Niner Engineer Sydney Prince featured by NBC Sports for her unique role in NASCAR

May 6, 2024
Categories: General News Tags: Alumni, Motorsports
Sydney Prince in the pit box at a NASCAR race.
Sydney Prince '22 works atop the pit box at Dover Motor Speedway. Photo credit: Rusty Jarrett/NKP.

This weekend, NBC Sports spotlighted Sydney Prince ’22 as being the only female engineer on the pit box at many Cup races, a critical and storied place to be during NASCAR races. The pit box is like command central for a team during a race, where only the essential team members have a bird’s eye view and advise the driver based on visuals, tools and data.  

On the Legacy Motor Club pit box, Prince works with the crew chief and lead engineer, to help enhance Johnson’s performance. She gathers and examines data, sharing critical info with the team. She also considers driver inputs by being in on the actual conversation between crew chief and Johnson.

Prince is the only woman on the No. 84 NASCAR Cup Series race team with Jimmie Johnson, one of the leading NASCAR Cup Series champions.

Sydney Prince speaks with fellow crew members about Jimmie Johnson's tires
Prince ’22 (middle) talks with lead engineer Evan Benschand (left) and crew chief Jason Burdett about tires from Jimmie Johnson’s car during practice at Dover. (Nigel Kinrade/NKP)

Prince graduated from UNC Charlotte in 2022 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and shared her experience and background before leaving campus to begin her career in motorsports.