By JOE WALLJASPER Tribune sports editor
Ashlee Lancaster is one of 25 drivers who will compete in the Drive for Diversity combine. Eight will get a professional contract.
Ashlee Lancaster grew up on the racetracks of Mid-Missouri, where her father spent every weekend from April to October in the pits, watching the dirt fly as the cars he worked on went round and round. Kenny Lancaster never had the urge or the eyesight to drive. He just loved working as a mechanic, including a stint on Carl Edwards’ pit crew.
As a little girl, Ashlee wandered the stands at Capital Speedway in Holts Summit, handing out Edwards’ business cards - the ones that said, "If you’re looking for a driver, you’re looking for me." Her sentiments exactly. Since she was old enough to talk, she has told her parents that she wanted to be a driver when she grew up.
At age 19, she’s about to get the chance of a lifetime.
Lancaster is one of 25 drivers chosen from more than 300 applicants to participate in NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity combine this weekend in South Boston, Va. The drivers will compete on the track and conduct interviews with some of NASCAR’s top teams. It is auto racing’s version of the annual NFL combine.
The program is designed to get more minorities and women involved in a sport dominated by white males. Eight of the 25 participants will be signed to one-year contracts in one of NASCAR’s developmental series.
Lancaster has spent the last four years racing at Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, Callaway Raceway in Fulton and other regional tracks. She initially resisted the idea of applying for the program when her mother, Dawn, suggested it. Now she is glad she was outvoted.
"I don’t mind getting my name out there, but I didn’t think I was ready,"
she said. "I felt like I needed a couple more years on the dirt, at least. I had totally dismissed it. But when I got that call, I was so excited."
Growing up, Lancaster dabbled in ballet, gymnastics, basketball, soccer and track, but by junior high she was fixated on racing. On job-shadow day as a freshman at Oakland Junior High, she flew with her parents to North Carolina and spent a day in Roush Racing’s Craftsman Truck Series shop, where she turned wrenches and practiced pit stops.
"She had a grin wrapped around her head you couldn’t have wiped off," Dawn Lancaster said.
Ashlee learned to drive at a family friend’s salvage yard, almost literally driving the wheels off old junkers. A few months after turning 16, she was racing against men twice or three times her age. She started in four-cylinder Hornets and switched to Late Models. She currently ranks 13th in the points standings at Callaway.
Since graduating from Hickman in 2007, Lancaster has attended Moberly Area Community College, but racing is the central element in her life. Her family joins crew members Ryan Stevens, Jimmie Riggins and Jimmy Smith at the weekend races and spends most weeknights working on the No. 16 car at a garage Kenny rents.
"It’s definitely family time," Ashlee said. "Mom is there, too. It’s kept us close. Any regular teenager would want to be away from their parents on the weekends, but we spend all weekend together."
It’s an expensive hobby. Kenny and Dawn estimated it costs $10,000 to $20,000 per year, so landing a contract through the Drive for Diversity combine would be most welcome. The Drive for Diversity program has been in place for five years. The eight drivers who are picked will compete next year in NASCAR’s Camping World Series or Whelen All-American Series. Among the program’s success stories is Marc Davis, who has driven in some Craftsman Truck Series and Nationwide Series races this year.
To follow in Davis’ tire tracks, Ashlee will have to make a quick transition to driving on asphalt after competing strictly on dirt tracks the last four years. But driving is just part of the deal. She’ll have to impress team officials with her personality in front of a camera, which will be a new experience for a person whose first media interview was for this story.
Still, Marcus Jadotte, NASCAR’s managing director of public and diversity affairs, said Lancaster is a strong contender to make the cut.
"Ashlee, at 19, is at a point in her development where she’s had considerable experience in Late Models and other forms of racing, and she’s shown potential in every car she’s ever been in," Jadotte said. "She certainly has the potential to move forward."
Ashlee Lancaster is one of 25 drivers who will compete in the Drive for Diversity combine. Eight will get a professional contract.
Ashlee Lancaster grew up on the racetracks of Mid-Missouri, where her father spent every weekend from April to October in the pits, watching the dirt fly as the cars he worked on went round and round. Kenny Lancaster never had the urge or the eyesight to drive. He just loved working as a mechanic, including a stint on Carl Edwards’ pit crew.
As a little girl, Ashlee wandered the stands at Capital Speedway in Holts Summit, handing out Edwards’ business cards - the ones that said, "If you’re looking for a driver, you’re looking for me." Her sentiments exactly. Since she was old enough to talk, she has told her parents that she wanted to be a driver when she grew up.
At age 19, she’s about to get the chance of a lifetime.
Lancaster is one of 25 drivers chosen from more than 300 applicants to participate in NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity combine this weekend in South Boston, Va. The drivers will compete on the track and conduct interviews with some of NASCAR’s top teams. It is auto racing’s version of the annual NFL combine.
The program is designed to get more minorities and women involved in a sport dominated by white males. Eight of the 25 participants will be signed to one-year contracts in one of NASCAR’s developmental series.
Lancaster has spent the last four years racing at Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, Callaway Raceway in Fulton and other regional tracks. She initially resisted the idea of applying for the program when her mother, Dawn, suggested it. Now she is glad she was outvoted.
"I don’t mind getting my name out there, but I didn’t think I was ready,"
she said. "I felt like I needed a couple more years on the dirt, at least. I had totally dismissed it. But when I got that call, I was so excited."
Growing up, Lancaster dabbled in ballet, gymnastics, basketball, soccer and track, but by junior high she was fixated on racing. On job-shadow day as a freshman at Oakland Junior High, she flew with her parents to North Carolina and spent a day in Roush Racing’s Craftsman Truck Series shop, where she turned wrenches and practiced pit stops.
"She had a grin wrapped around her head you couldn’t have wiped off," Dawn Lancaster said.
Ashlee learned to drive at a family friend’s salvage yard, almost literally driving the wheels off old junkers. A few months after turning 16, she was racing against men twice or three times her age. She started in four-cylinder Hornets and switched to Late Models. She currently ranks 13th in the points standings at Callaway.
Since graduating from Hickman in 2007, Lancaster has attended Moberly Area Community College, but racing is the central element in her life. Her family joins crew members Ryan Stevens, Jimmie Riggins and Jimmy Smith at the weekend races and spends most weeknights working on the No. 16 car at a garage Kenny rents.
"It’s definitely family time," Ashlee said. "Mom is there, too. It’s kept us close. Any regular teenager would want to be away from their parents on the weekends, but we spend all weekend together."
It’s an expensive hobby. Kenny and Dawn estimated it costs $10,000 to $20,000 per year, so landing a contract through the Drive for Diversity combine would be most welcome. The Drive for Diversity program has been in place for five years. The eight drivers who are picked will compete next year in NASCAR’s Camping World Series or Whelen All-American Series. Among the program’s success stories is Marc Davis, who has driven in some Craftsman Truck Series and Nationwide Series races this year.
To follow in Davis’ tire tracks, Ashlee will have to make a quick transition to driving on asphalt after competing strictly on dirt tracks the last four years. But driving is just part of the deal. She’ll have to impress team officials with her personality in front of a camera, which will be a new experience for a person whose first media interview was for this story.
Still, Marcus Jadotte, NASCAR’s managing director of public and diversity affairs, said Lancaster is a strong contender to make the cut.
"Ashlee, at 19, is at a point in her development where she’s had considerable experience in Late Models and other forms of racing, and she’s shown potential in every car she’s ever been in," Jadotte said. "She certainly has the potential to move forward."
