Kelly Sutton

Last updated
Kelly Sutton
BornKelly Ranae Sutton
(1971-09-24) September 24, 1971 (age 51)
Crownsville, Maryland, U.S.
AchievementsFirst female Allison Legacy Series race winner (1997)
Awards2007 Dorthy Corwin "Spirit of Life" Award
2005 Trailblazer Award
2004 Jimmy V Award
2004 Gene Autry Courage Award
2003 Wilma Rudolph Courage Award
2002 NASCAR Goody's Series Most Popular Driver
1998 Pars Pro Truck Series Oral B Close Brush Award
1997 Allison Legacy Pennsylvania Series Most Popular Driver
1992–1994 Old Dominion Speedway Most Popular Driver
1993 Metropolitan Auto Racing Fan Club Of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia Award
1992 Old Dominion Speedway Hard Charger Award
1992 Old Dominion Speedway Sportsmanship Award
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career
54 races run over 5 years
Best finish26th (2004)
First race 2003 O'Reilly 200 (Memphis)
Last race 2007 Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200 (Milwaukee)
WinsTop tens Poles
000
Statistics current as of May 22, 2010.

Kelly Renae "Girl" Sutton (born September 24, 1971) [1] is a former NASCAR driver. Sutton started 54 races, mostly in her family-owned No. 02 Chevrolet Silverado, in the Craftsman Truck Series. She was the only stock-car racer, male or female, known to race with multiple sclerosis before Trevor Bayne's diagnosis in 2013.

Contents

Beginnings

Sutton began racing at the age of 10 before her career was halted due to her diagnosis of MS at the age of sixteen. She resumed racing in 1992 at Old Dominion Speedway, driving in the Pro Mini Stock Series. During her first year of competition, Sutton won the Hard Charger and Sportsmanship awards. During her three years competing in the series, she won seven feature races and won the Most Popular Driver award all three years.

Return to racing

Sutton would not race again until 1997 in the Allison Pennsylvania Legacy Series. She won two feature races and the Most Popular Driver Award. The next year, she competed in the Parts Pro Truck Series, where she won one qualifying race and the Oral B Close Brush Award.

In 2000, she advanced to the NASCAR Dash Series, where she competed in two races and had a sixteenth-place finish. She posted her first top-ten in the division the following year, before competing full-time in 2002, winning the Most Popular Driver award and finishing third in rookie standings.

Craftsman Truck Series

Sutton made her NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut in 2003 at Memphis Motorsports Park, where she started 34th and finished 27th after suffering early transmission failure. She ran three more races that year, her best finish being a 19th at the season-ending Ford 200. She made her first full-time bid for the championship in 2004, with sponsorship from Copaxone. She finished seventh for NASCAR Rookie of the Year honors and 26th in championship points, her best points finish to date. Her best finish that season came at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway, where she finished 20th. She returned in 2005, posting a career-best fifteenth-place run at the Quaker Steak and Lube 200, despite dropping to 29th in points. She had a big accident at Kansas during the season when she went upside down in turns 3 and 4 during the O'Reilly 250 after contact with Chris Fontaine, who had wrecked in front of her earlier.

In 2006, she competed in twelve races. During the O'Reilly 250 at Kansas, the same race she flipped in a year earlier, she had another bad accident, this time losing control of her truck on the backstretch and just missing an opening on the inside wall before slamming into the wall, almost flattening the driver's side of the truck. She was extracted from the truck to a local hospital, but she survived with minor injuries. Fellow NASCAR driver Jeff Fuller would have an accident almost similar to this later in the year in a Busch series race at Kentucky when he spun to avoid a spinning Jason Leffler and slammed into an opening on the inside wall, only it was the passenger side door that was flattened, and he survived with minor injuries. Brad Keselowski was hired to drive in two races that her team was entered in, but that she could not race in due to her injury. Her best finish was a nineteenth at Gateway International Raceway.

For 2007, she drove three races in the No. 51 truck for Billy Ballew Motorsports. In June 2007, Sutton finished 20th at the Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200, her last race to date.

Motorcycle accident

On Sunday, April 7, 2013, Sutton was severely injured in a motorcycle accident while riding as a passenger. The person she was riding with died. She was taken to an area hospital in critical condition. [2]

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Craftsman Truck Series

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series results
YearTeamNo.Make12345678910111213141516171819202122232425NCTCPtsRef
2003 Sutton Motorsports 02 Chevy DAY DAR MMR MAR CLT DOV TEX MEM
27		 MLW KAN KEN GTW MCH IRP NSH BRI RCH NHA
23		 CAL LVS
DNQ		 SBO TEX MAR PHO
35		 HOM
19		63rd340 [3]
2004 DAY
DNQ		 ATL
32		 MAR
DNQ		 MFD
20		 CLT
DNQ		 DOV
27		 TEX
30		 MEM
31		 MLW
25		 KAN
35		 KEN
23		 GTW
21		 MCH
25		 IRP
DNQ		 NSH
28		 BRI
DNQ		 RCH
DNQ		 NHA
24		 LVS
35		 CAL
25		 TEX
35		 MAR
34		 PHO
35		 DAR
36		 HOM
34		26th1432 [4]
2005 DAY
17		 CAL
26		 ATL
31		 MAR
27		 GTY
28		 MFD
26		 CLT
15		 DOV
31		 TEX
29		 MCH
DNQ		 MLW
DNQ		 KAN
31		 KEN
26		 MEM
20		 IRP
31		 NSH
36		 BRI
DNQ		 RCH
DNQ		 NHA
29		 LVS
28		 MAR
DNQ		 ATL
DNQ		 TEX
DNQ		 PHO
DNQ		 HOM
DNQ		29th1315 [5]
2006 DAY
29		 CAL
28		 ATL MAR GTY
19		 CLT
27		 MFD
21		 DOV
36		 TEX
24		 MCH
25		 MLW
32		 KAN
36		 KEN MEM IRP
25		 NSH
26		 BRI NHA LVS TAL MAR ATL TEX PHO HOM 34th977 [6]
2007 Billy Ballew Motorsports 51 Chevy DAY CAL ATL MAR KAN
33		 CLT MFD
DNQ		 DOV TEX
33		 MCH MLW
20		 MEM KEN IRP NSH BRI GTW NHA LVS TAL MAR ATL TEX PHO HOM 66th231 [7]

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References

  1. ↑ Kelly Sutton Career Statistics
  2. ↑ "Speed & Alcohol Apparent Factors in Fatal Motorcycle Crash". 8 April 2013.
  3. ↑ "Kelly Sutton – 2003 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  4. ↑ "Kelly Sutton – 2004 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  5. ↑ "Kelly Sutton – 2005 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  6. ↑ "Kelly Sutton – 2006 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  7. ↑ "Kelly Sutton – 2007 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
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