Shauntia Latrice "Tia" Norfleet (born May 1, 1986) is the first and only African American woman to hold a

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

driver’s license. The daughter of

driver

Bobby Norfleet Robert Norfleet (born July 7, 1958) is an American former professional racing driver. He has raced motorcycles, drag racing, drag cars, and in stock car racing, which included attempts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the ARCA Re/Max Serie ...

, she has completed 1 lap in a late model.

Personal life

Born in

Suffolk, Virginia Suffolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and as such has no county. As of the 2020 census, the population was 94,324. It is the 9th most populous city in Virginia and the largest city in Virginia by boundary land area as ...

in 1986, Norfleet's interest in racing began at age 7, when her father, NASCAR driver

, doubled the battery power of a

Hot Wheels Hot Wheels is an American brand of scale model cars introduced by American toymaker Mattel in 1968. It was the primary competitor of Matchbox until 1997, when Mattel bought Tyco Toys, then owner of Matchbox. Many automobile manufacturers have ...

Barbie car to increase its speed. Norfleet claims her racing career began at age 14, when she began competing in kart racing events; she went on to attempt a career in

drag racing Drag racing is a type of motor racing in which automobiles or motorcycles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line. The race follows a short, straight course from a standing start over a measured distance, most c ...

at the local and regional level. In 2000, Norfleet switched to entry level spec racing competing in Bandolero cars, then moving to late model stock car racing on short tracks starting with the 2004 racing season; she became the first female African-American driver to purchase a NASCAR Late Model Series racing license. Norfleet attended local late model events at tracks near her

Augusta, Georgia Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navig ...

home, starting her Late Model career in 2004. She claimed to begin competing in NASCAR national touring series competition starting in the summer of 2012, and was operating a

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

funding initiative, claiming it would finance her racing career; however she did not make it to the track in a major series in 2012.

Controversy

In March 2013, a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' article reported that there were numerous inconsistencies in Norfleet's self-promotion efforts. They observe that she has only raced in one low level event, where she ran one lap before parking her car. She also has several criminal offenses on her record, and according to public records is actually 26 years old, not 24 as she has claimed; in addition, the NASCAR license that she has received was the first to be received by an African-American woman. After Norfleet publicly stated this, NASCAR's vice president for public affairs said, “I am uncomfortable with Tia representing herself in the way that she has.” Norfleet responded that the accusations were "a biased, smear campaign". Her father responded to the allegations by calling them a "witchhunt", by posting pictures of Tia's name on four separate licenses, although it's unclear why because she is the first African-American woman to retain such a license regardless of how many she has. He did stand by his daughter by refuting some of the allegations. Tia confirmed that she did indeed have a criminal record, and that her only NASCAR event was indeed a "start and park", but also stated that she had never claimed to be a Nationwide Series driver even though she was shown with a NNS patch on her firesuit, which could be purchased from several different sources. The entry-level NASCAR license Norfleet held does not require any vetting by a sanctioning body; it only requires an application and a fee. She has never held a license or been approved to compete in any professional NASCAR regional or touring series.

Charitable work

Norfleet supports the Safe Teen Georgia Driving Academy program, providing driving instruction at

Atlanta Motor Speedway Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly known Atlanta International Raceway from 1960 to 1990) is a 1.54-mile entertainment facility in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Cup Series ...

on behalf of the group; in addition she is an ambassador for Safe America Driving.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Norfleet, Tia Living people 1986 births Sportspeople from Suffolk, Virginia Racing drivers from Virginia African-American racing drivers American female racing drivers Female dragster drivers NASCAR drivers Dragster drivers 21st-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women