Associated Press

New England Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss announced Thursday at Daytona International Speedway that he had bought 50 percent of a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.-- Randy Moss, NASCAR's newest owner, prefers to be colorblind.

That's easy to do in the diversified NFL, where he's an All-Pro receiver for the New England Patriots, but his entry into the Craftsman Truck Series will make him stand out in a predominately white crowd.

"I really don't see race. I think a lot of people do," Moss said Thursday after announcing he's bought 50 percent of a truck team and renamed it Randy Moss Motorsports.

With a $225 million lawsuit alleging racial discrimination against NASCAR hanging over the sport, any minority involvement will be celebrated but also watched closely.

Only one other owner in any of NASCAR's top three series is black. Former NBA and North Carolina All-American Brad Daugherty, an ESPN broadcaster, bought into a truck team earlier this year and his team will run full time next year. There are no black drivers competing full time in any of the three series.

That Moss made his announcement at Daytona International Speedway -- where the Coke Zero 400 will be held Saturday night -- shows how far the sport still must go.

It was nine years ago at this same track that track star Jackie Joyner-Kersee, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, announced she and her husband Bob would form a Cup team. They had no sponsor and no driver but lots of hope. They failed to make the Daytona 500 the following year and faded away.

Blacks have had few highlights in this sport since.

Sam Belnavis owned a Cup team in 2003 before the sponsor left after the season and the operation folded.

Bill Lester ran 142 truck races, one Busch race and two Cup events from 1999-2007 but never won. His Cup debut in 2006 marked the first time a black had competed in a Cup race since 1986.

Other blacks have tried to break into NASCAR but failed.

Former NFL players Tim Brown and Terance Mathis wanted to start Cup programs a few years ago but neither succeeded. Brown aligned with Roush Racing but even that didn't help him find sponsorship. Mathis said talks with several companies produced no opportunities for his start-up organization.

Mathis, a former All-Pro receiver with the Atlanta Falcons, said the addition of Moss and Daugherty is "what the doctor ordered for NASCAR" with it facing that lawsuit.

"Now you've got a guy that has been a face in NASCAR in Brad Daugherty and you've got a household name in Randy Moss that might help ... put a Band-Aid on the issues that have occurred in NASCAR. They've been punched in the eye and they've got some black eyes."

The question now is what kind of role either can play.

Moss is busy with football from the start of training camp in July through the end of the season in January (or February if the Patriots return to the Super Bowl). Daugherty admits to a "responsibility" as a highly visible minority in the sport but won't let it dictate all that he does.

"Do I feel that if I don't succeed I'm letting people down or there's extra pressure to have to succeed? No," he said recently.

"I really don't worry about other people's opinion. I want to do it well, and I want to be responsible just because that's the way I am."

That it's Moss and Daugherty at the forefront doesn't bother Mathis, who continues to search for money to compete in any of NASCAR's series.

"I'm going to applaud them and support them," Mathis says. "I don't care who is first or who is last as long as you've got longevity."

Moss joins a truck team that finished second in the points from 2003-05 but has not had as much success as it has been used to develop younger drivers. The team also has no sponsorship. Moss said he'll spend his own money to fund the team if needed.

Thursday, he was more excited about his opportunity -- and meeting Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- than worried about what he's gotten himself into.

"I don't see us going downhill," Moss said. "I'm not saying I'm 100 percent sure it's going to work, but at the same time you've got to think positive. I think if you think in the negative light, bad things are going to happen."