Courtesy of NASCAR.com

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — NASCAR national series history will be made in the Camping World Truck Series Saturday at Martinsville Speedway when four women start the Kroger 200 — and it figures all Truck Series veterans Kyle Busch and Ron Hornaday see is more trucks to pass.

That’s OK to Jennifer Jo Cobb, the most veteran of the four women.

“I think that drivers, no matter if they’re male or female, have to earn their position in NASCAR,” Cobb said. “I definitely don’t think anyone should extend any courtesies to female drivers — we all have to earn our way.

“What irritates me is when you have Cup drivers running in the Camping World Truck Series and they talk about ‘the girl driver’ or ‘somebody’s driving like the girl driver.’ What’s that got to do with anything?

“That’s the kind of disrespect we need to have out of NASCAR, whether it’s male or female — anything. I’d like to see every driver come down and treat everyone with a lot of respect, and some of them do — and I like racing against them because it makes us better.”

Cobb, 37, has been straining for years to make a foothold in NASCAR’s national series, but with little success after following her racing dad into Sprint Cars.

Johanna Long, 18, from Pensacola, Fla., made her series debut this season with a career-best 17th-place finish at O’Reilly Raceway Park where three women — which has been the series’ previous standard for females, and on numerous occasions through the years — competed.

Long, who is hosting a local Martinsville Girl Scout troop this weekend as her honorary pit crew, qualified best of the four women at Martinsville, in 17th. At the time she qualified, Long was second-best of the 19 trucks that had run and it continued her string of qualifying in the top 20 in all five races she’s attempted.

“We’ve mostly been doing race runs and the only problem I had was I didn’t get enough heat in the tires in qualifying — we’re going down the list, now,” Long said after qualifying. “But I look at everybody [in the field] the same. We’re glad to have four women in the race, but we’re out there like all the other guys, just racing to do the best that we can do.

“It’s a privilege to be at a race track. I stay humble and keep my nose down, try to learn, and try to get a top-15 every time I hit the track. Consistency is the name of the game right now, as well as taking each day as it comes. Every track is different, and I have to slowly but surely adapt to each one of them. The competition and talent in the Truck Series is amazing — nothing like it in the world.”

Angela and Amber Cope, 27 and the twin daughters of 1990 Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope’s brother Darren, practiced behind Long (21st) in the first session and were 33rd and 34th, respectively.

“This is what we’ve strived for since we started racing go-carts,” Angela Cope said. “We successfully ran go-carts for years across the Northwest, then moved to North Carolina over five years ago with a dream to race stock cars or trucks. We’ll now get the opportunity to earn the respect of our competitors.”

And Hornaday actually bristled when asked if four women at this event was legitimate or a “circus stunt.”

“Why would you throw that at me?” Hornaday said. “This is one of the tracks they’re qualified for — this is the track we all cut our teeth on, this size track is the thing — so more power to ‘em. Bring ‘em on. It’s still a number to me when I gotta pass ‘em.”

Busch, the pole-sitter who’s won 21 Truck Series races in his career and five this season, concurred.

“I think it’s great,” Busch said. “Johanna, she’s done a really nice job in the starts she’s been able to make. Unfortunately she had an engine failure right off the get-go at [Las] Vegas. Martinsville’s just part of the approval process [for the Copes] and like Ron said, it’s just another car number you come up to when you’ve got to pass them and it’s not like they’re going to be treated any differently than anybody else.”

Neither veteran had much chance to run around the women in practice,

This is not really a place that’s any harder to get around lapped trucks if they run their line, they’re fine,” Hornaday said. “They were just getting up to speed in the first practice session and I seen a lot of them improved in the second practice.

“Jennifer Jo Cobb is so unbelievable in what she’s been doing this year from the first race to where she’s at now, with where her truck’s at — and her spotter’s doing a great job. Her truck’s actually doing better so you don’t lap her as much, but these girls, once they get the truck underneath ‘em, the second practice, they looked like they were fine.”

Cobb started 28th and finished 34th in her first race and has best finishes of 14th at Texas in the spring and Darlington in August.

“I think the biggest deal is just confidence and being able to have the truck under you and being able to believe in it and knowing how far to push it,” Busch said. “So them being able to get the track time they deserve is always beneficial. With our testing rules, their first time on the track is when they get here, and the more time you get the more comfortable you feel and the better you do.”

“And there’s no worse than trying to pass [Mike] Skinner — so what’s the difference?” Hornaday said. “So what’s the difference? I had to throw that in.”

It’s fine to Raybestos Rookie of the Year leader Austin Dillon, 20, who’s mixing college and racing at a very high level this season and sees nothing wrong with expanding NASCAR’s youthful fan base even farther.

“I think it’s good for the sport,” Dillon said. “I think they have fun with it and it’ll bring new fans to the sport like we were talking about with the college students — it should bring more women enjoying the sport and heck — more guys. Pretty girls are always good to look at.”

Cobb will line up 35th based on owners’ points while Angela Cope will line up 32nd and Amber, 34th.

“After Qualifying I don’t think we’re the happiest with what we’ve done,” Angela said. “But we drove within ourselves and did what the truck could do. This is our first time racing in the Truck Series, so we’re really proud about that and we’re pleased with the outcome since we’ve only had a chance to test a truck twice, before this.”

“We have high expectations coming in, as anyone would if they came into this sport,” Amber said. “And this is exciting [to see four women in the field] because we haven’t seen a woman yet who can get out here and run at a really high level through a full schedule.”

[News Source]