September 9, 2008
By Allen Madding
Erin Crocker was born March 23, 1981 in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. As a small child, Crocker tagged along with her father and brothers when they went to the racetrack and watched intently. Crocker began racing quarter midgets at age seven in the Custom Quarter Midget Club in Thompson, Connecticut and the Silver City Quarter Midget Club in Meriden, Connecticut. She was named Quarter Midgets of America’s Most Improved Novice by the end of the year. Her parents told her that they would support her racing as long as she maintained good grades in school and she agreed.
In 1993, Crocker was named Northeast Regional Driver of the Year by the Quarter Midgets of America, and she was crowned the Northeast Regional Champion. In 1994, she won the Northeast Regional Championship and was again named Northeast Regional Driver of the Year. In 1995, for the third year in a row, she won the Northeast Regional Championship and was named Northeast Regional Driver of the Year. In 1996, she won her fourth Northeast Regional Championship.
In 1997, Crocker moved from Quarter Midgets to Winged Mini Sprints. She was named the division’s Rookie of the Year at Whip City Speedway at Westfield, MA. She won her first feature in the division the same year becoming the youngest feature winner and the first female feature winner.
In 1998, her junior year in high school, Crocker was class vice president and a member of the honor society. Her father’s battle with cancer began to wind to a close. Crocker missed a week of school while her father was in the hospital and another week for his funeral. She then made up two weeks worth of work at the end of the school term to finish in good standings with the honor society. The emotional trauma of the loss took a great deal of the joy of racing away and Crocker did not return to racing during the year.
In the fall of 1999, Crocker enrolled in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Crocker resumed racing moving to full-size sprint cars racing with the Eastern Limited Sprint Car Association and was named Rookie of the year. In 2000, Crocker ran four races with the PRO Truck Tour, and in 2001, Crocker joined the Empire Super Sprints.
In 2002, she received the Empire Super Sprints Outstanding New-Comer Award, and the F.O.A.R. Score Women in Racing Award. She won five sprint car feature events in a 360-sprint car. She received the 360 Wild Card award from the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and the team received the 360 Team of the Year award.
In 2003, Crocker attempted to run the USAC Silver Crown Series before moving to the 410 sprint cars while continuing to compete in the 360 sprint cars. She won the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame 410 Rookie of the Year title and was received both the 360 and the 410 “Wild Card” awards from the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame. She became the first woman to qualify for the Knoxville Nationals and was named the 2003 Knoxville Nationals Rookie of the Year. In May 2003, Crocker graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York with a Bachelor of Science, Industrial and Management Engineering degree.
In 2004, Crocker competed in both the World of Outlaws Series and the World Series Sprint cars. She scored a feature win with the World of Outlaws at Tulare, California driving for Woodring Racing.
On December 8, 2004, Ray Evernham, owner of Evernham Motorsports, announced he had signed Crocker for 2005. Partnered with NASCAR Nextel Cup Series driver Kasey Kahne, Evernham announced they would field cars for Crocker in USAC Silver Crown Series, three ARCA Series events, and three NASCAR Busch Series events.
In 2005, Crocker quickly began to show her abilities to drive a stock car on asphalt speedways. In qualifying for her first ARCA Re/Max Series event on March 25, 2005, Crocker won the Pork Pole Award for the PFG Lester 150 at Nashville Superspeedway. Crocker would finish the event a respectable 12th. Her second ARCA Re/Max Series start came on June 17th at Michigan International Speedway in the Hantz Group 200. She qualified seventh and finished seventh. In the ARCA Re/Max Series WLWT Channel 5-150 at Kentucky Speedway on July 8th, she again sat on the pole and finished second barely missing the opportunity to record her first ARCA win. At Pocono on July 23rd for the ARCA RE/MAX Pennsylvania 200, she qualified the Auto Value/Bumper to Bumper Dodge third and finished third. When the ARCA cars returned to Nashville Superspeedway on August 13th for the ARCA Re/Max 200, Crocker qualified third and finished third.
In fact, Crocker showed more success in stock cars on tracks larger than she had ever competed on than her 2005 run in the USAC Silver Crown Series driving the #79 Evernham Performance Lazy-K Dodge. She competed in the Copper World Classic where she finished 18th, then in the Richmond-Times Dispatch 100 on the D-shaped Richmond International Raceway where she finished 29th, and in the USAC Silver Crown event at Pikes Peak where she finished 27th.
In the World of Outlaw Series, Crocker wheeled the #16 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Maxim car to a 17th place finish in the Outlaws Down Under feature at Parramatta Raceway in Australia in January. She recorded a 22nd place finish at Volusia Speedway Park in February and a 26th place finish at Rolling Wheels Raceway Park in June.
Crocker made her NASCAR Busch Series debut in 2005 driving Ray Evernham’s No. 6 Dodge at Richmond, Dover, and Phoenix crashing in all three outings. She also wheeled Fitz-Bradshaw Racing’s No. 40 Dodge at Memphis starting 41st and finishing 29th. Bobby Hamilton put her behind the wheel of the Cheerios/Betty Crocker No. 4 and No. 05 Dodge at Phoenix and Homestead/Miami. She crashed out Phoenix and finished 30th at Homestead.
In 2006, Jim Smith fielded the No. 98 Betty Crocker/Cheerios Dodge for Crocker in the first four NASCAR Craftsman Truck events of the season. Crocker’s finishes were 25th, 26th, and 27th. Evernham assumed the role of owner for the team beginning with the fifth event and Crocker ran the complete 25-race schedule. She recorded a season’s best 16th place finish at Kansas and Phoenix. Disappointed with the team’s performance for 2006, sponsor Betty Crocker left at season’s end. Evernham shut the team down and reappointed the team members elsewhere within his organization.
Evernham also fielded the No. 98 Dodge in the NASCAR Busch Series for Crocker in five events. Mike Curb fielded the No. 43 Dodge for Crocker at Homestead/Miami. Crocker’s best outing in the 2006 NASCAR Busch Series came in the Busch Silver Celebration 250 at Gateway International Raceway near Madison, Illinois where she finished 19th.
Despite the dismal performance in the NASCAR ranks, Crocker continued to perform well in the ARCA series in 2006. Crocker made seven starts in the ARCA series recording two top-fives and three top-tens. She qualified on the pole for the WLWT Channel 5 150 at Kentucky Speedway but finished 27th. Her best ARCA finish came at Kentucky where she finished second.
During the 2007 season, Evernham’s legal dispute with NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jeremy Mayfield revealed the fact that Evernham and Crocker were involved in a romantic relationship. Evernham’s wife filed for divorce, and Evernham later admitted in an ESPN interview that he had been involved with Crocker and their relationship had a detrimental effect on her racing career. After the 2007 ARCA Evernham Motorsports confirmed that Erin Crocker and Evernham Motorsports had terminated their professional relationship.
In 2008, Crocker opened the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driving for Morgan-Dollar Motorsports in the Chevy Silverado 250 at Daytona posting a 14th place finish. She competed in the second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event, the San Bernardino County 200 at California Speedway behind the wheel of Morgan-Dollar’s No. 46 Chevrolet finishing 27th. Unimpressed, Morgan-Dollar then replaced her with drivers A. J. Allmendinger and Scott Speed.
Evernham and Crocker competed in September in the SpeedSTR division exhibition race at Selinsgrove Speedway dirt track. The two have spent the season promoting the new division campaigning a car that looks like a combination between a sprint car and a midget car without a wing.
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