Thread: Border Patrol seeks recruits at NASCAR

Border Patrol seeks recruits at NASCAR

June 9, 2007

The Associated Press



The U.S. Border Patrol hopes a NASCAR sponsorship will help it recruit 9,000 new agents.

The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines all have sponsored cars.

"It was just a matter of time that the Border Patrol got involved," said Robert Richardson Jr., who drives the U.S. Border Patrol No. 28.

A Saturday NASCAR Busch Series race at the Nashville Superspeedway marks the fourth race for the car, which is getting more attention than its rookie driver.

The Border Patrol has hired about 1,500 agents since it began recruiting last year after President Bush announced plans to add 6,000 agents at the country's Mexican border. The agency needs another 3,000 to replace agents who are retiring.

In the meantime, National Guard troops have been sent to the border while the new agents are being recruited and trained. More than 6,000 troops, including hundreds from Tennessee have gone to the border in the past year.

The NASCAR sponsorship will run for 25 races at a cost of $950,000.

Officials say the deal gives them visibility in areas of the country, like the Southeast, where the Border Patrol doesn't have a presence and may be little known.

"Never in our 83-year history have we had this ambitious of a hiring campaign," said Assistant Border Patrol Chief Michael Olsen, who planned to attend the race on Saturday to talk with prospective recruits.

At last week's race in Dover, Del., Olsen said, he talked to between 50 and 100 people who were eligible and interested in joining. Only about one in 30 applicants actually becomes an agent.

Richardson said he has enjoyed the added attention the car has given his team.

"They're serious about what they're doing for the nation, and we're serious about what we're doing for our race team," he said.

http://www.gatorsports.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... /706091632

NASCAR has been holding races in Mexico and trying to attract Latinos as drivers. I have come up with a joke as a result.

At a NASCAR meet in the South after the race there is a party under a tent. There is an old time mountaineer in his eighties who starts talking about earlier days in the sport.

"You know a lot of us were moonshiners who learned our skills running from the revenue boys. We had to race through the hills on the narrow bumpy roads with our cars packed full of hidden booze. I got to be so good at it that I could race at full speed without even spilling a drop". Turning to the young mechanic for a Mexican he asks "So do you Mex have any stories to tell?"

The Mexican turns to him and says "Viejo, what is the last time you had to travel like a shipment of liquor?"