2022 Daytona 500: Race director Jusan Hamilton set to make history
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
Editor's note: This story is part of FOX Sports' series celebrating Black History Month.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Jusan Hamilton has always loved racing. He always wanted to make a living in racing.
But when he was an aspiring driver competing on dirt tracks, many thought the teenager from upstate New York would never make it in motorsports.
"There were a lot of people that doubted me — folks that are both Black and white that doubted that an African-American succeeding in motorsports was possible," Hamilton said.
Bubba Wallace reacts to NASCAR naming Jusan Hamilton the race director for the Daytona 500
Hamilton never achieved his dream of being a professional race car driver, but he will make history Sunday as the first Black official to serve as race director for the Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX).
The 31-year-old Hamilton is a familiar voice to the teams and fans on the NASCAR officials channel, as he has called races since 2017.
Few would debate his credentials to call the sport’s biggest race Sunday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway. The race director’s primary role is a mix of referee and quarterback for the event, making the quick calls to display the caution flag, to dispatch safety equipment, to open pit road, to make sure cars are lined up correctly for a restart and to communicate penalties to teams.
Hamilton said he has always felt comfortable and welcomed in the NASCAR garage, where he has spent the past 10 years.
Bubba Wallace, who has become the face of diversity in the sport, as the only Black full-time driver in Cup, said it is important for people to see that there are careers available beyond the driver's seat.
"You see drivers, and you see the pit-crew members, but you don’t see the officials, you don’t see the people working in the offices for race teams or for NASCAR," Wallace said. "You don’t see any of the behind-the-scenes [roles] that actually get the dirty work done for us."
That was true in Hamilton’s case. He initially thought the only potential jobs would be as a driver or as a pit crew member. But once he learned about the other jobs available, he wanted to put his marketing and sociology majors to good use.
He says today that he never thought he couldn’t achieve his professional goals while working for NASCAR, and he never felt his skin color would hinder his ability to advance if he worked hard and performed well. And while working his way through various jobs, Hamilton has also played an active role in NASCAR’s diversity outreach.
He has seen progress in making the NASCAR garage more diverse, and he can see the difference in the infield. From his spot in the officials box during races, he has noticed that the number of Confederate flags has decreased over the years, particularly once NASCAR banned the flag at Wallace’s urging in 2020.
"I'm not sure that some folks realized how offensive it can be to others," Hamilton said. "That's the big deal. ... The biggest difference it made, especially for some of my family members, who didn't fully understand racing, I know they feel more open to come into the track now."
So how did Hamilton end up in his current role? As a former race car driver, he was on the receiving end of calls that frustrated him, but he said that wasn’t the reason he gravitated toward the race director position. He just wanted to be involved in the sport, and when NASCAR was looking to add to its small roster of race directors, he saw it as a way he could contribute.
Elton Sawyer, who oversees NASCAR’s officiating, said Hamilton has the athlete mentality of wanting the ball in his hands at the end of the game — and understanding the responsibility, win or lose — that is necessary in the role of race director. Hamilton doesn’t get a chance to look at replay and must be ready to audible, whether that means throwing the caution, calling off a restart, etc.
"You’ve got to want to be in those positions, and you prepare for it, and Jusan is that guy," Sawyer said. "Jusan fits that that bill. Whatever the situation may be, we feel confident with him sitting in the chair."
Hamilton still has some race-car driver in him, and if someone gave him a ride today at the local dirt track, he says he’d want to put on the driver suit again. As someone who not only loved to race but also grew up working on cars and even tractors in his grandfather’s garage, Hamilton applied to NASCAR’s diversity program as a teenager and was told he needed experience racing bigger cars.
He drove what he could, but he didn’t want to put his family in a financial bind.
"We wanted to move up to run a larger car, and we were on our way to go pick it up, and I realized my mom had been saying for a while: ‘I really can't afford to do this. If we get in a situation where we lose a motor or anything goes wrong with the car, we're just completely done, and we won’t be able to do this,’" Hamilton said.
"And she said that enough, and I basically had made the decision: 'OK now, I hear what she's saying, and she's right, and I don't want to put my family into that kind of box. So, we turned around, and we never moved up from there."
A football player and track-and-field athlete at Ithaca College, Hamilton interned at Watkins Glen and moved to North Carolina — without a job — after graduation.
"I had the U-Haul packed while graduation was taking place and was ready to leave the next day to go pursue my career," he said.
He worked for the marketing agency Octagon, which handled the Sprint sponsorship of the Cup Series, and then moved to NASCAR, where he spent time in the communications department before moving to racing operations and eventually becoming an apprentice of sorts in learning the role of race director.
"Being in the tower, when the position first became an option, I wasn't sure where it would lead," Hamilton said. "But I felt like I had the experience to contribute there in a positive way and wanted to grow and see what I could do to help the way that we officiate races, direct races from the tower.
"And that’s where I am today. It was all about the passion that I have for racing, and being involved in it at this level is an honor to me."
It’s an honor even though it might not be the one he thought he would have.
After all, it is a pretty thankless job. Hamilton does not get showered with applause.
But he knows that, and his focus is on preparing himself — reviewing scenarios that could happen during the race, understanding what makes the upcoming track unique and making sure all the infrastructure is in place (lines painted correctly, safety vehicles in the correct positions, etc.) — the best he can. The only way to be fair and efficient, he says, is to be prepared.
"I spend a lot of time reviewing, whether it's past races, my past notes now that I have experience at every racetrack that we race at over the last four years, really using that to prepare myself both mentally and for unexpected scenarios that may pop out at different facilities because every facility is different and presents different challenges," Hamilton said.
"So as long as I check those boxes, and I know my preparation going in is where it should be, people may disagree with the decision, but the process that went into making a decision is what I can stand by."
Hamilton’s racing roots and desire to be part of the sport help him to adopt the mentality of an official and handle the criticism that comes his way. But he also remembers the perspectives of the fans and the drivers.
"I feel like I can relate to the fans out there, relate to the competitors and also, on the sanctioning body side, of course, relate to our objective at hand, which is to put out the most fair competition and enforce our rules and do that in the most efficient possible way," he said.
And he has accepted the fact that fans won't always be happy with him.
"I’ve been told ‘no’ a lot, and I've been doubted quite a bit, even going back to those early years," Hamilton said. "It’s my passion for racing that drives me to be as prepared at the highest level as possible.
"And I accept that fandom may not always agree with the calls made, but in the end, if [for] the competitors on the ground, the results of the race is fair and something that we can stand by, I'm comfortable with it."
Hamilton hopes when people talk about his history-making Sunday, they will do so in a way that isn't focused on any of his calls.
"I hope that by calling the 500, that it sets a good example for other folks who are interested in racing and really shows how far the sport has come," Hamilton said.
"But I'm looking forward to doing it a high level, and if no one notices that there as a race director during the 500, that's a good thing."
Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!
