Women have been setting the standard through many business ventures throughout the years, and Melissa Harville-Lebron is no different.
Her plan to scare her sons out of taking up the hobby of racing cars only led her to become the first African American woman to own a team licensed by NASCAR.
According to Black Enterprise, Harville-Lebron’s experience with racecars began when she took her sons to a NASCAR experience event at Charlotte Super Speedway, with hopes of stopping them from taking up the sport. However, that didn’t work.
She said, “I got invited to a NASCAR experience and I brought my boys along thinking that it would discourage them from driving, but it did not work that way.”
After realizing the lack of diversity in the sport, Harville-Lebron was motivated to invest and create E2 Northeast Motorsports under the umbrella of W.M. Stone Enterprises, Inc.
According to the site, her team has become the first multicultural team to race competitively in NASCAR, with four black and Latino drivers, two of those drivers being her own sons.
“It’s important for our culture to push generational wealth to our children. It’s important to lead by example. All too often our children see negative images of our culture and I think it’s very important for people of our culture actually succeeding in business,” said Harville-Lebron.
Source: http://www.blackenterprise.com/melissa-harville-lebron-nascar/
