Kelly Sutton

Infobox NASCAR driver
Name = Kelly Sutton


Birthdate = birth date and age|1971|9|24
Birthplace = Crownsville, Maryland
Truck_Car_Team = #51 - Billy Ballew Motorsports
Previous_Year = 2006
Prev_Truck_Pos = 26th
Best_Truck_Pos = 20th - 2007 (Craftsman Truck Series)
First_Truck_Race = 2003 O'Reilly 200 (Memphis)
Awards = 1992 Hard Charger Award at Old Dominion Speedway

1992 Sportsmanship Award at Old Dominion Speedway

Winner of Most Popular Driver award at Dominion 1992-1994

1997 Most Popular Driver - Allison Legacy Pennsylvania Series

1998 Oral B Close Brush Award - Parts Pro Truck Series
Updated_On = April 26, 2006

Kelly Renae "Girl" Sutton (born September 24, 1971, in Crownsville, Maryland is a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver. She has run the most races by a female in Craftsman Truck series history and drove the #02 Chevrolet Silverado owned by her father, Ed Sutton. She is the only racer, male or female, known to race with Multiple Sclerosis.

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. Despite needing a wheelchair at the age of twenty-five, 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 the year 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 & Lube 200, despite dropping to 29th in points.

In 2006, she competed in twelve races, missing two races due to injury. Her best finish was a nineteenth at Gateway International Raceway.

For 2007 she is planning on driving the #51 truck for Billy Ballew Motorsports. In June 2007, Sutton finished 20th at the Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200.

External links

* [http://www.nationalmssociety.org/kelly_sutton.asp National MS Society |Kelly Sutton]
* [http://www.racerchicks.com/racers/sutton.html Racerchicks - Kelly Sutton]