Not all NDIP participants come to the program as well-versed on the sport as Amarsingh. Courtney McKnight - an alumnus of Thomas Johnson High in Frederick and a recent graduate of Johnson C. Smith University - acknowledges that she wasn't the biggest racing fan before landing her internship with The 909 Group, a marketing firm that handles public relations for the NASCAR diversity program.
"I didn't know much about it. I've been reading NASCAR for Dummies," she said.
McKnight, 21, learned of the program through a friend who interned for NASCAR the previous year. So far, McKnight said, the internship program has been everything she had hoped for.
"She's heavily involved," said Max Siegel, the founding partner of The 909 Group. "NASCAR is a $5 billion business, and she's getting practical experience here."
Siegel's relationship with the NFL led to The 909 Group becoming one of NASCAR's most important partners.
Siegel, a lawyer based in Charlotte, N.C., negotiated Hall of Fame defensive lineman Reggie White's deal with the Carolina Panthers. Through White, Siegel was introduced to former Washington Redskins coach and racing mogul Joe Gibbs. Gibbs and his son, J.D., were formulating a plan to recruit and develop minority talent for NASCAR. The plans, however, fell apart after White died in December 2004.
Siegel went on to become president of global operations at Dale Earnhardt Inc. for two years, and it was that appointment that led to his firm being chosen for the NDIP.
As one of the most high-profile African-Americans involved in the sport, Siegel has gladly taken on the role of NASCAR ambassador.
"This sport is appealing to everyone," Siegel said.
"There are people who watch for the celebrities that come, the speed, the strategy."
Columbia native Lindsay Bowen, a North Carolina A&T graduate, interned with XM Satellite Radio Communications in 2005. Now she works on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with the Octagon Consulting Group. Some of her responsibilities include managing interns, including NDIP participants.
"I consider myself a success story ... coming from the only historically black university with a motor sports program, interning and then gaining full-time employment to be paid for exposing others to the same opportunities I was afforded," Bowen said. "It can't get better than that. I enjoy sharing my path into the motor sports industry. Once students hear my story, I know they feel empowered to make a path of their own."
Count Amarsingh as one current NDIP intern hoping to create his own path into NASCAR.
"Absolutely" he wants to work in NASCAR, he said.
"The people working here have the same passion and philosophy for engineering I do."
