Born to Race

According to NASCAR's Kelly Sutton, making a pit stop does not mean giving up the race.

NASCAR has always been in my blood. I was raised in a racing family and I've been competing myself for 14 of my 34 years. I love getting behind the wheel and being in control of something on the verge of being out of control.

It's a challenge that's a lot like living with multiple sclerosis. I was diagnosed at 16. My gait was off, I had overwhelming fatigue -- I thought my dreams of being a race-car driver were over. Then one day my dad asked me if I still wanted to drive. I said, "Yeah, but how can I?" He said I was a fighter, not a quitter. So I went on steroids and grew strong enough to start racing at 19.

It hasn't always been a clear course. At 24, a car accident spurred an attack that made me so weak I needed help taking showers and getting into bed -- no way could I have gotten in a race car. So one day Dad showed up at my house with a training car without wheels. He told me when I could do 100 laps in that, we were going racing again. That gave me the extra kick in the butt to work with my doctor and find a new drug that really helped. I've been going strong ever since.

It's like when we were running 13th in the Goody's Dash Series, in 2001. We had two laps to go and my Pontiac Sunfire conked out. I drifted into our pit and they started working on it. We finally got it fired up, and I took off. I could have just ridden into the pits, got out of my car and quit, but I didn't. I came in 21st -- a great finish for my first time at Daytona.

With MS, sometimes you have to make a pit stop because you're not feeling good, but you never give up the race.

From Reader's Digest - February 2006

 

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