At last year’s running of the Chili Bowl Nationals, as RMS Racing’s Lacey Doyle and Justin Grant’s crew chief Donnie Gentry stood beside one another watching Grant make laps at Tulsa Expo Raceway, Gentry hinted to Doyle, “This is your car now.”
Unbeknownst to her, Gentry was planning to take a step back from the full-time grind of USAC midget competition and he had his eye on Doyle to take over preparing Grant’s midget. The subsequent conversation that led to Doyle becoming Grant’s solo car chief happened at the RMS Racing shop in Cedar Lake, Ind., and it went something like this:
A nod from Grant. “I’m cool with that.”
A nervous shrug from Doyle. “Yeah, Justin and I can handle it.”
Doyle joined RMS Racing in 2020 — the midget team that fields cars for Grant and Thomas Meseraull — and has quickly moved her way up the organization’s ladder. She went from welder to shop manager within the first year, worked side-by-side with Gentry on Grant’s midget in 2021 and, once Grant agreed and Gentry made his exit, she fully took over the position as car chief in 2022.
She is the only female car chief on the USAC midget national circuit.
“I never really had the goal of being a car chief, or the goal of managing a team,” Doyle said. “I didn’t know anything about the sport, so I was just trying to do more and be better at what I was doing.”
While her background in mechanical engineering prepared her for the new venture, the RMS shop was her official introduction to the world of midget racing. Under Gentry’s instruction, Doyle slowly began learning the ins and outs of the car.
“Donnie always would take the time to teach me things and tell me why we were doing this, or doing that. He’d answer every question I had, even if I’d asked it for the third time,” Doyle recalled.
She credits her “willingness to do” as the reason she landed the job and also cites it as the reason why her and Grant have found so much success during their first year together.
Despite a rough beginning, Doyle and Grant collected six midget wins in 32 starts — including a victory at the Turkey Night Grand Prix.
The two have fine-tuned their race-day routine through the chaotic season and have arrived at a place of synchrony.
“Our demeanor at the race track, we don’t get riled up. We just do what needs to be done. I know my job and he knows his job,” Doyle said.
While Grant provides input on the car setup and openly communicates to Doyle about what needs adjustment, she has a firm hand on the rest of the process — which begins the moment the car is unloaded from the trailer.
Her first step is always to fill the tank with gas. That way, as she says with a laugh, “at least the car will run.”
Last-minute changes or races that come down to the wire often bring extra stress to Doyle’s plate, but for the most part, she feels as if she operates on autopilot and simply does what she’s learned to do.
She’s become known on the team as the woman who “gets it done,” even by Meseraull, driver of RMS Racing’s No. 7x midget.
“It didn’t take her long to go from welder to crew guy on the race car,” Meseraull said. Since Doyle primarily focuses on Grant’s midget, Meseraull refers to her as a more of a “friend and teammate” than anything.
He’s featured her several times on “TMezTV,” his growing YouTube channel, including an episode where he follows her around the race shop for a day. Watching Doyle’s fan base grow as she continues to have a presence in the pits has also been a highlight for Meseraull.
“Now, there are girls who come up and want to get her autograph,” Meseraull added.
However, the all-time high for Doyle arrives on the nights when everything goes right and she’s done her job as car chief. Just like any driver who lines up on the track, the best reward is often the sweet feeling of victory.