Women Charging on Cup Series’ Week Off
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The Sprint Cup Series was off this past week while the Nationwide Series took to the streets of Mexico City for the Corona Mexico 200 as Kyle Busch cruised to his third consecutive Nationwide Series victory. That, however, was not the headline that the sports world took away from auto racing on that day because while Kyle Busch was debating whether or not to dump Scott Pruett, Danica Patrick was out in Japan making history en route to winning the first IRL race of her career, as well as becoming the first female driver to ever win a race in that series.
In a pure incident of coincidental timing, just days before Danica broke down the barriers for females in racing, Chrissy Wallace inked a deal with Germain Racing that will have her competing full-time in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2009.
Chrissy made her NASCAR debut just a few weeks ago at Martinsville Speedway in the Truck Series’ Kroger 250. Despite starting that race all the way back from the 35th position, she was able to find her way up to 18th by the final lap of the race. Her run was impressive enough to force the hands at Germain Racing to offer her up a contract, and they finalized the deal this past Wednesday. Chrissy will run another six races this year in the no. 03 Toyota Tundra – the first of which will be on June 20th in Milwuakee, and from there she will begin to prepare for her 2009 rookie campaign.
Regarding her signing with Germain, Chrissy stated, “I’m extremely excited. This is a big deal for us. When I saw my name on that contract, I almost couldn’t believe it. But, I’m thrilled about this opportunity.”
Chrissy comes from a long line of racers in her family, to include her father Mike Wallace, and uncles Rusty and Kenny. She has spent the majority of her amateur career racing late model stock cars, and became the first female driver to win at Hickory Motor Speedway in 57 years. She has also earned herself the backing of the unofficial NASCAR spokesman himself, Tony Stewart, and that just simply can’t hurt matters.
The official signing of Chrissy Wallace is a huge step for NASCAR as they continue to work on building diversity within their garage areas. In recent years, the sport has added a number of drivers with foreign backgrounds, to include such names as Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, and Patrick Carpentier. They have also created and contributed to a multitude of diversity programs in an effort to help this cause. Although Chrissy certainly is not the first female to dawn a NASCAR firesuit, it certainly appears as though that she may potentially be the first to have the necessary combination of talent AND proper equipment afforded to her that it takes to win at NASCAR’s highest levels.
DYN Imposes:
This week, Do You Nascar also asks its readers …
1) Do you think that Chrissy Wallace will be successful in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2009, and will she win Rookie of the Year?
2) Are female drivers often given some of their driving opportunities simply because of their market value as women?
3) Have NASCAR’s diversity programs been successful, and is the diversity they’ve added been good for the sport?
4) What could NASCAR do to expand their diversity programs?
Tags: , chrissy wallace, corona mexico 200, Craftsman Truck Series, Danica Patrick, Dario Franchitti, germain racing, IndyCar Series, irl, Juan Pablo Montoya, kenny wallace, kroger 250, Kyle Busch, martinsville speedway, mike wallace, milwuakee 200, milwuakee mile, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Patrick Carpentier, rusty wallaceRelated Stories
POSTED IN: NASCAR
4 opinions for Women Charging on Cup Series’ Week Off
Wayne
Apr 22, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I am not sure if Chrissy will win rookie of the year, but I do believe she is both a better racer and will have a more successful career than her cousin.
Adam C
Apr 22, 2008 at 9:22 pm
1 - I think she’ll be ok, but no way will she win ROY. She not good enough.
2 - Yes
3 - Theyve been appear to be working fine.
4 - not really sure what they could do. I know they have alot of programs in place already.
jimmccoy22
Apr 22, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I think anyone who underestimates this little spit fire is in for a rude awakening.
Good on her!
RevJim
Apr 23, 2008 at 4:14 am
jimmcoy22 said it best. Tony Stewart isn’t sponsoring her late model car just out of friendship with the Wallace family, nor was he spending so much time coaching her during her first race weekend in CTS for any other reason than that he sees the potential she has as a racer.
She beat a lot of drivers in her very first race that have been there longer than she.
Yes, I see her getting ROTY in ‘09
2. Sometimes, but sometimes they prove themselves.
3. Yes
4. They can’t do anything except develop better drivers.
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