The Drive to Race: Jessica Dana at TEDxRainier

18-year-old NASCAR driver Jessica Dana shares her incredible story about overcoming the challenges of (successfully) racing as a young woman in motorsports.

Jessica Dana was born and raised in Olympia, WA, starting her racing career at 15 years old. She is nationally known after defeating both four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Jeff Gordon and extreme Motorsports star Travis Pastrana in charity karting events in a two-month period in 2010. Moving up into a Rotax Sr. go kart which weighs 365 lbs and goes 80 mph, she owns three track records and two championships.

In her rookie season racing NASCAR Super Late Model stock cars, Jessica recorded five top-5 finishes. She was one of only seventeen drivers chosen nationally to participate in the NASCAR Drive for Diversity and Rev Racing 2012 Combine, which is held in Hampton, VA. Jessica is a high school graduate who plans on majoring in law while continuing to pursue a career in racing.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)