NASCAR Week: This interview is part two in a series of five articles this week on jobs in NASCAR.
Johanna Long's website describes her as a woman with "a heavy right foot and a bright future." We couldn't have said it better ourselves.
Johanna, a Pensacola native, will make her NASCAR Nationwide Series debut on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. At age 19, she'll be the youngest female driver in history to start the engine in a Nationwide Series race. But, while this move will bring her further into the national spotlight, in some ways it's just another step in what's been an already impressive racing career.
Johanna caught the driving bug early. As early as the age of five, she watched her father race around the Southeast in the old NASCAR All-pro Division, and by age eight she was racing her own go-karts. Since then, she's gone on to win track championships, race at 18 on the NASCAR Truck Series, break barriers and earn respect. She closed out 2010 with a victory in the Snowball Derby, the nation's most prestigious Super Late Model race.
Perhaps most amazing, Johanna has achieved all this while keeping a reputation for being a kind, down-to-earth woman. Her interview below certainly seems to affirm that characterization.