The “Dirt Girl” Meets the Fast Track
Editor’s Note: From May 24-28 we are featuring posts by the editor and authors of the Harlequin NASCAR series. Are you a fan? New to the series? Leave a comment and be entered to win a FREE copy! See below for details.
by Abby Gaines, author of “Chasing the Dream” in The Memory of a Kiss (Harlequin NASCAR, June 2010)
My first love—of the fast, four-wheeled kind at least—was open-wheel racing. Dirt track stuff. Nitty-gritty…mostly gritty.
I was editor of a speedway magazine called The Dirt, and at my local racetrack I became known as “the Dirt girl.” I was so grateful anyone still considered me a girl, I didn’t worry about the dirt part…

Open-wheel racing “midget race car”
I loved that job, but I never thought my interest in racing would link to my romance writing until…deep breath… NASCAR.
I’d seen NASCAR on TV, along with other motor sports, but until I heard that Harlequin planned to publish stories set in that world, I hadn’t paid much attention to what those guys were doing out on the pavement for hours at a stretch. (The races I usually watched lasted all of four minutes!)
But if I wanted to write about NASCAR, I needed to watch it. There would be big differences, I figured, from open-wheel racing, and not just the cars.
So I started watching, and got hooked right away, just like millions of other people.
But, guess what? It turns out the major difference between NASCAR and the open-wheel stuff I’d cut my teeth on is…the cars. They look different and go much faster. Okay, yeah, the tracks are bigger, too, and way more people watch the races. But there were more similarities than differences.
Such as, the driver and the racing mindset. Turns out, whether you’re hurtling around a dirt track in a midget, or eating up pavement in a stock car, wanting to win is the just the starting point. There’s persistence, focus, physical fitness, the ability to overcome setbacks…Hmm, no wonder NASCAR drivers make great romance heroes! (They make WAY better money than dirt track drivers, too, which always helps.)
Next, the families. One thing I love in open-wheel is the multi-generational involvement. Grandfathers, fathers, sons—a legacy passed through generations, but also bringing the generations together in their passion for motor racing. Turns out it’s the same in NASCAR, even though there’s huge corporate participation in the sport. There are “NASCAR families” in the administration, in the teams and, of course, among the fans. I’m a big fan of anything that brings families together!
Then there are the teams. I learned early in my race reporting career that drivers seldom say “I.” It’s always “we,” and they mean it. A driver, in open-wheel or NASCAR, knows he’s nothing without the guys who bust their guts, week in and week out, to put together the perfect car for the track conditions. Those guys’ jobs are a blend of extreme skill and extreme intuition, not to mention speed and physical fitness. Hmm, no wonder NASCAR team members also make great romance heroes!
I’m really looking forward to reading the new Harlequin NASCAR series. Yummy heroes, strong families, intense competition. What do you love about racing?
Since we’re featuring blog posts all week from the Harlequin NASCAR series, we are going to randomly draw five commenter’s names from the week’s posts to win the latest Harlequin NASCAR release, The Memory of a Kiss, by Wendy Etherington, Abby Gaines and Liz Allison! Just leave a comment on any of the posts published this week and you’ll be entered in the draw. Unfortunately, the contest is only open to residents of the U.S. and Canada. Contest closes at 11:59 pm EST on Friday, May 28th. Click here for full contest rules.



















