Meet the Black Woman Who Owns a NASCAR Racing Team
Melissa Harville-Lebron became the first Black woman to solely own a NASCAR team, completing her first official race on February 16, 2018.
Harville-Lebron’s experience with race cars began when she took her sons to a NASCAR event with hopes of stopping them from taking up the sport. However, that didn’t work. She said, “I got invited to a NASCAR experience and I brought my boys along thinking that it would discourage them from driving, but it did not work that way.”
After realizing the lack of diversity in the sport, Harville-Lebron was motivated to invest and create E2 Northeast Motorsports under the umbrella of W.M. Stone Enterprises, Inc.
The E2 Northeast Motorsports team consists of four black and Latino drivers—two in the camping world truck series and two in NASCAR’s Whelen All-American Series. Two of the drivers are Harville-Lebron’s sons, Eric and Enico.
Harville-Lebron said, “This team truly exemplifies diversity, that is sure to attract a younger multicultural fan base. Our goal is to impact all forms of motorsports worldwide.”
“It’s important for our culture to push generational wealth to our children. It’s important to lead by example. All too often our children see negative images of our culture. I think it’s very important for them to see people of our culture actually succeeding in business,” Harville-Lebron told Black Enterprise.
