{"id":19974,"date":"2018-07-05T16:52:53","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T21:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=19974"},"modified":"2018-07-05T17:01:10","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T22:01:10","slug":"female-tire-changing-tandem-set-to-make-history-at-daytona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/05\/female-tire-changing-tandem-set-to-make-history-at-daytona\/","title":{"rendered":"Female tire-changing tandem set to make history at Daytona"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Breanna O\u2019Leary<\/strong> and Brehanna Daniels<\/strong> have a lot in common.<\/p>\n

They both go by \u201cBre\u201d for short.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Brehanna Daniels and Breanna O\u2019Leary.
(Photo courtesy of NASCAR)<\/p><\/div>\n

They are both women who have learned to excel in roles that once were, by custom, reserved for men.<\/p>\n

They are roommates. They were both college athletes.<\/p>\n

And when they enrolled at their respective universities, neither O\u2019Leary nor Daniels had any idea they would be jumping over a pit wall with an impact wrench in their hands.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s what both O\u2019Leary and Daniels will be doing in Saturday night\u2019s Coke Zero Sugar 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway (7 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary will change the rear tires on Ray Black Jr.\u2019s No. 51 Chevrolet fielded by Rick Ware Racing. Daniels will change the front tires. The event will mark the first time two women have performed over-the-wall pit crew duties for the same team in the same race.<\/p>\n

Individually, they are the fifth and sixth female crew members to reach NASCAR\u2019s highest level. Daniels is believed to be the first African-American woman to go over the wall in a NASCAR national series event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the whole situation is cool,\u201d O\u2019Leary told the NASCAR Wire Service. \u201cWe\u2019re both females and roommates, and we\u2019re both \u201cBre.\u201d We say we\u2019re \u201cBre squared.\u201d When we\u2019re standing by each other, they like to shout \u201cBre\u201d so they can laugh at us when we both look.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Saturday\u2019s race will be serious business for the two women, who followed similar paths through NASCAR\u2019s Drive 4 Diversity Pit Crew Program.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary played softball at Alcorn State. Daniels was a point guard and shooting guard for Norfolk State. They both came to tryouts at their respective schools with little idea of what to expect. But NASCAR D4D pit crew coach Phil Horton saw talent in each of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played softball at Alcorn State, but at that time, I was working on my Masters,\u201d O\u2019Leary said. \u201cI was a graduate assistant to the strength and conditioning coach. When coach Horton was coming through with NASCAR Diversity, they just happened to come to Alcorn, and my strength coach was helping out.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he said, \u2018NASCAR\u2019s coming\u2014I want you to do it.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018What am I doing?\u2019 We didn\u2019t even fully understand, but he knew it was a workout and something to be competitive in.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Daniels attended her tryout at Norfolk State, as \u201cthe only girl in the gym,\u201d she opted for the unknown of NASCAR versus taking video of a professional basketball game. It proved to be a life-changing decision.<\/p>\n

Both Daniels and O\u2019Leary earned invitations to the D4D Pit Crew national combine, and both made the cut. They have both adapted to changes in pit guns and new rules that cut the number of over-the-wall pit crew members from six to five.<\/p>\n

Those adaptions sometimes include carrying a 65-pound tire, a challenge for Daniels and her 5-5 frame.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen my carrier has adjustments to make, I have to carry my own tire, running around the car,\u201d said Daniels, who is changing tires at NASCAR\u2019s highest level for the first time. \u201cSo, thank God I have that strength, because those tires are heavy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to carry the tire in my left arm, and I have my impact wrench in my right hand. It\u2019s going to be interesting. I\u2019m ready, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniels is both ready and ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since I got in the sport, I always asked coach \u2018What does it take to get to the Cup level?\u2019\u201d Daniels said. \u201cAnd he was like, \u2018Oh, it takes three or four years to get there.\u2019 And I always thought that was just too long.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018I\u2019m going to try to get there before that.\u2019 It hasn\u2019t been two years since I\u2019ve been in the sport, and I\u2019m already making my Cup debut. I\u2019ve been making progress every time I practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Daniel\u2019s has been impatient from a career standpoint, she has made good use of the patience she learned as a point guard, waiting for just the right moment to zip a pass to a teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to be patient being a tire changer, too,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I drop down, I can\u2019t just immediately dive into hitting the first lug nut, \u2018cause then my pattern\u2019s going to be all messed up. I have to have that pause initially, then I go in to hit my five off. Everything\u2019s much cleaner that way, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   Breanna O\u2019Leary and Brehanna Daniels have a lot in common. They both go by \u201cBre\u201d for short. They are both women who have learned to excel in roles that once were, by custom, reserved for men. They are roommates. They were both college athletes. And when they enrolled at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":19973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[287,16],"class_list":["post-19974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-daytona-international-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/daniels-oleary1.jpg?fit=922%2C502&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5ca","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19974"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19977,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19974\/revisions\/19977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}