Up and coming: Allison Duncan

In "Up and Coming," Yahoo! Sports profiles drivers currently trying to reach or find success in NASCAR's highest ranks.

Please don't ask Allison Duncan if she's NASCAR's answer to Danica Patrick.

Along with the other high-profile female drivers currently involved with NASCAR – her teammate and former open wheel racer Sarah Fisher, and Erin Crocker – she's been asked that question more often than she can remember.

"I guess it's a good thing that [Patrick's] drawn so much attention to women in racing right now," Duncan said. "But you have to realize, she's in the very best equipment there is. That's what makes her situation completely different from women racers in the past."

That, and a different type of attention Patrick has received.

"I don't think you need to take your clothes off to draw attention to yourself, you just need to get the job done," Duncan said.

Duncan has done a pretty good job of drawing attention to herself – not by her appearances in magazines, but where it counts: her on-track performance. She made history on June 11 by becoming the first woman to win in the NASCAR-sanctioned Western Late Model Series at Stockton (Calif.) 99 Speedway.

Despite having that win under her belt, Duncan's story is just starting. When it is written – and it will be – it will start with a little girl going to see a NASCAR race and becoming totally smitten with speed.

Allison Duncan   Age: 26 Hometown:  San Rafael, Calif.

Duncan grew up in San Rafael. Calif., which is close to Infineon Raceway, site of Sunday's Nextel Cup race.

"My father took me to the very first NASCAR race that was held [at Infineon]," said Duncan, whose father had raced motorcycles and was involved in rally racing in his native Ireland before moving his family to California. "The excitement, the sounds and everything that was a part of the race was just incredible," she said. "I was completed hooked on racing from the moment the first car rolled onto the track."

Duncan's first racing experience left an indelible impression. She loved the idea of going fast. Although she participated in other sports growing up ("I guess I was a bit of a tomboy growing up, but I could be a girl, too," she said), her thoughts often turned to racing.

As a teenager, she felt it was time to unlock her passion for speed.

"It was my father's love of racing that made it easy for me to get started when I first showed interest in racing," Duncan said. "He's supported me from the start."

She began her career in sports cars at age 17. Her family had friends who raced in the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), and with a professional road racing track close to her home, it made things a lot easier for her to get started.

It didn't take long for Duncan to win her first title – the SCCA (Mazda) RX 7 championship in 1998. More championships followed, and in 1999 she found herself competing in the Women's Global GT Championship, in which she won one race, two pole positions and set a lap record at Road Atlanta.

The following year, Duncan became the youngest woman to compete in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, driving a Dodge Viper.

"After that race, being at Daytona, I knew it was time to move on to stock cars," Duncan said.

After earning her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from California Polytechnic State University, she moved to North Carolina, the home of stock cars.

Once there, Duncan got involved with the now defunct Dodge Driver Development program along with more than 100 other female drivers. Although Dodge abandoned the program before its completion, it gave Duncan the opportunity to show the right people that she had what it took to race stock cars.

While in North Carolina in 2003, Duncan raced 17 of 19 events in the Late Model Stocks division at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway and scored 11 top-10 finishes. She was voted 2003 Rookie of the Year, becoming the first woman to receive that honor.

In 2004, she was paired with longtime NASCAR team owner Tinsley Hughes and BH Motorsports as part of NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program. That year, she collected a top-five finish in the Hickory Motor Speedway year-end points standings.

Duncan (left) and Crocker.

Duncan then was spotted by representatives from the Bill McAnally Racing/Richard Childress Racing driver development program at a Drive for Diversity driver combine held last fall at the Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Va. McAnally/Childress signed her to drive in the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series in her native California.

"The Drive for Diversity program has been an incredible opportunity for me to gain some valuable experience," Duncan said.

That program paid off in a big way with her first late model win earlier this month. It was the first victory by a participant in the Drive for Diversity program since its inception in 2004.

"That was an awesome win," Duncan said. "We've now won a race and finished second three times."

But her on-track success has made her just a bit impatient to make a move up to a regular Busch Series car.

"I know I've got a great team behind me and I have a great car," she said. "And I've been running late models for 2½ years now. But I'm definitely getting antsy."

McAnally and Childress are taking their time with Duncan, preferring not to rush her to the big leagues before she's ready. In the meantime, she's gaining plenty of experience.

"With my current schedule, I get to race every weekend," Duncan said. "There's nothing more valuable than seat time."

Pressure, support and expectations

Duncan does admit that there is an unspoken competition between herself and another high-profile female stock car driver, Erin Crocker, as to which will be the first woman to find success at the top levels of NASCAR. They have become friends, and although their paths to stock car racing were quite different, both are aware of the media spotlight and the pressure put on them both to succeed.

"Deep down, both of us want to be the first really successful female," Duncan said. "But it's not like if one of us makes it, the other one won't. There's room for all of us."

Duncan includes in that "us" her McAnally Racing teammate – former open wheel racer Fisher, who also is part of the Drive for Diversity Program and is racing in a different NASCAR-sanctioned series.

Duncan's biggest fan remains her father, who is there with her nearly every weekend, hugging her when she does well and offering words of encouragement when things aren't going as planned.

"He's very proud of me," Duncan said. "He's there to support me but doesn't tell the guys what to do with the car. He's not one of those nightmare 'garage parent' stories that you hear about."

Of course, she's a huge fan favorite with the female fans, but she likes the fact that a big part of her fan base is men.

"They like my aggressive driving style," said Duncan, who runs nearly every weekend at Stockton 99 Speedway. "They know I can drive with the guys and not give in."

Duncan means much more to NASCAR than just media hype. She represents the first true success story for NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program.

That program, according to NASCAR CEO Brian France, is designed to make NASCAR look more like America. And with more than half of America being women, Allison Duncan is living proof that racing may truly be on its way to being an equal opportunity sport.

As long as you have her depth of passion for it.

"Racing is the only thing that I can think of that I would want to do," Duncan said. "There's nothing else I'd rather do."

Veteran motorsports writer Bob Margolis is Yahoo! Sports' NASCAR reporter. Send Bob a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

Updated on Friday, Jun 24, 2005 4:00 am, EDT

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