{"id":1542747,"date":"2022-12-16T02:13:46","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T07:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1542747"},"modified":"2022-12-16T02:25:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T07:25:00","slug":"hailie-deegan-revives-memories-self-promoting-nascar-pioneer-tia-norfleet-thorsport-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/hailie-deegan-revives-memories-self-promoting-nascar-pioneer-tia-norfleet-thorsport-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"Hailie Deegan\u2019s Arrival Revives Memories of Self-Promoting NASCAR \u2018Pioneer\u2019 Tia Norfleet's Flimsy Connection to ThorSport Racing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Hailie Deegan is not the first female driver to represent <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/hailie-deegan-truck-series-roulette-xfinity-series-opportunities-dry-up\/\">ThorSport Racin<\/a>g. Whether she\u2019s actually the second or the third is a matter of how loosely you want to define \u201cdriver.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The announcement on Thursday that Deegan will race for the team in the 2023 <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/tag\/nascar\/\">NASCAR<\/a> Craftsman Series conjured up memories of Tia Norfleet for hardcore racing fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No, they are not fond memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-hailie-deegan-is-moving-to-thorsport-racing-next-season\"><strong>Hailie Deegan is moving to ThorSport Racing next season<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1017\" src=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Tia-Norfleet.jpg?w=925&#038;strip=all&#038;quality=89\" alt=\"Tia Norfleet attends BET Honors 2013: Debra Lee Pre-Dinner - Red Carpet  at The Library of Congress on Jan. 11, 2013, in Washington, D.C. |  Paul Morigi\/Getty Images for BET\" class=\"wp-image-1542748\" \/><figcaption>Tia Norfleet attends BET Honors 2013: Debra Lee Pre-Dinner - Red Carpet  at The Library of Congress on Jan. 11, 2013, in Washington, D.C. |  Paul Morigi\/Getty Images for BET<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>ThorSport Racing made official what had already been rumored by returning to the Ford fold in the NASCAR truck series and adding <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/tag\/hailie-deegan\/\">Hailie Deegan<\/a>, a member of the manufacturer\u2019s driver development program, to the lineup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deegan, 21, spent the past two seasons at David Gilliand Racing, but the truck series has changed in the offseason since Kyle Busch moved his team from Toyota to Chevy in conjunction with the future Hall of Famer\u2019s move to Richard Childress Racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In need of more options in the Craftsman Series, Toyota got Gilliland to leave Ford behind. Completing the reshuffling, ThorSport moves from Toyota to Ford. That gave Ford a landing spot for Deegan, who had hoped to make the jump to the Xfinity Series but found no takers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2004, Tina Gordon made five starts for ThorSport. Her best finish was 24<sup>th<\/sup> at Daytona. Deegan, then, will be the second female driver to pilot a ThorSport truck; there\u2019s no way anyone can say with a straight face that Tia Norfleet ever drove there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Sharp NASCAR minds recall the Tia Norfleet episode<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u2026that time Tia Norfleet convinced some media company to film a documentary on her and somehow gained access to ThorSport to sit in one of their trucks to imply she was driving for them. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qYEcQL82PL\">pic.twitter.com\/qYEcQL82PL<\/a><\/p>&mdash; DannyBTalks (Daniel Baldwin) (@DannyBTalks) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DannyBTalks\/status\/1603438116358045699?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 15, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Shauntia \u201cTia\u201d Norfleet possibly was the first Black woman to hold a NASCAR driver\u2019s license, consistent with the way she promoted herself. Alas, that\u2019s a formality rather than an accomplishment since anyone with proper identification and a check can buy a NASCAR Late Model Series racing license.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recordkeeping is spotty, but she appears to have raced Late Models around Augusta, Georgia, beginning in 2004. However, it was her claims of competing in NASCAR on the national level in 2012 that started attracting attention. There were flattering newspaper, television, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/tia-norfleet-tries-to-become-first-female-african-american-nascar-driver_n_864690\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">online features<\/a> about Norfleet as well as promotional content on her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tianorfleet34.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">website<\/a>, which still exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the narrative started falling apart in March 2013 when the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/03\/07\/sports\/autoracing\/a-drivers-deeds-fail-to-match-her-words.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New York Times<\/a> took a closer look and came away skeptical. The paper could find only one race, at Motor Mile Speedway in Virginia, involving Norfleet \u2013 and that was a one-lap start-and-park \u2013 despite promotional photos of her wearing a fire suit with a patch for the Nationwide Series, which was a precursor to the Xfinity Series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One driver in that field watched Norfleet take practice laps the day before the race and immediately became suspicious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cShe was extremely slow, just kind of in the way almost,\u201d said Tommy Lemons Jr. \u201cWe decided not to go out on the racetrack any time she was out there just to keep from anything possibly happening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Tia Norfleet\u2019s slickest move took place in the ThorSport Racing shop<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Curious Case of Tia Norfleet\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NDC78gDJtDs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Tia