By Sara Page, Midlothian Exchange
spage@midlothianexchange.com

Lauren Edgerton wears a yellow lug nut on a chain around her neck. The hardware came from the car of her favorite NASCAR circuit driver Jeff Gordon, whose number she also has on a small decal in the back left window of her personal car, and whose number is painted on the doors of her No. 24 blue Chevy Cavalier U-Car. Gordon achieved fame and success on the track while maintaining a clean-cut, good-guy persona – a perfect parallel to the driver who’s bringing the No. 24 back to the smaller tracks.

During driver’s meetings at Southside Speedway, Edgerton stands near the middle of the pack, arms folded, weight on one hip, listening quietly to instructions. She checks in as required and rarely voices a complaint. The young driver doesn’t need attention off the track; she’s getting plenty of notice on the track.

Because of inversion rules which put point leaders near the back of the pack at the start, Edgerton normally has 25-30 laps to work her way to the top during Friday night races. It rarely takes her that long to enter the top 10, however. Never more aggressive than she has to be, Edgerton – who started racing in go-karts at a private dirt track - methodically picks off the competition, slipping higher and higher into the pack and forcing leaders to watch for her.

“At Southside, you kind of have to be aggressive because you have to get through the field in 25 laps and they invert the top 20 in points, so depending on where you are, that can be rough; and you can’t really take your time,” Edgerton said.

She’s been running at Southside Speedway since 2007, when she participated in six races. She only finished higher than 16th once, and that was a first-place finish on Aug. 31 of that year. In the off-season, Edgerton and her dad rebuilt the car, added a second one – a black Cavalier that they run mostly at other tracks – and came back with a vengeance in the 2008 season. Edgerton ran a full season and only finished outside of the top 10 three times. She picked up four top-five finishes, including another win, and finished sixth in final point standings. This year she has seven top-10 finishes to her credit and took the second spot earlier in the season. She is eighth in points heading into tomorrow night’s season finale. She says the year at Southside has been a little disappointing.

“I haven’t had as much success at Southside as I would have liked,” Edgerton said. “We’ve had some back luck with spinning into walls and the motor was kind of down on power because we didn’t have time to rebuild it in the off season.”

They did rebuild the black No. 24, however, and Edgerton has seen a lot of success at other tracks with it. She is second in points at East Carolina Motor Speedway, just two points off the leader. She credits her standing to the longer races at the North Carolina track, where she can be patient in her passing and more methodical in her driving. Others are quick to credit the driver behind the wheel, who has been a fast study in her first ever standard transmission vehicle.

Edgerton fights for position in her blue No. 24 U-Car. - Photo by Patrick Dobbs

Edgerton runs an aggressive schedule. She’s at Southside Speedway most Friday nights with the blue car; then, she and her dad, Rusty Edgerton, pack up the black car and travel to East Carolina for Saturday racing. In total, the mechanical engineering major at Virginia Commonwealth University expects to have run 35 races this season at five different tracks in Virginia and North Carolina, with the bulk of the work being done at Southside and East Carolina speedways.

At all of the tracks, Edgerton is either the only or one of just a few female drivers. She has been the only one at Southside Speedway since mid-June, but says gender is not an issue.

“If there are any guys out there that have a problem with me running, you know, it’s kind of hard to tell the difference, whether it’s that or whether they would have wrecked anyway,” Edgerton said. “I know the guys at East Carolina have said that they race me the same as they would race anybody else.”

In her spare time, Edgerton gives back to her hometown track as much as she can. She participates in demonstrations when Southside opens to birthday parties and special groups and makes herself available for meet-and-greet time with drivers on race nights, without reservation.

As well as she has done this year, the immediate future is in the air for Edgerton and her No. 24 car. Between hoping for an internship next summer and uncertainty about her and her dad’s schedules, Edgerton is not certain if time will allow her to race next year. But whether she’s back next year or has to take a year off, Edgerton, for sure, will be back in the driver’s seat as soon as she’s able.

“If I had the choice that would be what I went on to continue doing,” Edgerton said. “I’m hoping [a job in my field] will pay for the Modified that I want to move up to … I’d like to get one as soon as I get out [of college] and then just work towards figuring out the set up enough to run a season.” Which means that drivers in a couple divisions should be nervously looking in the rear-view mirror for the No. 24.