Dystany Spurlock has driven where no Black woman has driven before. On Friday, 15 May, at Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware, the 34-year-old Richmond, Virginia native became the first Black woman to compete in one of NASCAR’s three national touring series, climbing into the No. 69 MBM Motorsports Ford for the Craftsman Truck Series Ecosave 200.
Her debut did not unfold as she would have scripted it. Spurlock’s truck ran loose through a turn on lap 39, and her save attempt ended at the outside wall, putting her out in 36th. The result mattered less than the line above it. By the time she walked back through the Monster Mile garage, the historical sentence had already been written with her name on it.
Speaking to Good Morning America before the race, Spurlock framed the moment with the perspective of someone who understands what representation costs and offers. “Being a first is never what I strived to be,” she said, before crediting the example her achievement now sets for young girls and boys who had no such reference point when she was growing up.
Her route to Dover ran through two wheels before four. Spurlock began racing motorcycles at 17 and built a reputation in NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle that placed her among a handful of Black women ever to reach that level. In 2024, she set a Real Street Bike world record at 7.32 seconds, crossing the finish line at 178 miles per hour.
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That first stock car start came in March, when Spurlock finished seventh of 24 drivers at Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina, piloting the No. 66 Foxxtecca Chevrolet in the ARCA Menards Series East Cook Out 200. The run made her the first Black woman to compete in a NASCAR-affiliated series. Her coach, Phil Horton, told Andscape he had long pictured this moment, drawn to the symbolism of her first name, pronounced Destiny.
The next chapter arrived at Kansas Speedway in April, where Spurlock started last in the Tide 150 and worked through to a 10th-place finish in a 29-car field, surviving a late-race save that travelled around motorsport social channels as quickly as the cars themselves. The run made her the first Black woman to race in a national ARCA Menards Series event. She told Andscape: “I love racing, but I don’t just do this for me.”
For Spurlock, the firsts are less the point than the doors they open. Her broader hope is that young people watching from the sofa see themselves in the picture, whether in the driver’s seat, on the pit wall, in an engineering bay, or anywhere else in a sport that has long defaulted to a narrower frame.
Her first attempt at a national series start came a week earlier at Watkins Glen, where she narrowly missed qualifying for the Truck Series field, partly because she lacked owner points. The setback only reframed Dover as the real entry point.
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Spurlock arrives in territory other Black women have widened from the outside. Tia Norfleet became the first African American woman to earn a NASCAR driver’s licence in the early 2010s. In 2017, Brehanna Daniels became the first Black woman to work over the wall on a NASCAR pit crew, including at the Daytona 500. “I’m so honored to be here to do this,” Spurlock told Fox Sports earlier this year.
What Spurlock has added is the in-car, on-track piece at the highest national level, done in a single year. The wall caught her at Dover. The history will not be repainted. The next race, on the next track, is already waiting.
Main Photo Caption: Dystany Spurlock made history at Dover Motor Speedway on Friday, becoming the first Black woman to compete in one of NASCAR’s three national series. She follows industry trailblazers Tia Norfleet and Brehanna Daniels in opening a new chapter in American women’s motorsport. All Photos: MBM Motorsports
Photo 2 Caption: Spurlock drove the No. 69 MBM Motorsports Ford in the Craftsman Truck Series Ecosave 200, having crossed from world-record motorcycle drag racing in a single season.
