Dystany Spurlock has possessed a passion for racing since childhood, but it’s only been within the last two months that she has written her name in the sport’s history books.
This year, the Virginia native became the first Black woman to compete in a NASCAR national touring series race and ARCA Menards Series events. A trailblazing role that she embraces.
“I love that I’m an example for kids to look at that’s so positive,” Spurlock says. “I’m very big on something my mom always told me. She said never be that kid that sat in the back of the classroom that said, ‘Dang, I wish I would have tried, or I wish I would have raised my hand to volunteer.’”
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Growing up a short distance from Richmond Raceway in rural Virginia, Spurlock became a gearhead at an early age. She spent her days with her father on tractors or the lawn mower, helping him pump the brakes as he changed them.
At age 3, her parents rode her on the back of a motorcycle, and by age 12, she was at a race track. She was involved in competition cheerleading, gymnastics, volleyball, and played corner and safety on her middle school and high school football teams.
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Spurlock’s grandfather and uncles exposed her to NASCAR at an early age. She knew she wanted to race stock cars, but she didn’t know how to get into the sport because she wasn’t born into it and she didn’t have the money it required. She competed in Formula 4 and she raced arena cars, which consisted of the same hitting, bumping, and rubbing characteristic of stock car racing. It was while competing in NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle that she adopted the signature sparkles on her face that make her resemble a character from the movie Avatar.
“I’m literally doing the work every day that I can to learn all that I can to be great.”
“In the NHRA, you cannot wear jewelry. So, I felt so naked, but I love Avatar. That is my absolute favorite movie. They have sparkles on their face, and I feel like I’m an Avatar in real life,” explained Spurlock, who has been a Delta flight attendant and driven a tractor-trailer for six years. “So, I said, hey, we can’t do jewelry, but we can still have some kind of glamour glitz.”
Even though Spurlock raced motorcycles for 16 years, she never gave up on her desire to compete in NASCAR.
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“I’m the type of person that once I put my mind to something, I’m going to do everything that I can (to make it happen),” Spurlock says. “I’m not just a happy to be here racer. I want to learn it all. I go to the gym six days a week. I’m on the SIM for four hours a day. I’m watching film. I’m literally doing the work every day that I can to learn all that I can to be great.”
At age 34, Spurlock views her age as a plus rather than a hinderance.
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“I know what it feels like to lose,” she explains. “I know what it feels like to get the door shut in your face. I know what it feels like to have to overcome what feels impossible. So, I just take my perseverance in that, and I apply it to today, and believe it or not, everything that I went through coming up in this journey of 16 years, has helped me to this day. I don’t care about the ageism that people try to project because that doesn’t matter. You can do whatever you want to do at whatever age you are.”
Earlier this year Spurlock became the first Black woman to compete in ARCA Menards Series events. She made her ARCA Menards Series East debut in late March at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway with a seventh-place finish. She backed that up with a 12th at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway. At Kansas Speedway, she made her ARCA Menards Series debut with a 10th-place finish.
“I don’t care about the ageism that people try to project because that doesn’t matter.”
“I love everything about ARCA because you have so many different racers,” Spurlock said. “You have some that have been racing for 10 plus years, some that are new like me. So, to be able to be around all the new people and the veterans and learn from them, it’s great. It’s just been unlike anything I could ever imagine. So, I’m happy to be in this space and grow.”
Spurlock noted it took her nearly two decades to get to ARCA because the opportunities didn’t exist previously.
“It costs a lot of money and there are a lot of people that gatekeep and they don’t even want to try to tell you ways of how to get into it,” Spurlock said. “So, I feel like there needs to be more opportunities like combines and things like that, that drivers can go into to try to reach the highest goal of their aspirations.”
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Spurlock finished 29thin the ARCA race at Watkins Glen but failed to qualify for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at the historic road course. That moved her Truck debut to Dover Motor Speedway. After starting 34th, she completed 36 laps before her truck got loose off turn two, spun and crashed into the wall. That left her finishing last in the race won by Kyle Busch.
Spurlock plans to compete in more races this season and “learn as much as I can about each track because they’re all extremely different.”
“I want to be able to learn … the technical side of everything because I am a gearhead,” she said.
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.