Megan Reitenour, 19, makes her television debut in “Changing Lanes,” a docu-reality show that chronicles NASCAR’s Drive For Diversity program. The first of eight episodes airs on BET at 8.
The first two episodes feature the program’s scouting combine from Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Va., last October, which Franklin’s Sloan Henderson also attended.
The 30 drivers selected then compete for a spot on Max Siegel’s Revolution Racing team and a chance to race in the Toyota All-Star Showdown in Irwindale, Calif.
“It’s a realistic picture of what they go through and what we go through, and it’s entertaining as well,” Siegel said. “Megan is extremely charismatic and she’s a fierce competitor.”
“It was stressful. Yeah it’s a TV show, but this is also our career,” Reitenour said of the drivers having their every move — on track and off — filmed.
“It’s really, really hard to keep your emotions under control. ... It throws you some twists, definitely. I’m very excited to watch it myself.”
Reitenour’s career recently took one of those twists. She left the Diversity program through a mutual decision to drive in the USAR Pro Cup Series that helped further the careers of Joey Logano, Regan Smith and Brian Vickers. She plans to run the full season in 2011.
“They understood my situation. They agreed with me,” Reitenour said of the D4D program. “I think they were ready to move me up, but they don’t have enough cars for everybody when they’re ready. We just figured it was better to do it on our own. ... I wanted to take hold of my career and take it the way I wanted to go.”
In addition to the TV exposure, Reitenour is also celebrating the release of her biography — “Passion and Struggle: The Megan Reitenour Story.”
The book is available on her website, meganreitenour.com, and at Amazon.com.
“I decided to do a book just so people could understand me as a person. ... It kind of shows where I came from and not everything was handed to me,” said Reitenour, whose parents used their savings and — as her dad says, Megan’s inheritance — to keep her career going.
“I think that’s the biggest thing I want people to understand. My parents have sacrificed everything. Without the Diversity program two years ago I would have been out of a ride. That’s what’s so stressful about it, your career is on the line.”
And tonight, it’s on TV.
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