“Everybody didn’t know how to treat me”: HMS’ Hispanic Engineer Alba Colón looks back on her entry in NASCAR

Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) engineer Alba Colón recently talked about her career and the start of her NASCAR journey during a podcast with Mike Skinner's wife Angie.

Colón works as the Director of Competition at HMS. Colón started out wanting to become the first female Puerto Rican astronaut but ended up being one of the few women in stock car racing in the US.

In the radio show "Skinner Round-Up" on SiriusXM, Colón discussed the early days of NASCAR when there were few engineers around.

"You know, when I came to the sport, it was a little bit different, right? Um, not only were there not too many women, as you know, but there were also not too many engineers, correct? And not too many Hispanics either. Everybody didn’t know how to treat me or what to do with me.' Right? But, um, hard work—I would say hard work—got me to where I am today," Colón said.

Before joining Hendrick, Colón worked at General Motors, where she got the chance to work with racing legends like Dale Earnhardt Sr. She has a bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez.

Hendrick Motorsports, which was started by Rick Hendrick in 1984, has won 312 Cup Series races and 14 championships. The team currently fields four teams with some of the most popular drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Kyle Larson, in the No. 5 Chevrolet won six races this year and finished 6th in points. While Chase Elliott (No. 9) was named NASCAR's most popular driver for the seventh consecutive year in 2024.

"I will be back in one year" - HMS's Alba Colón on moving to the US

Alba Colón previously worked as the Director of Technical Partnerships at HMS. In the same episode, she also shared her engineering background and a story about moving to the US for work.

Alba talked about how she promised her parents she would stay in the States for a year and not marry an American.

"But I remember one thing that not too many people know. I remember when I told my parents, 'Okay, I’m moving to the United States to do this,' and my mother was like, 'Oh no, what are you doing? By yourself? What are you going to do?' And I told my mother, 'Don’t worry about it, I will be back in one year...and I will not marry an American boy, okay?,'" she said (09:35)

Alba added that she joined a project called Formula SAE where students design and build race cars. After working on the project for four years, she got hired by General Motors and later worked at NASA.