by Lee Spencer

Then there's the extended family — affectionately known as the "traveling circus" — the sanctioning body, teams, officials and media that move from track to track over the course of about 45 weeks a year.

I'm not sure when I first noticed Mauricia Grant among the NASCAR officials, but "Mo" was a breath of fresh air. Not only did she love her job, she took pride in what she did. But she never made a big deal about being the first black female official in NASCAR. She never gave off an air of entitlement. She was bright and aspired to be the best official she could be.

That dream died last fall when Grant, 31, was dismissed from her job for what NASCAR termed "poor work performance." On Tuesday, Grant filed a $225 million lawsuit against the sanctioning body, alleging she was a victim of racial and sexual discrimination, sexual harassment, and wrongful termination.

While I don't pretend to know the first thing about inspecting a race car, Mo knew the process well. She enrolled at the prestigious Spelman College in Atlanta and eventually received a degree in sociology from the SUNY-Stony Brook on Long Island. Upon graduation, she packed her bags and headed for the West Coast.

Mo quickly tired of her desk job and adopted her stepfather's passion for working with tools. She was accepted in the Los Angeles Urban League Automotive Training Center and began an internship at Irwindale Speedway.

And she did it the hard way.

"When I started working at Irwindale Speedway, it was because of my own interest," Grant said. "I volunteered to work for free at the Dodge Weekly Racing (Series). It was something that I wanted to do. I was a L.A. girl and there was a short track close by — 30 miles from L.A. It had nothing to do with me wanting to help NASCAR diversify its sport.

"Once I was working at Irwindale and I got real great reviews from my bosses, Magic Johnson heard about me because Shav Glick wrote a story about me that appeared in the L.A. Times. Magic read it and invited me to speak on behalf of NASCAR at an event to celebrate John Mack, the former president of the L.A. Urban League."

When the late Shav Glick of the Times interviewed Irwindale Speedway principals, the reviews of Grant could not have been more admirable.

"Mauricia is a great asset to our officiating crew and to the track in general," track VP Bob DeFazio told the Times. "Her enthusiasm seems perfectly matched by her ability to learn. We've asked the people at the Automotive Training Center to please send us more like her."

"The best word to describe Mo is sharp," Director of Racing, Lester Boyer told the Times. "She's not only one of the hardest-working track officials, she's the most friendly. Tech inspection is always an us-vs.-them deal, like we're trying to find something wrong with someone's race car. In reality, that couldn't be further from the truth. We just love it when a car sails through the safety and rules compliance inspection. Mo's smile and the way she does this important job just puts everyone at ease."

It's understandable why NASCAR chose to meet with Grant that summer at California Speedway. Mo put everyone at ease. Unfortunately, the same courtesy isn't always extended in the NASCAR garage, an open area more akin to a big locker room than a place of work. The language is often saltier than a naval ship. The off-color jokes are rampant.

Grant believes it will take a greater mix of diversity to change the current "old-school thinking" in the garage.

"You can't just have a white-boy club any more," Grant said. "It just can't work like that anymore. If they want to incorporate the fan base, if they really want diversity, they have to stop at the bottom and stir the pot."

Despite her experiences, Grant's opinion of motorsports in general has not soured. Grant openly encourages other minorities to pursue a career in NASCAR.

"I would tell them to go for it," Grant said. "It's an exciting, wonderful sport, minus the troubles and the people I had to deal with and the ignorance that was present in the garage area. Motorsports in general is a fun and exciting career. I would not think twice about doing this all over again because I really enjoyed what I did.

"We have to work together to change the racist culture. Anyone that has an interest in motorsports, they should be allowed to work in that environment without having to deal with racism or sexism. It's not OK to just say just because of the environment you can't work there. ... It's not an easy place to work, but if this is what you want to do, you have to work hard and fight for it, put your time in and demonstrate that you're capable of doing the job."