In early 2019, Lindsay Wheelock had only been down the drag strip a few times and one time went so poorly that she swore that she would never do it again. In late 2019, Wheelock won the Victor Award at the NMCA event in Bradenton, Florida, in a 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT^® Demon and today, she pilots a Dodge Challenger Drag Pak in the NHRA Factory Stock Showdown class. She went from essentially having no drag racing experience to racing at the highest level of factory-based drag racing in just a few years, and she has done it all with supercharged HEMI^® engine power – making her one of the quickest members of the Sisterhood of Muscle.

Many of the drivers in the NHRA Factory Stock Showdown (FSS) class have been racing at some level for decades and have made thousands of passes down the drag strip, so our first question for Lindsay Wheelock was how she got so involved with the sport so quickly.

“At the end of the season in 2019, I got a text from my husband that said ‘Hey check your email.’ So I went to check my email and it said something along the lines of ‘Congratulations Lindsay Wheelock, you’ve been registered for NMCA’s World Street Finals HEMI Shootout.’ Never having raced before, my heart sank and fear instantly hit making me feel panicked. I told him I couldn’t do it because I’m a mom…to which he laughed at and said my excuses would have to be better than that so I said well, one of us had to stay alive! He has always drag raced before I even met him. Anyways, we finally came to an agreement that I was to try racing the Demon just ‘once’ and he told me if I didn’t like it, I’d never have to do it again. He asked me to do it for him and so I did. Upon making my first pass, I was scared, shaking from adrenaline but was so excited I asked if I could keep doing it. I didn’t necessarily mean at a competitive NHRA level at all, I was totally content staying in the Demon. Upon my dad hearing this, and his already having a race team in place, he was excited and quick to escalate things even further by putting me in another one of his NHRA Factory Stock Showdown racecars and get me licensed.”

Wheelock’s dad is well-known Factory Stock Showdown racer Mike Alsop, who jumped at the opportunity to help get his daughter into the racing world.

“To know my dad is to love him. He is a very intense and impulsive person (so am I – I come by it naturally). His entire life, having three daughters and no sons, he wished that one if not all of his girls would race something, but none of us really had an interest when we were younger. So all I had to do was even casually hint that I wanted to and the ball was rolling downhill, at a very quick pace. Like I said, after my first event in the Demon, I told my husband how much fun I had and how I wanted to keep doing it. That statement made it to my father, and he called me and said ‘Okay, no problem, we will just get you licensed and put you in a Factory Stock Showdown car’. I never ever meant that I wanted to go that fast. But you have to be careful what you say around him.

It wasn’t long after saying this that Dodge announced at SEMA the new Dodge Challenger Drag Pak. My dad LOVES Dodge despite only having Chevy dealerships, and told me to go to the Dodge setup at SEMA and figure out how to get one. So I contacted the only Dodge person I knew, Matt Ambroziak (I met him doing my first interview for DodgeGarage), and asked if I could get my name on the list for the new Drag Pak. He asked what I’d be racing it in and suggested NHRA’s FSS and I hesitantly said okay, even though I was scared out of my mind at the thought of racing at such a competitive level. I knew I started this whole thing by even mentioning it and learned one thing by trying racing in the first place, was that I can do hard-scary things and to just keep going with it.”

As we mentioned at the start of this piece, Lindsay Wheelock had made one pass early in life. During her high school years, she took her Trans Am to the drag strip and her dad rode shotgun to help with the process. She didn’t provide us with any details, but she did say that it went so poorly that she swore that she would never do it again. That being said, she was still a fan of going fast.

“I grew up riding snowmobiles, jet skis, ATVs, dirt bikes, boats, go karts, etc. My dad made sure to always throw his daughters into every single vehicle that he could in hopes that one of us would want to race. I met my husband in 2007 as he built the engine for my sister’s Trans Am that she drove/competed with on Spike TV’s Bullrun reality series. I knew he had motorcycles and raced and I wanted to be a part of that fun! Since being together, I had always attended all of his races and supported him in it.”

Of course, she credits her husband and her dad for getting her involved in the racing world.

“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for my husband encouraging me to try it. And beyond him, it wouldn’t have been all that it has become without my dad’s dealership, Alsop Chevrolet, being the main sponsor of the race team, Mike Alsop Racing.”

On her first pass in that 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon back in late-2019, she ran in the 11-second range, but she got into the 10s on her second run and at her second event with that 840-horsepower muscle car, she got down into the 9-second range. Today, she regularly runs in the 7-second range and her best quarter-mile run to date is a 7.809 at 181.2 miles per hour.

When Lindsay Wheelock isn’t racing her 7-second Dodge Challenger, she works as a dental hygenist and has done so for the past 13 years, in addition to raising and homeschooling their three children. She is also working on developing her own brand – Lindsay Wheelock Racing – to help share her unique story.

“I have received so many powerful messages from others who find it inspiring and if there’s one thing I want is for people, particularly mothers, to realize our lives don’t start and end with becoming a mother. There has been so much personal growth for me and my children when I found this hobby outside of raising kids. They’ve had front row seats to my fear, overcoming it, my trials, etc. I have learned how to work on cars – I didn’t know the difference between a socket and a wrench in 2019 – right beside my kids and it’s been so enriching to do this with them. Never stop trying new things!”

Wheelock has this continued input for anyone who dreams of getting involved in the world of motorsports.

“To anyone wanting to start, I know my story can seem a bit unrealistic if you don’t have access to a team willing to sponsor, but all you have to do is be willing to try it. Give it a shot and see if you like it. If you do, you’ll find a way to make it happen. Even if it means taking your daily car. It doesn’t have to be a fully built racecar to have fun. Some of my most fun memories are of driving the stock Dodge Demon, or driving my old 2000 WS6 Trans Am with my family at the track just having a fun time. No pressure to win, just going fast and having a blast. NMCA does a great job of opening their classes to people of all skill levels (or non-existent like I was) and keeping a relaxed and fun atmosphere for racers.”

Like many of the women we feature here on DodgeGarage, Wheelock has also participated with the Women and Wheels group.

“I have competed in Street Car Takeover’s Women and Wheels class with the Dodge and have had so much fun there. It’s the only event that I get to compete, heads up racing, against other tough ladies.”

While Lindsay Wheelock’s racing career has seemingly progressed very quickly, it has not been without some bumps in the road. Earlier this year, while testing with Geoff Turk’s Blackbird Dodge Challenger, Wheelock was involved in a scary crash just past the finish line on a 7.99 pass. The car was damaged, but she was relatively unharmed.

“God has kept me safe through two crashes, and many parts malfunctioning. There is no shortage of God’s involvement in what has been a tremendous blessing to our family. There are many teams who have helped me along the way, including DodgeGarage and Alsop Automotive Group, in being a part of connections getting me to where I am today. And product sponsors like Menscer Motorsports, VP Racing Fuels, Strange Engineering, Eastwood Company and Titan Environmentals.”

We look forward to seeing Lindsay Wheelock and her Mike Alsop Racing Dodge Challenger Drag Pak as they continue to compete in the NHRA Factory Stock Showdown and NMRA Factory Super Car classes this year and into the future.

Images courtesy of the Lindsay Wheelock Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/LW3015