Norfleet\u2019s website contains photos of her decked out in racing gear or sitting in cars. The images are comparable to what a fan might find while going online to check out a favorite driver in the Xfinity Series or Craftsman Truck Series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One fawning online article referenced in the above YouTube video was accompanied by a video showing her in an empty grandstand and wearing a crew jacket from Matt Crafton\u2019s team. It looked like an item purchased from the truck series driver\u2019s website but was clearly intended to make her look like one of the few hundred drivers competing in one of NASCAR\u2019s three national series or ARCA competition at any given time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The crowning moment of the video, however, was a Norfleet interview from inside the ThorSport shop with Crafton\u2019s No. 88 Toyota featured prominently. There is no way anyone watching doesn\u2019t come away with the impression that the \u201c88\u201d was her truck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How Norfleet and her crew talked their way into the building and came away with footage of her sitting in a genuine NASCAR truck is unclear, but there is no indication that she was ever part of ThorSport, one of the big names in the truck series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clearly, the ThorSport people got hoodwinked, and nothing that subsequently transpired supported the notion that Norfleet was ever a NASCAR-level competitor.<em>Got a question or observation about racing? Sports7\u2019s John Moriello does a mailbag column each Friday. Write to him at JohnM@Sports7.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hailie Deegan's addition to the ThorSport Racing team recalls the strange case of Tia Norfleet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":1542748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[253795],"tags":[447297,118377,16060],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hailie Deegan\u2019s Arrival Revives Memories of Self-Promoting NASCAR \u2018Pioneer\u2019 Tia Norfleet&#039;s Flimsy Connection to ThorSport Racing - Sports7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If Tia Norfleet;s driving was remotely as good as her marketing, the NASCAR wanna-be would already be in the sport&#039;s Hall of Fame.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/hailie-deegan-revives-memories-self-promoting-nascar-pioneer-tia-norfleet-thorsport-racing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hailie Deegan\u2019s Arrival Revives Memories of Self-Promoting NASCAR \u2018Pioneer\u2019 Tia Norfleet's Flimsy Connection to ThorSport Racing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If Tia Norfleet;s driving was remotely as good as her marketing, the NASCAR wanna-be would already be in the sport&#039;s Hall of Fame.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/hailie-deegan-revives-memories-self-promoting-nascar-pioneer-tia-norfleet-thorsport-racing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sports7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-16T07:13:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-16T07:25:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Tia-Norfleet.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1017\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Moriello\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Sports7J\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Moriello\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/hailie-deegan-revives-memories-self-promoting-nascar-pioneer-tia-norfleet-thorsport-racing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/hailie-deegan-revives-memories-self-promoting-nascar-pioneer-tia-norfleet-thorsport-racing\/\",\"name\":\"Hailie Deegan\u2019s Arrival Revives Memories of Self-Promoting NASCAR \u2018Pioneer\u2019 Tia Norfleet's Flimsy Connection to ThorSport Racing - 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John is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), the President of the New York State Sportswriters Association, and a two-time Best of Gannett winner for print and online collaborations whose work has appeared on FoxSports.com and MaxPreps.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"\",\"Sports7J\",\"john-moriello-1a11743\",\"\",\"\"],\"jobTitle\":\"John Moriello | Sports7 Staff Writer, Producer - Motorsports\",\"email\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hailie Deegan\u2019s Arrival Revives Memories of Self-Promoting NASCAR \u2018Pioneer\u2019 Tia Norfleet's Flimsy Connection to ThorSport Racing - Sports7","description":"If Tia Norfleet;s driving was remotely as good as her marketing, the NASCAR wanna-be would already be in the sport's Hall of Fame.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/hailie-deegan-revives-memories-self-promoting-nascar-pioneer-tia-norfleet-thorsport-racing\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hailie Deegan\u2019s Arrival Revives Memories of Self-Promoting NASCAR \u2018Pioneer\u2019 Tia Norfleet's Flimsy Connection to ThorSport Racing","og_description":"If Tia Norfleet;s driving was remotely as good as her marketing, the NASCAR wanna-be would already be in the sport's Hall of Fame.","og_url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/hailie-deegan-revives-memories-self-promoting-nascar-pioneer-tia-norfleet-thorsport-racing\/","og_site_name":"Sports7","article_published_time":"2022-12-16T07:13:46+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-12-16T07:25:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1500,"height":1017,"url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Tia-Norfleet.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Moriello","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Sports7J","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Moriello","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/hailie-deegan-revives-memories-self-promoting-nascar-pioneer-tia-norfleet-thorsport-racing\/","url":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/hailie-deegan-revives-memories-self-promoting-nascar-pioneer-tia-norfleet-thorsport-racing\/","name":"Hailie Deegan\u2019s Arrival Revives Memories of Self-Promoting NASCAR \u2018Pioneer\u2019 Tia Norfleet's Flimsy Connection to ThorSport Racing - 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