It wasn’t that way back that Dystany Spurlock was driving tractor-trailers.
The 34-year-old Virginia native has a business driver’s license and would discover work hauling all types of issues with an 18-wheeler, from trash to crushed automobiles to development supplies. It was one of some odd jobs she had — being a flight attendant was one other — that helped fund her pursuit of a profession in skilled motorsports.
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Spurlock has gained drag races with bikes and competed in Formulation 4, however ever since she was a child rising up a stone’s throw away from the Richmond Raceway, NASCAR has been her final purpose. She was sitting on the again of the bikes her mother and father drove as early because the age of three, using on the lawnmower in her grandfather’s lap and cheering for Dale Earnhardt on race days.
“Each Sunday, NASCAR was going to be on the TV,” Spurlock instructed USA TODAY Sports activities not too long ago. “My grandfather would open the door as a result of we had been two miles from Richmond Raceway, and it was one thing about having the ability to hear them outdoors once they had been there and watching it on TV. It simply actually woke up one thing in me. So, I’ve all the time been a NASCAR girly.
“Ever since I used to be that little lady watching it… I simply knew I appreciated to go quick. After which as I grew up, I am like, ‘OK, how am I going to do that?”
Spurlock is getting her alternative to make her mark in NASCAR. And he or she’s will make historical past when she does.
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On Friday, Might 8, at Watkins Glen, Spurlock will change into the primary Black girl to race in certainly one of NASCAR’s high three touring competitions when she pilots the No. 69 Foxxtecca Toyota for MBM Motorsports and Storage 66 within the Craftsman Truck Collection.
Spurlock will pull double obligation that day on the Glen as she’s additionally competing within the ARCA Menards Collection Basic Tire 100. The ARCA race is first, adopted by the truck race just a few hours later. This would be the fourth ARCA race Spurlock has pushed on this season and he or she’s completed inside the highest 12 in every of her three earlier entries at Hickory, Rockingham and Kansas.
“I’m so enthusiastic about Watkins Glen as a result of with my Formulation 4 expertise, I am getting again on a street course. I’ve by no means raced there, however I’ve already been within the (simulation rig),” Spurlock stated. “It’s similar to (Formulation 4 street programs). In fact, the one distinction is, I am not paddle shifting now, I am really shifting — however I did that for 9 years in a tractor trailer. So I am good.”
Dystany Spurlock, driver of the #66 Foxxtecca Chevrolet, seems on in her automobile previous to the Rockingham ARCA Menards East 125 at Rockingham Speedway on April 04, 2026 in Rockingham, North Carolina.
ARCA is kind of like NASCAR’s minor leagues and one of many first main steps alongside the ladder to attending to the highest of the game the place the Cup Collection resides. Spurlock made her ARCA debut at Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina on March 28 and completed seventh, rapidly impressing the sector and displaying different drivers this wasn’t a stunt — she was critical.
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Spurlock continued to realize respect when she completed twelfth at Rockingham on April 4. She turned heads and received followers speaking on April 18, the place she pulled off an unimaginable save after getting pushed down the monitor by eventual winner Gio Ruggiero. After Ruggiero plowed into the left aspect of her bumper and turned her nostril towards the infield, Spurlock was capable of preserve the automobile from spinning or coming into the grass, regaining her management on the apron.
Her No. 66 Ford Mustang would go on to complete tenth, however the save garnered Spurlock some admiration from different drivers within the storage.
“Bobby Earnhardt got here as much as me and was like, ‘Lady, I noticed that scene, you undoubtedly made a believer out of me. Don’t cease,’” Spurlock stated. “That was the spotlight of Kansas for me, different drivers arising and embracing me.”
Due to Spurlock’s sturdy debut within the ARCA — she’s the primary Black girl to drive within the collection — she plans to race as a lot as she will this season at that degree. In ARCA’s East Collection standings, she’s sixth in factors.
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This 12 months for Spurlock is all about studying and enhancing, she stated. In an ideal world, she is aiming to make her debut within the Cup Collection throughout the subsequent three years, the place she can be, after all, pursuing extra historical past.
However Spurlock is not any stranger to being the primary or solely girl to do one thing. At Highland Springs Excessive Faculty, she was the one lady on her sort out soccer staff the place she performed defensive again.
“That was the start of me doing one thing in a male dominated area after which it simply stored going — tractor trailers, racing bikes, NASCAR,” Spurlock stated. “To me, it is regular, as a result of that is all I do know. It doesn’t faze me in any respect.”
Spurlock had been drag racing bikes for a very long time, starting on the age of 16, and pulled off quite a lot of firsts in that sport too. In 2024, she made historical past as the primary girl to win the DME Racing Actual Avenue class within the XDA Motorbike Drag Racing Collection with a run at 178 miles per hour. A 12 months later, she debuted in NHRA Professional Inventory Motorbike.
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Not solely has a Black girl by no means raced in NASCAR, however no girl has ever gained a race within the Truck Collection, the second-tier O’Reilly Auto Components Collection or on the Cup degree. Nonetheless, Spurlock doesn’t really feel a lot strain as she breaks down obstacles in stockcar racing.
“I’ve damaged quite a lot of information earlier than. I have been the primary in quite a lot of issues. In order that was by no means any strain on me,” Spurlock stated. “That is my ardour. That is what I really like. And I do not race for me. Sure, I really like racing, however I do that for the opposite era that is arising. As a result of my story is, all people gatekept all the pieces. No one instructed me what I wanted to do to get to NASCAR. I actually needed to undergo the mud to determine it out.”
Foxxtecca — which payments itself as an experiential media and occasions firm based mostly in Detroit — has sponsored Spurlock all season and is producing a docuseries “Pushed by Dystany: The Highway to NASCAR” about her journey. The corporate co-founded by Chris Harris and Kellie Crawford has funded Spurlock’s dream and historic pursuit and helped her unlock the gates that stored her out of the game for therefore lengthy.
“I’ve had so many doorways shut in my face. I’ve had so many individuals overpromise and underdeliver. It’s important to have the cash, be born into it, otherwise you simply should have some miraculous reference to somebody that may get you there. And as soon as I spotted I did not have any of these, that is once I simply targeted on drag racing bikes, as a result of I may afford to do it myself,” Spurlock stated. “That’s when Foxxtecca got here in… They known as me and had been like, ‘Put your two weeks in, discover a home in North Carolina.’”
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Spurlock left 18-wheelers behind and is now targeted on stockcar racing. Together with her CDL although, if she does make all of it the way in which to the Cup Collection, she’ll be capable of drive her personal hauler into the infield. The considered that picture makes her smile.
“I am undoubtedly pulling as much as the monitor in it,” Spurlock says. “One time, and that’s it.”
