Saturday night’s victory was a win years in the making for popular Virginia racer Macy Causey.
Causey, 16, received a lot of notoriety the last two seasons. Later in the year, she followed that up when she made the field for the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 thanks to a fast qualifying effort. However, she had not scored a victory in Late Model Stock Car racing.
That changed on Saturday night when she became the first woman to win a Late Model Stock Car race at South Boston Speedway in Virignia.
“It feels great getting your first win in a Late Model Stock Car,” Causey said. “It’s a big deal. At a track that has multiple national champions that have won there, and being the only female that has ever won there in a late model is a great feeling and I hope that there are many more to come.”
Causey has always had confidence and believed she could get a win, but the victory has boosted her confidence even more.
“I always had confidence before this win but not as much as I have now,” Causey remarked. I know Rev Racing is capable of having a car that can run up front and a driver that won’t hold back anymore. I’ll go out there and see how many more I can get.”
Macy Causey is the granddaughter of Diane Tell, the first woman to win a NASCAR sanctioned race. Now, Causey is in her third season in Late Model Stock Car racing and her first with Rev Racing as part of the 2017 NASCAR Drive for Diversity class and has made a lot of progress as a driver since her rookie season.
“Just kind of making progress in a small amount of time it’s helpful to know you’re going to get it one day,” Causey explained. “The media has pushed my journey out there and made me realize it’s coming soon and more success is coming soon. Qualifying 11th out of 72 cars at Martinsville, I didn’t even make the field the first time I went there, went there the second year with confidence, I knew there was definitely a chance.”
In 2015, Causey, then 14-years-old, attempted to make the field for the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 but would ultimately fail to do so in her first effort. She did not let that keep her down. Instead, it was just motivation for her to come back, work harder, try harder and race harder.
“It was motivation,” Causey said. “Right after it happened, it was a down moment then I picked myself up and knew we could come back next year and try our hardest. I was disappointed in myself that I didn’t try hard enough. We had a car. National champions now, they’ve missed that race so, it’s what comes with it, so you make it to where you want to do it again next year.”
While many female racers say it’s difficult being a woman in a man’s sport, Causey has embraced it. Although she has been criticized on social media, criticism which she tunes out, she says she has never seen any gender-bias from her male competitors.
“I’ve had some haters off the track that are blowing up your feeds and putting negative things on there but I have people at the track that haven’t told me they don’t want me there,” Causey explained. “I haven’t been raced dirty or not clean that I’ve noticed. Maybe they take me out and blame it on something else. It doesn’t get to me mad, hasn’t since I got started racing.
“When I’ve been involved in wrecks, it happens everywhere. When someone takes me out and we have some questions with answers, you work it out or don’t work it out. You might fight after the race but the next race, everything’s fine and I look at it that way.”
Some of that criticism Causey has received came after last fall’s ValleyStar Credit Union 300, when she was involved in an accident on the first turn of the first lap of the feature race. Once again, Causey just shrugged it off.
“Like you said, people blamed it on me,” Causey commented. “It’s a racing accident and if they were in my position, the same thing would happen. You don’t let people get to you, especially people who don’t race you and are bystanders and talk crap. You can’t let it get to you.”
Causey’s long term goal is to one day compete in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
“NASCAR definitely is but I want to take my time in each division and get as much experience as I can,” Causey stated.
With a positive attitude, Causey is taking each challenge one day at a time and she has not gone unnoticed. On two separate occasions, she has been featured on NBC News nationally. With her first career win behind her, Causey looks down the road for more.
