In the fast lane: FIU-themed car runs NASCAR race on Saturday at Miami-Homestead Speedway

Look quickly or you’ll miss it: a NASCAR vehicle decked out in FIU colors on Homestead-Miami Speedway.

On Saturday, the FIU-themed Chevy Camaro will participate in the Xfinity Series Race, a thrilling competition of rising drivers. Making the event all the more special for fans who also love FIU will be the Panther head flashing by.

The excitement comes courtesy of grads with a history of getting behind the university.

“They've been unwavering supporters,” says Athletic Director Scott Carr. “They care about FIU, and they care about FIU athletics.”

Carr is speaking of accounting firm KSDT and founders Jeffrey Taraboulos ’96 MAcc ’00 and Jorge De La Torre ’96. Making the association even more special, he adds, “is the fact that both Jeff and George are alumni and giving back in multiple ways.”

The pair have for some three decades lived the blue-and-gold life. It began with their taking classes in the 1990s to earn accounting degrees and has continued as their now-20-year-old company (launched with Taraboulos’ brother, Robert, also a grad) has grown with the addition of 150+ fellow alumni.

Today, KSDT is one of the largest financial accounting, advisory and consulting firms in South Florida and has been recognized by Forbes and USA Today as one of the “Top Tax and Accounting Firms” and “America's Most Recommended Tax Firms,” respectively. The company has 265 employees and maintains offices in Florida and North Carolina as well as overseas.

Anyone who has attended a football game in Pitbull Stadium in recent years or checked soccer schedules or basketball scores on the FIU athletics web site knows KSDT for its sponsorship of university sports.

Such backing “means the world,” Carr says. “But then, Jeff and Jorge are also both personally helping,” he adds, noting the pair’s commitment to building up FIU teams by bringing others along through the purchase of season tickets to share and encouraging attendance at campus sporting events. “It's been an incredible partnership.”

Sponsoring FIU athletics and, more recently, NASCAR reflects the after-hours interests of the accounting executives while also connecting them with potential clients.

“Anything that I'm passionate about, I always try to figure out a way that I can make it involved with business,” Taraboulos explains. He fell for NASCAR several years ago at a race, when a friend introduced him. The relationship now “kind of pays for itself with all the business we've derived from sponsoring the sport.”

Same goes with their alma mater. “We said, how can we make that a business opportunity for us as well, where we support FIU and also network with alumni and network with other sponsors.”

This weekend represents the second time KSDT’s two sponsorships have come together in a car emblazoned with the FIU name, with the first taking place in 2019. The speedway has a seating capacity of 55,000, making it a big stage upon which to feature the university.

For De La Torre and Taraboulos, the event marks the pefect time to catch up with others, among them university officials such as Athletic Director Carr who will get an up close and personal view of the action from the pit box.

It also gives the partners a chance to escape their desks, confirms De La Torre, the father of two current FIU students.

“We have to go to work every day, and we enjoy what we do. But, you know, what if we can enjoy it a little bit more by doing the things that we really love.”

Tickets for the race are on sale through Miami-Homestead Speedway.