Since the dawn of her career, Harli White has continued to fight for every accomplishment and opportunity to better her skills as a driver. This year, she’s taking another, returning to the American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) National Tour.
White, 29, of Lindsay, OK, will begin her fifth ASCS championship trail chase this Saturday at Salina Highbanks Speedway, marking her first full-time commitment to the schedule since her last full campaign in 2020. That year, she made motorsports history at Riverside International Speedway, becoming the first female to win an ASCS National Tour main event.
After spending a few years away from ASCS and a full-time career in racing, she’s linked up with Big Sky Speedway owner Jerry Brey and crew chief Chris Stivers and put together a new operation for 2025, where they’ll contest each of the remaining National Tour races with the Brey-Stivers Racing, Maxim Chassis No. 17W.
“The schedule’s pretty doable for 2025, to have a job and be able to race on a national level,” White said. “When I ran the National Tour the first few times, I didn’t have a real job, and I just strictly went racing every weekend. Nowadays, the National Tour’s scheduled a lot better and we’re able to pick off some races and follow [the Tour] full-time but I can also keep my job and work full-time as well.”
White began her racing career in the Oklahoma Micro Sprint ranks in 2008 before making the jump to Sprint Cars in 2011. She later became a regular on the National Tour, contesting four full seasons from 2017 to 2020, and posted a career-best fifth-place finish in the 2020 championship points standings.
Since then, White has diverted some of her attention away from racing to focus on her personal life. She began her off-track career in tax preparation for firms in Oklahoma and around her new home in Texarkana, TX, and also enrolled at Cameron University to pursue a degree in accounting.
“I kinda put racing on hold just to focus on those kinds of things,” White said. “Focusing on a retirement and things of that nature that racing doesn’t really offer. Just so I have a backup plan and always have something to fall back on, money-wise. To have that degree and things like that will help me in the long run.”
Despite the career shift, White has stayed active in the seat, spending the 2021 and 2022 seasons racing in Ohio for Ed Neumeister Racing in the 360 and 410 ranks. She later paired with Brey and Stivers to contest several races over 2023 and 2024 in Montana, Texas, New Mexico, and most recently in Oklahoma with ASCS.
“I’ve always had that itch to do racing full-time and to be competitive in any car that I ever set foot in,” White said. “Now, we’ve got the equipment to be able to compete at the national level and to have the backup motors and spare cars and things like that.”
Now looking out at the new schedule and the new challenge in front of her, White is not shy about taking it head-on. When she first raced full-time with the National Tour, the competition was 8 to 10 experienced drivers following the schedule alongside her. In 2025, she’ll be one of 16 full-timers on the trail.
But that doesn’t scare her. White has long championed her strength and courage as a burn survivor, stemming from a crash in her rookie year of Micro Sprint racing. Though she was young when late open-wheel star Donnie Ray Crawford pulled her from out of her burning car and saved her life, she still takes the faith and determination she’s found since then with her to the race track each time.
“I think, as a driver, it helps me to overcome that fear of, ‘What if I get hurt?’ and it’s like, ‘Man, I’ve already been through one of the worst things that can happen to you,” White said. “So, I’ve just kinda had no fear ever since then. It’s always driven me to go out there and let it all hang out, get elbows up and race hard with the best of them.”
White and the Brey-Stivers Racing team get their 2025 ASCS National Tour campaign underway on Saturday, April 12, at Salina Highbanks Speedway in Salina, OK.
Tickets for the event are on sale at the link below and will be available at the gate on race day. If you can’t be there, watch every lap live on DIRTVision.
