The First and Only Black Woman in the Pits of NASCAR

A chat with tire-changer Brehanna Daniels about her sport’s Confederate flag ban and broader reckoning with racism. Four years ago, Brehanna Daniels was a 5’5” walk-on combo guard at Norfolk State who had her post-graduate sights set on a professional career in Europe.

Stock car racing was nowhere on her radar when her team’s play-by-play announcer suggested she meet with a group of recruiters from NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity Pit Crew Development program and try out for a position on “the fastest team in sports.” (The average pit stop lasts about 16 seconds.)

Through hard work and determination, Daniels hasn’t just emerged as one of the few women in the sport, but as the first and only black woman to work in the pits — a quick-trigger tire changer who’s now just as likely to be recognized as the face of headache medicine. Over the course of a half hour conversation with GEN, she reflected on her unlikely road to this point and the even more unlikely history NASCAR made last week.

Did you follow NASCAR much growing up in Virginia Beach?

No, there wasn’t much NASCAR there. The closest track, Richmond Raceway, is two hours away. Don’t get me wrong: There are plenty of NASCAR fans in Virginia, just not at the beach!

How were you drawn into the sport?

I went to three different colleges, finished my last two years at Norfolk State. Senior year, at the end of basketball season, in the spring of 2015, I was doing an internship with the athletic department recording different sports [men’s basketball, baseball, bowling…], and then I would edit the footage and make highlight packages.

One Monday afternoon, the announcer of our basketball games, a woman by the name of Tiffani Sykes, catches me in between classes at Chick-fil-A. She was like, ‘The NASCAR pit crew is coming to our school on Wednesday. I think you should try out.” And I looked at her like, ‘Girl. A NASCAR pit crew…like, what is that?’ She took out her phone and showed me a video of a pit stop.

What did you think?

Dang, that was fast. (laughs)

This being the end of senior year, did you have any other job prospects lined up at the time?

That Tuesday I had to decide whether I was gonna record a professional baseball game for my internship or go to the tryout. At the time I was training to play professional basketball overseas and really beating up my body in some intense workouts. Wednesday, at 4 p.m. … I walk into the basketball gym for the tryout.

Basketball gym?

I know! I expected to see a car in the gym. Instead, there’s a bunch of workout equipment on the ground. Phil Horton, the pit crew coach for NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity Program, tells me I’m the only girl here. Piece of cake. I’ve gone up against guys before. They put us through a really tough test to see where we were mentally and physically. And I ended up doing a good enough job to get invited to NASCAR’s R&D Center in Charlotte for the national pit crew combine.

Were there more women at that tryout?

Six out of maybe 26 contenders. This was in May 2015, by the way.

Did you see a car there?

I finally see a car. That’s when I’m like, Ok, now it’s looking like NASCAR. Coach Horton splits everybody up into different positions, puts me with the tire changers. It was my first time holding an impact wrench, and it took a lot of practice taps on the wheel to find a rhythm removing the five lug nuts. At the end of the day, my body was so sore. I had never done anything like that before.

Then the next day, I came in early to work on my taps some more. When they called lunch, I was one of the only ones still at the car, practicing. My attitude was like, That food’s gonna always be there. I wanna make sure I get this down to a tee. I think that’s why Coach Horton took a liking to me. He knew I was about business and really wanted to do this.

So you’re making a strong impression. What did they tell you at the end of the combine?

After the tryout, they said it would be a couple months before we found out whether we were selected. But I got a call as I was catching my flight home saying, ‘Coach Horton couldn’t wait. He wants you to come back.’ They told me I’d have to relocate to Charlotte and do a six-month training course, starting that September. I was really happy, but I still had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Cut to two years later: After drawing your first ever live assignment in a regional NASCAR race, you wind up pulling a double-header — two national races at Dover International Speedway in June 2017.

Yeah, I was moving on up in the world! (laughs) I was only supposed to have one race that weekend. I got to the track on Friday and wasn’t supposed to race til Saturday. But because I was early I wound up picking up extra work. Crazy!

Given how rare it is to see black women at the track, let alone in the infield or the pits, are race weekends uncomfortable for you at all?

I’m not gonna lie. When I first got in the sport, I was a little nervous knowing there’s nobody in NASCAR who looks like me. Then I get to the track, and I’m being stared at. You know how you can feel somebody just looking at you? See people breaking their necks if you walk past them? If looks could speak, they would say, Is this girl lost? Me being the nice person that I am, I would try to speak to people. But they would just look at me. I was like, Dang, you can’t even say hey back? Ok, whatever. I gotta remember where I am. There’s just some people who are stuck in their old ways. Ain’t no changing them. But that stuff’s not gonna stop me.

So now that you’re four years in the game and the face of an Advil TV ad, have things changed at all?

(laughs) Yeah. Now when people see me, they’re like, WHAT PAIN? One time this guy working with one of the teams called me over. He’s like, “Hold on, I gotta go grab something from the back.’ He comes back with a bottle of Advil. “Can you sign it?” I was like, You bout to sell this somewhere? (laughs)

What do you make of NASCAR’s Confederate flag ban?

I didn’t think that was going anywhere. Once the ban happened, I had to go back and look at the tweet like, Is this a real source? Like, Oh my god, this is great. NASCAR’s moving in the right direction right now, doing a lot of things that we’ve been needing to do for a while.

What do you make of Bubba Wallace, the one black driver at the sport’s highest level, having to be the guy to tell his bosses to make his work environment less racist.

As the only African American driver in the top series, he should be doing that. He should be the one to stand up and speak for that Black Lives Matter movement. Because he’s in the proper position to do that, to make change. I really applaud him for that. Bubba’s a cool dude. Seeing that paint scheme, when I saw the #blacklivesmatter, I was like, Wow, man. This is really happening. Ever since the Confederate flag ban, a lot of people have been hitting me up saying, “I’m gonna start coming to races now.”

I’m all behind the Black Lives Matter movement and what Bubba has on his car. That was very powerful because of everything we have been going through for years. Black people in general being treated unfairly. Like, it doesn’t matter the color of our skin. We should be treated fairly as well. I’m getting tired of seeing my own drop like flies, like we’re not important. George Floyd. That man was a father, that man was a brother; he was a son. He didn’t have to go out like that. Cops who do that should suffer consequences, and justice should be served. And until that happens we won’t stop fighting. And we won’t be quiet about the issue. Until things are changing, Breonna Taylor, just everybody in general who has lost their lives lately because of all the stuff going on…it’s not fair. I pray for change, and I pray that it happens soon.

It’s one thing to enter a sport knowing you’re going to make history. But what’s it like when that history actually happens? When you’re witness to a moment as monumental as NASCAR banning the Confederate flag?

It’s an important time for us to speak up, now more than ever. You know, being one of the few people of color in the sport, I feel like now I have to use my platform to actually be a voice and to stand up and let people know that what’s happening is not right. I’m just glad that NASCAR’s taking the proper steps to make change. We’re taking baby steps but a lot has been happening this past week. I mean, just having the singer Keedron Bryant for the pre-race ceremony at the NASCAR Cup race in Atlanta … I don’t remember the last time we had an African American sing the national anthem. And then the video with the drivers?

And then Bubba drives a Black Lives Matter car four days later, and the Confederate flag gets taken down before the green flag? I’m like, Oh, this is a good week. This is really good.

It’s been so cool to see this change. NASCAR’s been needing it for a very long time.

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