NASCAR parts ways with race director Jusan Hamilton

Photo credit: Getty Images

News has surfaced that NASCAR has parted ways with race director Jusan Hamilton ahead of the race weekend at Kansas Speedway.

NASCAR confirmed the news on Friday but did not provide any further details about the personnel move. Performance did not appear to lead to NASCAR parting ways with Hamilton, who held the role of managing director of competition operations for just over three years.

NASCAR did not name a replacement race director as of Friday afternoon. The expectation is that fellow race director Tim Bermann will close out the remaining races this season.

The Ithaca College graduate first joined NASCAR as a racing operations intern in May 2012. He then moved into the role of integrated marketing communications intern.

Hamilton joined NASCAR full-time in 2013 and began rising through the company ranks. He worked on event operations across all three national series and then made history as the first Black race director for a national series at Fontana in 2017. He became the race director for the Daytona 500 for the first time in 2022.

Along with his time as a race director, Hamilton also worked on the NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program and pit crew development among other areas of the sport.

He also began to take on a much larger role in crafting national series schedules in recent seasons. He worked under Ben Kennedy as the architect leading the schedule strategy group.

He played an instrumental role in developing the schedules for the Cup Series, O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, and Craftsman Truck Series. He became one of the key figures as NASCAR worked on expanding its footprint in new markets and at new race tracks.

This work included the return of Rockingham Speedway and the historic Truck Series race at Lime Rock Park. It also includes the upcoming crossover weekend in St. Petersburg, Florida, featuring the Truck Series and NTT IndyCar Series teams.