Forget about black, white, Hispanic, female and any other label that's out there. The competitors featured on Changing Lanes are racers to the core. Series premiere is 8 p.m. ET Wednesday on BET.
• Video: Feel the rush of 'Changing Lanes'

And here's the very moment you'll be convinced: In the series' second episode, 16-year-old Darrell Wallace Jr. heads into the final day of the Drive for Diversity Combine with a temperature of 103 degrees. Later diagnosed with the H1N1 virus -- Swine Flu itself -- Wallace is excused from making his all-important run in a K&N Pro Series East machine until later in the day. It's obvious the kid is hurting. He rests in a motorhome before finally crawling, almost literally, into a car to make his run.

“

I'd like to view it as a change agent in the sport.

”

-- MAX SEIGEL

Turns out, the laps were the fastest of the day's 16 finalists and more than good enough to get him a spot in the D4D program. Black, white, Hispanic, female ... it doesn't matter. Wallace is a driver. Nothing more, nothing less. After the series was filmed, Wallace became the youngest driver and the first black to win a race on the K&N Pro Series East tour. He won at Greenville Pickens Speedway in March, and then again in July.

To show the dedication of the young athletes is exactly why Changing Lanes exists, said Jay Abraham, chief operating officer for NASCAR Media Group and vice president of content and new media. Abraham also served as an executive producer on the project.

"[Changing Lanes] is really telling the story of these kids, and what they really have to go through to compete at the highest levels of stock-car racing," Abraham said. "Like a lot of other reality or elimination shows, you really get to see the struggles and what these kids have to do and the commitment they have to make to be successful."

Conceived a couple of years ago by Max Siegel, the former president of Dale Earnhardt Inc. and currently the owner of Revolution Racing, Changing Lanes was filmed between October 2009 and February of this year. The first two episodes document the D4D Combine, while later shows will feature an extended evaluation process in which ten finalists compete for four spots on Siegel's Revolution Racing team.

During the taping of the show, all 10 participants lived in Siegel's Charlotte-area mansion. Think: Survivor meets The Apprentice meets Big Brother meets The Gong Show. However, there aren't really any villains on Changing Lanes. The most Siegel is willing to concede is that certain "personalities" emerge.

"You definitely get some tension, and you definitely start to see the competitiveness of the athletes," Siegel said with a laugh. "You also just naturally see who emerges as a leader, and who people kind of get emotionally attached to. [There is] not necessarily a villain, per se. There are definitely some 'personalities,' how about that?"

Each episode will be highlighted by a behind-the-scenes look at the boardroom evaluation process of each participant. Siegel is involved, as are Revolution Racing's John Story, Andy Santerre and Blair Addis, as well as pit-crew coach Phil Horton and NASCAR's Marcus Jadotte. They don't exactly come across as The Donald, but it's still up to Siegel and Story to break the news to disappointed cuts.

Without giving anything away, participants in the show have gone on to do very well for themselves. Wallace has won. Ryan Gifford sat on the pole at a K&N Pro Series East event earlier this year. Michael Cherry became the first black driver to win a Whelen All-American Series event at Tri-County Motor Speedway in Hudson, N.C.

• About the program
• 2010 D4D competitors

The series culminates with the chance to qualify for the Toyota All-Star Showdown in Irwindale, Calif.

"I want to accomplish a few things," Siegel said. "I'd like to view it as a change agent in the sport. No. 1, I want it to expose a wider audience to the sport and do it in a way that was compelling. The second thing I wanted to do was to celebrate the contribution of women and people of color in NASCAR right now. Then, I really wanted to build the brands of the young drivers.

"If we can interest people in the sport and we can provide a media platform for sponsors to want to invest, those are really big things I would love to see accomplished by the show."

Behind it all is the D4D initiative, NASCAR's outreach program to minorities and women. Siegel himself has been skeptical in the past about the program's approach, but now that it has moved to an academy style format housing teams under one roof, things appear to be headed in the right direction.

"I have certainly been one of those people who have been critical of it," Siegel said. "But I think if you look at it carefully, the resources have grown. It's evolved every year. This is the next step in the evolution. I think this year, the on-track performance speaks for itself."

In the end, Changing Lanes and the D4D effort is about the commitment of the drivers, as well as NASCAR's commitment to them.

"[The show] continues to show the commitment the sport and league has toward diversity," Abraham said. "We are very proud of the efforts we've made in the field of diversity, and we have a great program in place now. The series is going to help highlight and showcase ... what we're doing in that area, and it will also show potential fans of a diverse background that there's a place for everybody in this sport, just like every other sport in America.

"With BET, we found a great partner that understands the value of the NASCAR sport and the NASCAR fan. For both of us, it's an opportunity to expose our brands to a new group of people."

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