass and talent scouts took notes on how each driver handled the flat, .416-mile oval -- everything from how and where they entered the corners to how willing they were to drive it in before standing on the brakes.