Colon a behind-the-scenes player

When Jamie McMurray steered his Chevrolet into Victory Lane last Saturday night, there was no one at Charlotte Motor Speedway more proud of his accomplishment than Alba Colon.

Colon is a behind-the-scenes player whose impact on Chevrolet’s success in 2010, for the most part, goes unheralded. She prefers it that way.

A woman in what used to be strictly a man’s world — the NASCAR garage, where only decades ago women were not allowed to walk, much less work — Colon has the respect of everyone, especially those who field the entries that compete against the 12 Chevrolet race teams under her charge.

The Puerto Rican-born Colon is one of those exceptional people who successfully use their ability to manage others while being congenial, a quality that sets her apart as a leader.

For some, a Hispanic woman in the role of NASCAR Sprint Cup Program Manager for General Motors and Chevrolet might be easy to dismiss as part of a corporate strategy to display women in roles of authority. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Colon’s engineering knowledge and managerial skills are unquestionable. The congeniality comes naturally. Her broad smile and infectious laugh conceal a tough competitive spirit that has made her a leader in the Sprint Cup garage and arguably one of the most powerful women in American motorsports.

With Chevrolet already having captured its eighth straight NASCAR Manufacturer’s Cup title (it’s 34th since 1950) and representing half of the 12-car Chase field, it’s easy to forget the struggles its parent company General Motors has undergone over the past 18 months.

After GM’s bankruptcy in June 2009 came rumors that Chevrolet would withdraw from NASCAR. The manufacturer’s racing programs came under heavy scrutiny by a new management regime in Detroit that had to be convinced that racing still sold cars. It was a tough time for everyone in GM’s motorsports programs.

“The past 18 months have been hard personally and professionally,” Colon says. “It was really difficult to see a company that you really care for go through the process that they went through. It was not easy. There was definitely concern that the NASCAR program would be affected.”

Colon, who is quite comfortable dealing with team owners, crew chiefs and drivers on a regular basis, suddenly found herself in front of the company CEO and other executives having to explain what it was that she and the dozens of others involved in Chevrolet’s NASCAR racing program did for GM’s bottom line.

She recalls an awkward first meeting with then-GM CEO Ed Whitacre. In front of her stood the man who literally had the power of life and death over a program that meant to her more than just a job — it was an outlet for her passion for competition and a source of joy in winning.

It didn’t take long for her congeniality to shine through.

“For the first two or three minutes, I was really nervous. Then, we got to talk about my job and why racing was so important,” Colon says. “He wanted to know why we were in racing. It didn’t take long to realize that we both had the same goal: to see GM succeed.”

Then he asked what her main job was.

“I told him my main job was to sell cars and that my second job was to be the program manager for the NASCAR Sprint Cup program,” Colon said.

Whitacre smiled and said, “That’s the answer I was looking for.”

Over time, the new GM management structure was assured that motorsports was a key element to promoting and selling their vehicles, and GM kept the NASCAR program essentially intact.

“To be able to work for a company that understood what we do here made me really proud,” Colon says.

Key partners

Despite Chevrolet having many of the sport’s most successful organizations under its umbrella, Colon acknowledges that its success in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series is really a product of the cooperation between its four main partner organizations: Hendrick Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing.

Her work alongside representatives from each organization, who regularly meet and discuss issues with each other without divulging competitive secrets, has been invaluable according to Jim Campbell, GM’s vice president for Performance Vehicles and Motorsports.

“Alba is a key ingredient in creating a chemistry between Chevrolet, the drivers and the teams,” Campbell says. “Her personality is ideal for the role. She is on top of all the technical elements but she’s also a people person. And she’s fun to be around. She’s quick to smile. She will rib anyone — me, the drivers, the team owners. But her main focus is having the most success for our programs and for our teams.

“That is her secret. Professional, successful and a people person.”

The meetings between key partners involve discussions at all levels of engine, aerodynamic and chassis development. Their monthly get-togethers, held at various locations from individual race shops in North Carolina to GM offices in Detroit, have played a contributing factor in each of the manufacturer’s 17 Cup victories this season.

“She’s been very instrumental in the GM program since I can remember,” said Scott Miller, Director of Competition for Richard Childress Racing. “She’s like the glue that holds it all together and doesn’t appear ever to play favorites with anybody.”

The key player meetings have helped to raise the bar for all the Chevrolet teams, especially in the engine department, where Colon takes pleasure in pointing to the ECR engine program that has shown this season it can stand shoulder to shoulder with the sport’s dominant Hendrick engine department, once the measure of the field.

“When we go to the key partners meeting, that’s when the magic happens,” Colon says. “That’s always my proudest moment every month, when we get together with them.”

A balancing act

Colon’s job entails that she travel nearly every weekend from February until November. It’s a schedule that for some might seem a bit overwhelming. But it’s a part of her work that she enjoys. She also enjoys the other part of her life: that of a wife to husband Jeff, who clearly understands the travel requirements of her work, which have been a part of their relationship since day one.

“When my husband met me, I was doing what I am doing,” Colon says. “It took more than month for us to have our first date because he kept asking me out and I kept telling him ‘No, I have a race.’” She laughs and says, “It took him some time.”

Then she bristles when asked if the travel affects her marriage.

“I don’t know why I always have to answer that question,” Colon says. “This is who I am. This is our life. This is how we have decided to live. And I don’t regret it. This is my family here (at the racetrack), too.”

Her life now is a far cry from that of the little girl who others saw as being the odd bird.

“Growing up I had a passion for things other than what society said you should do. Of course I played with Barbies,” she says, laughing. “But I was also into machines and building things.

“I can remember my parents saying, ‘Why can’t you be like everybody else?’ But it’s not bad to be different. It’s been a part of who I am. I don’t feel different. This is who I am.”

In college, she dreamed of working in NASA’s human space program, perhaps as an astronaut. But after a stint working with the Society of Automotive Engineers, designing and building race cars from the ground up, she turned her focus from the stars to the speedways.

Colon sees herself eventually leaving the fast-paced world of motorsports and slowing things down. She dreams of moving to France or Italy to grow grapes and run a winery. That’s far cry from Martinsville or Talladega.

That move, however, is not likely to happen anytime soon. For now, her goal is having a Chevrolet driver win the 2010 Sprint Cup.

“Right now I’m just thinking about winning the next race,” she says.