A date with Daytona

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This article was published 03/01/2022 (1517 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Amber Balcaen was growing up, she never dreamt of racing at the legendary Daytona International Speedway.

A Winnipeg native who made a name for herself on dirt tracks, Daytona, and NASCAR in general, just didn’t really seem like a reality.

But it will become one next month when the 29-year-old Balcaen will race in the Lucas Oil 200 driven by General Tire at Daytona Feb. 19 — one day before the NASCAR Cup Series’ Daytona 500.

Balcaen announced Monday that she has joined Rette Jones Racing for the upcoming ARCA Menards Series championship season. In addition to Daytona, the series, which features 20 races between Feb. and Oct., will take to Balcaen to some of the most recognizable tracks in the sport such as the Talladega Superspeedway and Bristol Motor Speedway.

“For the last eight years, my goal has been to race in the ARCA Menards Series and race at these legendary tracks,” Balcaen told the Free Press in a phone interview from Charlotte, N.C.

“I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs in my career. A lot of struggles to find sponsorship. I don’t come from money and it’s a very, very wealthy person sport. Having to find that money on my own has been a struggle. In a lot of those years, I was at Daytona watching the ARCA races and thinking ‘I want that to be me out there.’ I’ve visualized racing at Daytona, I’ve visualized winning at Daytona, I’ve visualized standing at the grid at Daytona hundreds and hundreds of times. For all of this hard work to finally pay off, it feels amazing.”

For the second year in a row, Balcaen will be sponsored by a pair of local brands: ICON Direct, a Winkler-based manufacturer of after-market motorhome and RV parts and custom plastic products, and Winnipeg trucking company Glen McLeod & Son Ltd. Her sponsors made it possible for Balcaen to race for Bill McAnally racing in 2021 and take part in a NASCAR development program called the BMR Drivers Academy. Balcaen drove three races last season in ARCA West with an 11th place finish being her best result as she was involved in minor crashes in the other two.

“Just to represent Canada and represent Canadian sponsors in an American sport is awesome. It’s really, really cool,” she said.

“ICON Direct and Glen McLeod & Sons are amazing people and have built amazing companies… This is my second year with ICON but it’s my eighth year with Glen McLeod & Sons. They’ve been with me through the one-off races, through the dirt races, they’ve been with me through everything. They know this has always been my goal and it feels really good to finally get them here with me.”

Balcaen’s continued partnership with her sponsors opens the door to a full racing schedule and a chance to make history in 2022.

“No female has won an national ARCA series championship or a national ARCA series race. I really want to become the first female to do that,” said Balcaen, a third-generation racecar driver.

“Getting to race all 20 races gives me a chance at that. I want to be the highest winning female in NASCAR and if I can win a race this year, I’ll be that. That’s why it means so much to me. I just want to do well and not only prove the naysayers wrong, but prove myself right.”

Balcaen made history in 2016 by becoming the first Canadian woman to win a NASCAR sanctioned race, but her promising career almost didn’t have a happy ending. At a POWRi National Racing Series event in Missouri in 2020, Balcaen flipped her open-wheel car multiple times before slamming into the fence at a dirt track. She suffered a severe concussion, collapsed lungs, and small burns to her arms, leading to Balcaen telling her family her racing days were over.

Balcaen quickly changed her tune and is now more motivated than ever to make it as far as she can.

“I love racing. I love driving race cars and I love the platform that it gives me to inspire others. I sincerely cannot imagine myself doing anything else, I just love it so much,” Balcaen said.

“… With my crash in 2020, I thought I was going to be done racing, but I realized I didn’t want to go out that way. I want to go out on top and when I’m ready to go out. I had not felt that I succeeded yet and I didn’t want to leave the sport as a failure. I have a huge desire to succeed. I just wasn’t going to feel fulfilled as a racecar driver unless I accomplished racing at the ARCA Menards series.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31