Dr. Jennifer Satterfield-Siegel

*“The more you know NASCAR. The more you love NASCAR,” declares Dr. Jennifer Satterfield-Siegel.

She was a recipient of the Industry Ambassador award at the recent virtual NASCAR Drive for Diversity Awards.

Satterfield-Siegel says it is “super cool” to currently be the only African American woman NASCAR race team owner. Other words came to her mind when she describes how she’s accelerated into the fast lane with her husband, Max Siegel, who is the exclusive manager of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity Program.

“It’s very rewarding. I love the space that we are in with helping to develop drivers for the sport. I love that,” the pediatric dentist maintains adding there is a strong support system for her race team.

Growing up in Indianapolis, Indiana, home of the over a century old Indianapolis Motor Speedway, she has fond memories of going to the city’s iconic racetrack.

“Ever since I was a little girl my family we always went to the Indy 500 every year which was Memorial (Day) weekend. So, here in Indianapolis racing it’s just who we are,” the Circle City native said. “I never thought I wanted to be a race car driver. I wasn’t interested in it on that level when I was younger. Basically the exposure happened when my husband was the president of Dale Earnhardt Inc. and then I got the bug.”

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Max Siegel and his wife, Dr. Jennifer Satterfield-Siegel, own Rev Racing, part of NASCAR’s diversity program. (Getty)

No surprise Satterfield-Siegel would catch the racing fever when her husband ran the NASCAR-related organization started by seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt. Sadly, Earnhardt’s life came to a tragic end in 2001 when in the final lap of the Daytona 500 he crashed into a retaining wall and died instantly.

She and her husband co-own and manage Rev Racing. As NASCAR continues to diversify its landscape, Satterfield-Siegel looks for ways to increase opportunities for diverse drivers and pit crew members.

They strive for excellence with their race team she says, “It’s just we’ve done our best to get the best, that includes drivers and our head of athletic performance.”

Dr. Siegel, her husband, Max and their three children

Another team that makes Satterfield-Siegel and her husband even more wildly enthusiastic is their three children. They are all on the fast track to success.

“Our oldest is a junior at (The University of) Notre Dame and he’s a football player. Then we have a son who is in L.A. and he is at the L.A. Film Academy. Then we have a daughter who is a junior in high school and she is a scholar and an amazing volleyball player,” Satterfield-Siegel said.

She jokes that she never thought any of their children would pursue a career as racecar drivers because of the size of the stock cars used by NASCAR and other professional racing leagues.

“Our kids are big. There is no way they could fit in a (stock) car,” Satterfield-Siegel admitted with a laugh. “When they were little, they would go go-karting and that kind of thing. They’re interested in the business side, the development side, but I wouldn’t say they’re those athletes who are going to go around the track.”

She offers this advice to women who want to be winners, “Go for it. I think it’s so important that we dream and that we dream big. Women don’t allow people, places or things to define them or to stifle them.”

The NASCAR Drive for Diversity Awards are an annual event, this year held on October 8, and were established to honor the NASCAR industry’s diversity leaders as well as recognize top achievements.

By Tené Croom
@TcTene

*The owner of a tire shop in Bethesda, Ohio has put a sign outside his door that has been labeled as racist, although he claims it wasn’t his intention.

“My sign states white lives matter, who else will pay for welfare. That is a question, not a statement, it doesn’t have a question mark at the end because I don’t have one to put there,” said Mike of Mike’s Tires, who also placed “Trump 2020” on the sign and defends the whole gesture as freedom of speech.

The president of the Belmont County chapter of the NAACP says the sign should be taken down as it promotes false information.

“We actually all pay for welfare recipients to receive their benefits,” said Belmont County NAACP President Jerry Moore. “When you just take facts out of thin air and put them on a billboard and call them facts, when they are your opinions, that becomes a problem.”

The business owner says the community is blowing it out of proportion.

“If you want to call it racist, you have that right, but I also have the right to put out on my sign, in my yard, what I want,” said Mike. “I’m not a racist person, I have black customers, black people deliver tires to me, I have nothing against them.”

Watch an interview with Mike and Jerry Moore in this news report below:

In an exclusive two-part conversation with Auto Trends with JeffCars.com, curator, documentarian, professor and author Dr. Gretchen Sorin literally take us on a historical road trip, exploring the popular acronym DWB beyond the lens of racial profiling.  In her new book, Driving While Black, the effervescent Sorin shares how the car, which has served as the ultimate symbol of independence and possibility, played different roles for both the Black and White community.

We begin our talk during the period of 1930,  which was also known as the Jim Crow Era, discussing everything from W. E. B. Dubose to Booker T. Washington to Albert Einstein to the cars that played a prominent role with Black vacationers, business travelers, entertainers, sports figures and Civil Rights activists. We also dissect the history behind the infamous Green Book travel guides, sharing a number of revealing findings.

And we conclude our conversation, delving into how Dr. Sorin partnered with filmmaker Ric Burns, who is the younger brother to documentarian Ken Burns, to turn her book, which has been a labor of love for over two decades, into an upcoming must-see PBS documentary.

To Tune In via SiriusXM and/or several of our free FM online outlets, click here.

Show One Airs – Saturday, October 3 – Wednesday, October 7

Show Two Airs – Saturday, October 10 – Wednesday, October 14

And for more information on the upcoming PBS Special, click here.

Dr. Gretchen Sorin (Photo Credit: GS)

About Auto Trends with JeffCars.com

Jeff Fortson is the host and executive producer of  Auto Trends with JeffCars.com, the only multicultural syndicated automotive program airing throughout the U.S. The 30-minute weekly show, which airs on SiriusXM 141 and a number of FM radio dials, includes one-on-one conversations with many of today’s pioneers and influencers.

For upcoming shows, car-buying tips, recall updates or car reviews, visit JeffCars.com.