Background

Long's father raced late models and she wanted to start racing karts when she was five years old; he allowed her to start racing when she was eight. She moved up into legends car racing, before turning to late models when she was twelve.^[1] In 2008, she won the Gulf Coast championship including races at Pensacola and Mobile, Alabama as well as the late model track championship at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola.^[1]

NASCAR career

Long began her transition into NASCAR in 2009 by racing in a variety of series, including ASA Late Model Series, Pro Late Model, and ARCA.^[1] In 38 events, she had 27 top ten finishes, 17 top fives and five wins.^[1] Long ended 2009 by winning the pole position in the Snowball Derby,^[1] one of the few late model races in the off-season, which features drivers from around the United States.^[2]

She was expected to race in three Camping World races in 2010^[1] but ended up racing in seven events. She raced in the Billy Ballew Motorsports truck in the middle of the season^[1] before the No. 15 team was shut down,^[2] and finished the year by racing in four events for her family-owned team, Panhandle Motorsports.^[3] With Ballew she qualified in all three races between 15th and 20th before finishing 17th, 34th and 20th.^[3] With Panhandle she had a season-high ninth place qualifying effort at Texas Motor Speedway with her best finish being a 20th-place result at the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.^[3] Long returned to Pensacola's Five Flags Speedway for the 2010 Snowball Derby, and won the 43rd annual running of the event by holding off Landon Cassill.^[4] She became the second woman to win the race after Tammy Jo Kirk did it in 1994.^[4]

She competed in the Camping World Truck Series in 2011, driving the family-owned No. 20 Toyota and running for Rookie-of-the-Year honors.^[5] Sponsorship issues forced her to run a partial season; her best finish was eleventh at Texas Motor Speedway.^[6]

For 2012, Long signed to drive the No. 70 Biomet/Foretravel Motorcoach Chevrolet, owned by ML Motorsports, in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, with former series champion David Green acting as a mentor.^[7] She finished 21st in her Nationwide Series debut at Daytona International Speedway, becoming the youngest woman driver ever to compete in the series.^[8] The team entered 21 races, finishing 20th in the standings.^[6][9] In 2013, still running a limited schedule, she fell to 23rd in points, and the team let her contract expire at the end of the season, soon folding.^[10]

Long spent the 2014 season racing Pro Late Models at Five Flags Speedway while searching for sponsorship.^[11]

On January 28, 2015, it was announced that Long would drive the No. 03 Chevrolet Camaro for Mike Affarano in the Xfinity Series.^[12] However, after several weeks of funding issues and her one and only attempt with the team resulted in a DNQ at Richmond, the team revealed on May 21 that Long has been released. On July 30, she joined Obaika Racing for the Xfinity race at Iowa Speedway.^[13]

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

ARCA Re/Max Series

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)