KarenCaren

TALLADEGA, Ala. — What do Tony Stewart and Danica Patrick have in common, other than both wearing Nomex suits and $5,000 helmets to work every day?

Chrissy Wallace.

Stewart, as her mentor and coach. Patrick, as her role model.

Mike Wallace, Wallace's father, the middle of the Wallace brothers, is out in the NASCAR garage working on his own equipment and worrying that his wife and daughter might be red-lining the family credit cards at the mall when they don't answer their cell phones. But at the moment, Chrissy Wallace, 19, happens to be just lounging on a big sofa in the family motor coach deep in the Talladega Speedway infield, while her mother, Carla, sits attentively on a sofa on the other side.

This Wallace teenager, just a couple of weeks after she finished 17th in her first-ever NASCAR Truck run at Martinsville, is trying to figure out her next step in what she hopes will eventually become a major-league NASCAR career.

A 17th-place finish at Martinsville isn't quite as earth-shattering as Patrick's historic IndyCar win, one of the biggest victories ever for a female racer. But it is clearly a good month to be woman driving a race car.

"It's definitely a big deal for her and her series, but these are two totally different divisions (NASCAR and IndyCars) and it may not open any more doors in NASCAR," Wallace said. "It's definitely going to help her, but I don't know if it will open any doors in NASCAR - because NASCAR hasn't had a female win yet."

Ah, yes. Not so long ago, Detroit execs were in a furious battle to be the first to a big NASCAR victory lane with a woman racer. But fast forward, and, well, things have cooled off. Erin Crocker, now 27, was on the NASCAR fast track, a Ford project in 2004, a surprising World of Outlaws winner that summer, then a Ray Evernham development driver in 2005. But Crocker got sidetracked, sidelined, blindsided, whatever, and the past year or so she's been trying to pick up the pieces of her racing career. Auto racing is like that - fast, furious and frustrating - and frequently cruel. Newcomers can expect the worst, and usually get it. Until they figure everything out.

So here's Wallace, one of the newest, and really just starting out in all this. The past couple of years she's being working up through the Humpy Wheeler school of racing, in Bandoleros, Legend cars, Thunder Roadsters, Pro Challenge; and last year she added five Late Model races, winning four at Hickory.

Wallace's ace in the hole - Stewart as coach, sponsor and mentor.

"This is definitely something I want to do as a career," Wallace said. "When I was younger, I was just doing it for fun; I was more interested in softball and basketball. But then when I started winning more, especially when I got into Late Models....

"I'd like to follow in my dad's footsteps. But we're going to take it slow, and hopefully move up. We've got seven Truck races planned this year: Just ran Martinsville, started 35th, wound up 17th. That's the biggest track I've run so far. Got Milwaukee next, in June. And we're talking about running Talladega here in the fall. And maybe running Kentucky in September and Nashville."

That as prelude to a full Truck tour run in 2009. Sounds like a plan.

But racing - and Wallace has seen it from many different sides, with her father, and uncles Rusty and Kenny - isn't easy. As a job, the demands are endless, the competition ruthless - in the boardrooms as well as out on the asphalt.

The stuff on the track, hey, that's fun. It's all the other baggage, the sponsorship battles, the sponsorship demands, the personal appearance, the PR work, the endless travel, the business side Monday to Thursday; and then, remember, people sometimes die doing this.

As part of the Wallace clan, she's heard all the horror stories. Is she really tough enough for all this?

"Mentally and physically, you've got to be tough," Wallace said. "Definitely you've got to be mentally strong, so if you're in a wreck you don't get down. And if people are bumping you, trying to spin you out, you can't let it get to you...."

NASCAR execs have been pushing, quite strongly, for their Cup team owners to create diversity opportunities, for women and minorities, at every spot, from under the car to behind the wheel. It takes more than just talent, backing and opportunity to make it. It takes that fire in the belly. And with as much pure frustration as this sport generates weekly, sometimes that fire just dies.

Wallace seems, so far, undaunted.

The idea of women racers in NASCAR isn't new at all. Louise Smith was one of the first, back in 1949. And they sometimes come in waves.

But making it big, as a successful racer, well, that really hasn't happened yet in NASCAR. Not that plenty of women haven't had their shot.

For one thing, it's too easy in this business to get in over your head too fast, or get pushed too fast.

On the other side, patience simply doesn't exist here. Its "What have you done for me lately?" Sponsors and car owners don't have time to let a driver develop. Too frequently when a newcomer does get a good shot, and blows it, for whatever reason, he or she is simply pushed over into the ditch, and the train keeps on running.

"I'm only running seven Truck races this year, but I'm still doing my Late Models, at Hickory and Tri-county, and maybe we'll run Bristol," Wallace said. "We're being pretty cautious about all this the next couple of years. The Germains (team owners for both Mike and Chrissy) don't want to push me too fast; my parents don't want to push me too fast. We're doing things on a stepping pace."

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