Erin Crocker's Legacy

I share a hometown and an alma mater with Erin Crocker, so I've been following her fledgling Nascar career with some interest. Being from the Northeast, there has been virtually zero coverage of her in the local press, which is amazing given the usual fanfare given to any dubious achievements of local people. The fact that she has maintained her anonymity is a testament to how little my media outlets care about Nascar.

When I read last year that Ray Evernham had signed her, and put her on a fast track to success, I was really excited. I watched all her early Busch races, cringing each week as she either was over matched, or roughed up by the Busch regulars. Shortly thereafter, she was demoted to the Truck series, and it was more of the same. She qualified pretty well, but it was obvious that she was out of her league, or maybe just pushed too far, too fast. She crashed often, and was rarely able to stay on the lead lap.

Still, it was nice to imagine that maybe she was a natural, and would soon be representing my small home town in the Daytona 500. In 2007, or 2008, or beyond.

Then came the pictures of her always at Ray Evernham's side. Sitting with him on pit road on Sundays. Then the rumors. Then the accusations of Jeremy Mayfield. At first, I was disgusted with the allegations. As if a woman could never be judged on her talent, there had to be some cheap innuendo about her being romantically involved with her older boss. But pretty quickly, it was obvious that the rumors were true.

She disappeared from the Nascar radar screen as quickly as she arrived. Let's face it, the standard press coverage of Nascar is about as controversial as Pravda. They toe the party line. Evernham's personal relationship with her was rarely mentioned, nor were the business implications.

I lost track of Crocker this year. I had to search to find that she was dropped down to Arca, and was trying to work her way back up that way.

This week, the mainstream media finally got wind of the juicy story of the Evernham-Crocker situation, and there have been a few articles about it. The whole situation has felt very uncomfortable, fraught with conflicts of interest, and poor judgment.

The final straw, in my estimation, came this week when Evernham publicly admitted that Crocker should drive for someone else, and he made the outrageous claim that Crocker was somehow a "good role model" for female drivers trying to make it in Nascar.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and I'm embarrassed for both Crocker and Evernham. Crocker has singlehandedly set back the cause of any woman who is trying to break into Nascar. Women were not taken seriously to begin with, and now it will be even worse. What will the Nascar community think about the next young talented female driver who signs a contract with a rich male owner?

What if Evernham identifies an amazing young talented driver next year, who happens to be attractive and female? Could he possibly sign her? Or would the implications be too great for him to handle?

Every female developmental driver will have to bear the stigma of proving that they got their chance with their driving skills, and not because they are involved personally with their male boss. Crocker-Evernham's situation has played into every hackneyed old stereotype under the sun.

Evernham and Crocker are entitled to their personal relationship, that is no one's business but theirs. At the same time, it has no place being maintained between a boss-employee in a high profile business like Nascar. Crocker should have immediately resigned, and driven for someone else, anyone else, while she was involved with Evernham.

Maybe someone else will sign Crocker. Maybe she will pan out as a good driver someday. But she will have a very long way to go to undo the damage that she has done to the future of female Nascar drivers. At this point, no up and coming female racer would want to be tagged with being "the next Erin Crocker", and that's a shame.