A victory can cure a lot of things for a race car driver, but for young Macy Causey, it took a little more. Like a trip to the hospital in an ambulance two days after her historic win at South Boston Speedway on May 20.
The 16-year-old Causey became the first female to win a Late Model Stock race at the historic Virginia track when she captured a 75-lap race, the first of a doubleheader.
She had felt poorly at the start of the race, but was revitalized by the race to victory. She didn’t feel great in the second race of the night, but shrugged it off and raced to fifth.
Sunday was filled with congratulatory phone calls and media interviews, but gradually she felt worse and worse.
And on that Monday night, while standing in the kitchen of her family’s Yorktown home, she passed out, falling to the floor. An ambulance was called and she was rushed to an area hospital. She had a fever of 104, was severely dehydrated and was diagnosed with strep throat. She spent several hours in the emergency room under doctors’ care and receiving fluids.
“Even in the hospital,” Causey said, “all I could think about was the win.”
And it was a win worth thinking about. It was her first Late Model win, the first by a female at South Boston and the first Late Model Stock win for Rev Racing in several years. Rev Racing is part of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, and when Causey was selected to be a member of the team late last year, she became the youngest selection ever.
Causey’s grandmother, Dianne Teel, who became the first woman to win a NASCAR-sanctioned event in the early 1980s, and participated in the old Busch Grand National Series, has a better understanding of the magnitude of her granddaughter’s win.
“Macy has done something so great that I think it will take a while for her to understand how big of a deal this was. To win at a place like South Boston with all of its history is so overwhelming for all of us to take in right now,” said Teel, who ran several Busch Series races at South Boston. “And, she did it the right way without wrecking people to win. That’s what was the best part for me.”
There were lots of wrecks in the race, but the young driver managed to miss them all.
“I avoided some huge wrecks,” recalled Causey. “The last one barely clipped my rear, but it wasn’t too bad. Avoiding the last wrecks was the best thing that could have happened. I don’t know if we could have come back through the field that late.”
She readily admits there was a bit of pressure on her on the last restart.
“Right before we went green the last time, my crew chief asked me if I was nervous. I said ‘no,’ but then I came back and said ‘yes, maybe a little’.”
She avoided the pressure as deftly as she had avoided the restarts and rolled on to victory.
“It’s really meaningful … look at all the national champions that were in the field (Lee Pulliam, Philip Morris, Peyton Sellers). It was a lot to take in,” said Causey. “I’m really glad my first win happened here at South Boston.”
And as is the case every time she cranks her race car, Causey’s family was close by.
“It was an exciting moment for my whole family,” she said. “My mom and dad were there and my grandmother never misses a race. I don’t know what I’d do if she wasn’t there for a race.
“She was absolutely happy. She kept saying I did a ‘helluva job’.”
The racing action heats up again at South Boston Speedway Saturday night with a 100-lap race for the NASCAR Whelen All American Series Late Model Stock Car Division. Competitors in the Limited Sportsman Division will be featured in a pair of 25-lap races, and twin 15-lap races are slated for the competitors in the Budweiser Pure Stock Division. The Budweiser Hornets Division drivers will go at it in a 15-lap race.
Registration and pit gates open at 2:30 p.m., practice runs from 4 p.m. until 5 p.m. Grandstand gates will open at 5:30 p.m. and qualifying starts at 6 p.m. The first race gets the green flag at 7 p.m.
Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for youth ages 7-12. Kids ages six and under are admitted free with a paid adult.
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