On May 27, Katie Hettinger stepped into new territory on the CARS Tour.
The 16-year-old was quiet, but lethal, as she finished sixth in the pro late model feature at Tri-County Motor Speedway and stole the points lead from Caden Kvapil. In doing so, Hettinger became the first woman to lead the standings on the tour.
While the feat was accomplished without much fuss, the Michigan native’s results on the track continue to get louder.
In the latest series race at Caraway (N.C.) Speedway, Hettinger recorded her second consecutive runner-up finish in her No. 81 entry, bumping her lead to nine points over Kvapil. Through the opening seven races of the season, she hasn’t finished worse than sixth.
The only thing Hettinger is impatiently awaiting is her first CARS Tour win.
However, considering the fact she wasn’t even supposed to race full time in late models this year, the teenager is quite obviously making the best of what she’s been given.
“Our original plan was to run ARCA this year, but then a couple things fell through,” Hettinger admitted. “We didn’t really know what we were doing and then we got hooked up with Anthony Campi (team owner). We just decided another year of late models wouldn’t hurt.”
Hettinger made national headlines last November when she made her ARCA Menards Series West debut during the season finale at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring. She qualified ninth, but got tangled up early in the race, leaving her with a 23rd-place finish in her No. 02 Young’s Motorsports Chevrolet.
Despite the disappointing result, the ARCA appearance gave Hettinger some name recognition in the NASCAR world, which has recently played into her career plans.
“My overall goal is NASCAR Cup. I want to win a championship in that,” Hettinger said. “Not just get there, but win when I get there.”
Her short-term vision is narrowed in on the Craftsman Truck Series, and as such, most of her season has been built around conditioning her for the next step on the ladder.
Though the 16-year-old has already made a name for herself in late models — she is the winningest female driver at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway and first woman to win a pro late model feature during the World Series of Stock Car Racing at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway — Hettinger has her eye set on winning the CARS Tour pro late model championship this year.
As she’s part of the Chevrolet development program, Hettinger also dedicates some of her weeknights to sharpening her skills on dirt, racing micro sprints at Millbridge (N.C.) Speedway. To further round out her season, she plans to make laps on a road course at some point. But whether they’ll be practice laps or in a race setting, Hettinger isn’t quite sure yet.
All she knows is that more seat time can only help her cause.
“The late model racing, the dirt, the road course — everything is helping me prepare for NASCAR,” Hettinger said.