The more I read about Johanna Long, the more I want to pull for her to succeed. She just sounds like "our kinda folks."
Johanna Long prepares for a big weekend at Talladega
Thursday, May 03, 2012, 9:00 AM
The Birmingham News By Doug Demmons
Johanna Long watches from atop her hauler at Richmond International Raceway as her crew gets her car ready for practice. (The Birmingham News/Doug Demmons)
RICHMOND, Va. - Johanna Long has had a case of nerves lately.
The NASCAR Nationwide Series driver from Pensacola raced at Richmond International Raceway for the first time last Friday and finished ahead of two drivers with much higher profiles - Danica Patrick and Travis Pastrana. But that wasn't making her nervous.
And this week she will drive a Nationwide series car for the first time at Talladega Superspeedway, but that's not the cause of all the worry either.
The worry comes from the possibility that she'll get to race across the highway from the superspeedway at Talladega Short Track.
She'd only have one driver to beat, but he's not just any driver. He's Alabama Gang legend Red Farmer, who has been racing on dirt almost as long as there has been dirt.
The short track likes to stage match races between Farmer, who still races even though he is nearly 80 years old, and NASCAR drivers whenever the Sprint Cup Series is in town.
"I'm worried. I'm not going to lie," Long said. "I'm kind of worried about that."
It's not definite that the match race will actually happen. But if it does - Friday at 9 p.m -- it will pit the 19-year-old Long against a driver old enough to be her great grandfather.
The advantage will be with Farmer, who just last October beat Sprint Cup veteran and accomplished dirt racer Kasey Kahne in a match race.
"If I do it'll be my first dirt race," she said. "I think I'll be more nervous about my first dirt race than I am about going to the big track."
Her trip to the big track will be her second. In October she competed in the Truck Series race, finishing 16th for her family's Panhandle Motorsports team.
This season she is driving for ML Motorsports, a one-car Nationwide Series team owned by Mary Louise Miller. It will be the sixth of 21 Nationwide races on her schedule this year.
Her best finish so far has been 19th at Las Vegas, but she doesn't consider a rough start to the year.
"It hasn't been rough," she said. "We've learned a lot. I feel like it's been a lot better than my truck season the year before. So I feel like I've learned a lot and gained a lot of experience at a lot of tracks."
She's not exactly a raw rookie though. Her racing resume already includes a win in one of the most prestigious short-track races in the country - the Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola.
That was in 2010. Last December she was out of the race early with mechanical problems and finished last.
"I think I'm the first one who won a race the year before and then finished dead last," she said. "It wasn't very fun."
Talladega, however, is another story.
"It's only two hours away from my home and a lot of my family will be there," she said. "So it's going to be a fun time."
During her truck race at Talladega, Long was the fastest qualifier among those drivers who had to qualify o speed rather than having an automatic qualifying spot. She stayed in the top 10 for most of the race before she got shuffled to the back in the draft and ended up finishing 16th.
So this time she's looking at "redeeming myself a little bit."
"It's all about surviving there and good drafting and having a good partner and staying out of trouble," she said.
And when the season is, she said, it will be a success if she piles up some top 15s, "being competitive, running top 20s, top 15s, maybe a top 10. I feel like that'll be a big season for me."
But first there's that date with Farmer.
"He's an awesome person," she said. "I met him in Daytona. He has a lot of information and it was really cool to pick his brain and learn from him and hopefully I'll get to race with him."
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:04:08PM
