NASCAR Resume
Heather is most passionate about covering NASCAR and other forms of racing. She has a knack for finding local angles to this national sport. She is the executive producer and lead reporter for Sinclair Broadcastings NASCAR coverage. Heather does a weekly NASCAR segment and blog with NASCAR drivers as guests. She currently has a NASCAR blog that has won several awards. Heather creates all the graphics, in addition to writing the blog. You can see the latest blogs HERE.
Performance Racing Network
Reporting
Earnhardt vs Labonte
The Legend of L.W. Wright
The Backstretch
A night he can't remember
Brownie King
The Backstretch Pod
Highlighted Graphics from The Backstretch Blog
The Backstretch Blog
The Backstretch Blog: Wins aren't always black and white
Full disclosure from the start, I feel more personally attached to the events of the past week than perhaps any story I have covered in my 25-year sports journalism career. How could I not be? Every time I see Bubba Wallace, I see a part of myself. Like Wallace, I am a child of a mixed-race marriage. Along the way, I've heard many of the same tired tropes that have been repeated this week. I know my experiences in the NASCAR garage have been similar to Wallace's, plenty of good, but just enough bad that you don't forget it.
I first started covering NASCAR in 2002 and my first race was at the Talladega Superspeedway. At the time, there were few to no journalists of color in the garage area. As I stood in the Media Center waiting for qualifying on Friday, someone walked up to me and asked me what time lunch would be served.
I was not wearing anything that indicated I worked at the Speedway or with NASCAR, In fact, I was wearing the very large media credential that was the standard back then. When I said that I did not know, the response was, oh I thought you worked here.
By the time I moved to Bristol, I had been covering the sport for 15 years. But after my first report from the track, I was inundated with messages that I knew nothing about the sport, followed by racial slurs. Remember, I am a product of a mixed-race marriage. Sound familiar? The context is not the same, but the sentiment is. Bubba Wallace has always been seen as a black man by most people until it is no longer convenient for them.
"It always gets lost in translation that I'm a biracial kid," said Wallace. "To society, I'm known as the black kid, the black driver. I love both sides of my family equally and when it's talked about I represent both sides. It's just the way society labels you, as one side. But I know what I want and where I stand in life and I'm comfortable with that."
That quote from Wallace hit hard. It is very much what it's like to be a mixed-race adult. You can't claim to be black, because you are part white, oh but don't come playing on our white playground, because you are too black for that.
What is so impressive about Wallace, is how he has handled it all. It hasn't been easy an easy road to get to this point, but now there's one less insult the haters can throw at him. He has won in the Cup Series. You can argue it was rain-shortened or NASCAR is WWE, it doesn't matter to him. The record books will forever say: 2021 Talladega Fall Race Winner-Bubba Wallace
"I know I'm a winner so I just laugh at it now," said Wallace. "I love it, it's so funny. I haven't fed into it but I'm like 'I am a winner at the end of the day, I don't care much what ya'll have to say.'"
And it's really that simple. You can debate how he won or if he deserves it in your eyes, but it doesn't matter. NASCAR says he's the winner and it's their sport. Austin Dillon put the 3 in victory lane on the 20th Anniversary of Dale Earnhardt's only win. Dale Jr won at Daytona the first time the sport returned to the track after his dad's death. There are dozens of Hollywood script moments in the sport. Make of them what you will. But they've happened well before this past weekend and they will happen long after.
This moment is telling about the sport because of the responses to Wallace's win. Along with the bad, there has been plenty of good. There will always be those who don't like 'politics in the sports' and then cheer on the Trump car or chant "Let's go Brandon." You can't change them or change their minds. So in this moment, we celebrate how far the sport has come and how bright the future can be.
"I have a feeling that every minority that was on pit road or a part of our sport in some way, inside our four walls, they were all pumped up," said Wallace. "I've gotten to talk to a lot of people and they are all super pumped, so that's cool."
The Backstretch Blog: Rush to Judgement
I know I probably won’t change many minds when it comes to the events in New York involving Tony Stewart and Kevin Ward, Jr. Those who believe Stewart did wrong have already convicted him. Those who support him will not relent that he might have done something wrong. Such is your right and such is the way it has become in this instant information society.
I don’t claim to know Tony Stewart. I am just a local sports reporter, with dreams of covering NASCAR on a bigger scale someday. I have interviewed Stewart maybe a dozen times in my 13 or so years of covering the sport. The one time I got to spend a little time away from the track with him, I found him charming and funny. But I have also been on the wrong end of a Tony Stewart bad day.
I never met Kevin Ward, Jr. At 20, his life was taken far too soon. Those that did know him say he
was a good kid with a passion for racing. He had been behind a wheel since he was four. And he was pretty good at it too, winning the 2010 Rookie of the Year honor in Empire Super Sprints.
This is what I do know; if I was either man, I would not want the events of Saturday night to define me, not until we know for sure what happened. And we may never know. So I am asking people, no matter what side you fall on here, who you think is to blame, to just take a step back and consider these are real people, a real life was lost and many others changed forever.
For starters, let’s stop blaming Ward for getting out of his car. Was it the smartest decision he could have made? Of course not. Is he the first driver to ever do it? Again, of course not. Just go to YouTube and search Kurt Busch or Ward Burton or even Tony Stewart himself and you can find examples of drivers doing what Ward did.
It doesn’t make it right; it just makes it a thing drivers do. Ward paid the ultimate price for a decision he made in a fit of anger. We have all made poor decisions in those types of moments, and there but for the grace of God go I.
Also, lets tamper down the Tony Stewart is a hot head talk a bit. Yes, Tony Stewart can be a hot head. Yes Tony Stewart had to go to NASCAR ordered anger management. But some of what is out there right now is just way over the line. Stewart has never intentionally hit a crew member. And the sound bite of Stewart saying he was going to “run over” Matt Kenseth is being taken out of context. First of all, he meant in the race car, not while he was on foot. Second of all, he really didn’t mean it as far as I can tell. Stewart never made good on that promise of two years ago. Haven’t we all said stuff when we were mad that we regretted later?
Another thing, this is NOT a NASCAR issue. Yes it involved a NASCAR driver, but those calling for government regulation or intervention in NASCAR are so off the mark, they aren’t even on the board. If an NFL player hurts someone during a backyard flag football game should the government go after the NFL? You may not like racing, you may not understand it, but this is not the time to attack it. This has nothing to do with NASCAR. Sprint Cars and the Sprint Cup are not the same thing.
Finally, I am begging anyone out there with a public opinion about what happened, to do a little research on Sprint Cars first. They are not like the car in your garage, they are not like a dirt modified and they are definitely not like a stock car. They only have one gear, you sometimes use the throttle to steer them and under a caution they usually have to run a pretty good speed because of the lack of gears. You cannot watch the video and judge the way Stewart reacted, based on how you would react in a car driving down the street. I have talked to a number of experienced racers and not one agrees completely with the other as to what happened. Because based on the video you just can’t tell. Only Tony Stewart knows for sure.
My heart breaks for Ward and his family this is a terrible tragedy that could have been avoided. My heart breaks for Stewart as well. He will have to live with what happened for the rest of his life.
I can’t “take sides” on this one. I don’t know nearly enough of the facts about what happened. But I do know this. I would never want someone to judge me based on the worst day of my life. And whether you think Stewart was at fault or Ward, Saturday was the worst day for different reasons in both men’s lives, and one’s life ended way too soon as a result.