NASCAR likes breaking boundaries and creating history. Motorsport has historically been a male-dominated arena, but in recent years, women have been breaking into it. You have Janet Guthries, Lella Lombardi, Danica Patrick, and more recently, Hailie Deegan, Natalie Decker, and Katherine Legge. However, there has also been female representation which does not include driving, like Brehanna Daniels and Infield Jen.

Daniels has the honor of being the first African-American woman to be a pit crew member. Having come through the Drive for Diversity program, Brehanna Daniels has been a stalwart in the NASCAR Cup Series. One of the highlights of her career has to be when she and Daniels were part of Cody Ware’s pit crew for the 2019 Daytona 500. Meanwhile, Jen primarily operates in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Who is Infield Jen?

Infield Jen is the nickname of female NASCAR pit crew member Jennifer Calandrillo. The female tire changer is a massive NASCAR fan and strove hard to make a name for herself. She got into NASCAR when dating a guy, who was a massive fan of Dale Sr. Eventually, she became a fan as well, rooting for Jeff Gordon and then Dale Earnhardt Jr. She became a part of a movement in New York that wanted to bring the sport to Staten Island, and when that failed, the path was clear for Jennifer. As she put it, “I decided, ‘Well, if it’s not coming here, I’m going to it.” 

Leaving her job as a bank manager, she moved to North Carolina in 2010 and began taking pictures with members of teams in the garage. She said, “If you want to be in the sport, you’ve got to be a familiar face.” Owing to her popularity, she was fondly dubbed “Infield Jen” and she was beloved by the fans. ‘Infield Jen’ was known for fulfilling fan requests, which started off when she was asked to take a picture of a certain driver by his car and post it on social media.

Soon afterward, she was inundated with fan requests and also got a chance to conduct interviews. In particular, she would pose questions from fans to drivers, crew members, and NASCAR’s top officials. Owing to that, her social media presence grew and grew, and ‘Infield Jen’ got her own fan following. Since then, she has been a familiar figure in the NASCAR community,

Before long, she would get the opportunity of a lifetime to get even closer to the NASCAR action. In 2011, just before the Daytona 500, Brad Keselowski’s brother Brian recruited her as a Public Relations specialist. Turns out, her debut as a fully sanctioned NASCAR employee was a bit of a trial by fire. This was because her first day in the office coincided with Keselowski successfully qualifying for the Daytona 500. Of course, she had to share that experience with the fans, as well as Keselowski’s experience.

Three years later, Calandrillo hosted her own radio show, “Race Fans Rock”. What sets it apart from other shows and podcasts is that it is more focused on race fans and their experiences. Of course, that does not mean that she neglects drivers, crew members and other insiders.

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How did Infield Jen go on to become a pit crew member in NASCAR?

In 2021, she applied for the role of a pit refueler and successfully got the job, though there was a small bit of resistance. Surprisingly, the concern was not about her gender, but her age and her body weight. At the time, she was 45 years old, which would normally make her too old, and she was 40 pounds underweight. To be fair, the concerns were valid because a full fuel tank weighs around 100 pounds.

Fortunately, she refused to give up and successfully gained those extra 40 pounds and then she was accepted. At the time, she was working for RSS Racing as the fueler for CJ McLaughlin in the #28 car. Safe to say, it has been a very long journey from a bank manager in 2010, to a NASCAR Xfinity Series tea refueler.

Will her perseverance reconstruct the gender narratives in NASCAR?

The honest answer is that it will definitely play a massive role. Despite the obstacles that lay in her path, she stuck to her guns and worked hard. It also helped that when asked to bulk up for the job, she took to going to the gym and soon got hooked onto staying fit. Her first time out on the race track was during the April 2022 Truck race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

What may have helped ease her into the job was that the race had non-competitive stops. In this scenario, teams had a few minutes to change tires, fuel the vehicle and make any adjustments. They all had to do this without letting the driver lose too many positions on the track.