Kelly Sutton

For other people named Kelly Sutton, see Kelly Sutton (disambiguation).

Kelly Renae "Girl" Sutton (born September 24, 1971) is a former NASCAR driver. Sutton started 54 races, mostly in her family-owned No. 02 Chevrolet Silverado, in the Craftsman Truck Series. She was the only stock-car racer, male or female, known to race with multiple sclerosis before Trevor Bayne's diagnosis in 2013.

Kelly Sutton
Born	Kelly Ranae Sutton (1971-09-24) September 24, 1971 Crownsville, Maryland, U.S.
Achievements	First female Allison Legacy Series race winner (1997)
Awards	2007 Dorthy Corwin "Spirit of Life" Award 2005 Trailblazer Award 2004 Jimmy V Award 2004 Gene Autry Courage Award 2003 Wilma Rudolph Courage Award 2002 NASCAR Goody's Series Most Popular Driver 1998 Pars Pro Truck Series Oral B Close Brush Award 1997 Allison Legacy Pennsylvania Series Most Popular Driver 1992–1994 Old Dominion Speedway Most Popular Driver 1993 Metropolitan Auto Racing Fan Club Of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia Award 1992 Old Dominion Speedway Hard Charger Award 1992 Old Dominion Speedway Sportsmanship Award
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career
54 races run over 5 years
Best finish	26th (2004)
First race	2003 O'Reilly 200 (Memphis)
Last race	2007 Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200 (Milwaukee)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0
Statistics current as of May 22, 2010.

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. 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 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 and Lube 200, despite dropping to 29th in points. She had a big accident at Kansas during the season when she went upside down in turns 3 and 4 during the O'Reilly 250 after contact with Chris Fontaine, who had wrecked in front of her earlier.

In 2006, she competed in twelve races. During the O'Reilly 250 at Kansas, the same race she flipped in a year earlier, she had another bad accident, this time losing control of her truck on the backstretch and just missing an opening on the inside wall before slamming into the wall, almost flattening the driver's side of the truck. She was extracted from the truck to a local hospital, but she survived with minor injuries. Fellow NASCAR driver Jeff Fuller would have an accident almost similar to this later in the year in a Busch series race at Kentucky when he spun to avoid a spinning Jason Leffler and slammed into an opening on the inside wall, only it was the passenger side door that was flattened, and he survived with minor injuries. Brad Keselowski was hired to drive in two races that her team was entered in, but that she could not race in due to her injury. Her best finish was a nineteenth at Gateway International Raceway.

For 2007, she drove three races in the No. 51 truck for Billy Ballew Motorsports. In June 2007, Sutton finished 20th at the Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200, her last race to date.

Motorcycle accident

On Sunday, April 7, 2013, Sutton was severely injured in a motorcycle accident while riding as a passenger. The person she was riding with died. She was taken to an area hospital in critical condition.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Craftsman Truck Series

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	NCTC	Pts	Ref
2003	Sutton Motorsports	02	Chevy	DAY	DAR	MMR	MAR	CLT	DOV	TEX	MEM 27	MLW	KAN	KEN	GTW	MCH	IRP	NSH	BRI	RCH	NHA 23	CAL	LVS DNQ	SBO	TEX	MAR	PHO 35	HOM 19	63rd	340
2004				DAY DNQ	ATL 32	MAR DNQ	MFD 20	CLT DNQ	DOV 27	TEX 30	MEM 31	MLW 25	KAN 35	KEN 23	GTW 21	MCH 25	IRP DNQ	NSH 28	BRI DNQ	RCH DNQ	NHA 24	LVS 35	CAL 25	TEX 35	MAR 34	PHO 35	DAR 36	HOM 34	26th	1432
2005				DAY 17	CAL 26	ATL 31	MAR 27	GTY 28	MFD 26	CLT 15	DOV 31	TEX 29	MCH DNQ	MLW DNQ	KAN 31	KEN 26	MEM 20	IRP 31	NSH 36	BRI DNQ	RCH DNQ	NHA 29	LVS 28	MAR DNQ	ATL DNQ	TEX DNQ	PHO DNQ	HOM DNQ	29th	1315
2006				DAY 29	CAL 28	ATL	MAR	GTY 19	CLT 27	MFD 21	DOV 36	TEX 24	MCH 25	MLW 32	KAN 36	KEN	MEM	IRP 25	NSH 26	BRI	NHA	LVS	TAL	MAR	ATL	TEX	PHO	HOM	34th	977
2007	Billy Ballew Motorsports	51	Chevy	DAY	CAL	ATL	MAR	KAN 33	CLT	MFD DNQ	DOV	TEX 33	MCH	MLW 20	MEM	KEN	IRP	NSH	BRI	GTW	NHA	LVS	TAL	MAR	ATL	TEX	PHO	HOM	66th	231

External links

• Kelly Sutton driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Kelly Sutton at Racerchicks
• Official website