Ex-NASCAR General Counsel Leaves Race Track for Family Adventure

Two parents. Two children. Five suitcases.

That’s how Tracey Lesetar-Smith describes her adventure of a lifetime, nearly 12 months of travel spanning three continents, or more than 42,000 miles.

Lesetar-Smith, 42, left her job as NASCAR’S law department leader in November 2021 after an intense stretch in which she helped the professional stock car racing circuit navigate the pandemic and swirling social justice issues. Her sabbatical brought her near the border of a major war in Europe and on another journey throughout Southeast Asia.

First, she had to accept the uncertainty that comes with walking away from an important job and putting her career trajectory on hold, at least for a little while. She said she understands the fear many working women have that taking time away from their jobs may derail professional momentum.

“Anxiety in general is normal—we don’t need to banish it,” Lesetar-Smith said in an interview. “But I don’t want to let fear be the primary decision-maker. The residue that fear-driven decisions leave behind is regret.”

‘Collision’

By late 2021, Lesetar-Smith was ready for a respite.

She had helmed NASCAR’s legal and government affairs departments over what she called two of the most challenging years for the sport and its privately held parent company, NASCAR Holdings LLC.

Lesetar-Smith helped NASCAR become the first major US sports league to return to competition during the pandemic, worked on schedule innovations and a historic merger, and she led the way on ambitious diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Few saw Covid-19 coming. Then there was the racial and social justice reckoning that emerged amid George Floyd’s murder. NASCAR banned the Confederate flag from its events and properties after Floyd’s death.

“Some of the world’s rawest instincts and wounds were all accelerating to a head just as the world’s brakes ground to a halt,” Lesetar-Smith said. “Sports became a visible proxy for that collision.”

Stuck at home near NASCAR’s Daytona Beach, Florida, headquarters during the pandemic, Lesetar-Smith began to experience the burnout felt by many who juggle job duties and virtual school schedules. But she also found that her two children thrived with both of their parents present in the house, despite the chaos.

Lesetar-Smith was grateful to witness moments—such as her kids playing soapbox derby in the kitchen or running through sprinklers outside—that she had previously missed while working.

“Over time, with the intensity of the pandemic and the urgency of business, I had begun to give my family only a fraction of my present moment,” she said. “It’s alright for everyone to admit when things have fallen a bit out of balance and acknowledge the need to tip the scales back.”

After starting her career as a legislative aide to former Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Lesetar-Smith spent three years as a labor and employment litigator at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in Northern California.

The next decade was spent in-house in the fight industry. Mixed martial arts promoter Bellator hired Lesetar-Smith—who trains in taekwondo, muay thai, and Brazilian jiu-jitsui—as its top lawyer in 2011.

She jumped to NASCAR in 2019, replacing former general counsel Karen Leetzow.

Travel Bug

Lesetar-Smith and her husband, Sean Smith, had talked for years about taking a globetrotting journey.

She studied in London and growing up spent summers in Hungary visiting her grandparents. Sean was born and raised in Hawaii to a family with roots on the Japanese island of Okinawa.

Living and traveling abroad with her family had always seemed like a bucket list item.

“Life will always—always—give you a list of reasons why you can’t and shouldn’t take that road less traveled,” Lesetar-Smith said.

The credits for canceled pandemic flights and trips would wait no longer.

Lesetar-Smith’s last day at NASCAR was Nov. 19, 2021.

Her family then spent 11 days in Lake Tahoe, Calif., a trip extended by a massive winter snow storm, before returning to the Sunshine State for New Year’s Eve fireworks.

In February 2022, on her daughter’s 6th birthday, the journey began with cupcakes on a plane to London. The family spent three weeks in the city and then three months in Budapest, Hungary’s capital, with side trips to Austria, France, and Italy.

The time in Hungary was emotional for Lesetar-Smith, whose Budapest-born father’s generation saw Soviet tanks roll into the city to crush an uprising.

Her family was in London’s Heathrow Airport the day after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Lesetar-Smith and her husband debated whether they should be heading closer to the hostilities—Hungary shares a border with Ukraine—before eventually deciding to stick to the itinerary. Once there, Lesetar-Smith kept the family’s clothes packed for two weeks in case the situation deteriorated.

She volunteered at a pro bono legal aid clinic in Budapest run by OPL Gunnercooke, an affiliate of a London-based law firm. Lesetar-Smith worked with other lawyers and interpreters to troubleshoot issues for Ukrainian refugees.

Her family left Europe in early summer to reboot stateside after the next leg of what she called their “heritage tour”—a three-month stint in Japan—fell apart.

Tracey Lesetar-Smith and her family in Thailand.

Photo courtesy of Tracey Lesetar-Smith.

With pandemic protocols making an extended stay unfeasible, the clan pivoted to Thailand, where Lesetar-Smith’s late father-in-law spent time in the Peace Corps. From there they visited Bali in Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore, and Nepal.

A family medical emergency led Lesetar-Smith to call off a jaunt to Vietnam in the fall, instead returning to the US.

She and her family have been living in her husband’s childhood home on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, pondering their next move.

Next Adventure

The experience was an education for Lesetar-Smith.

She learned some things about traveling: Kids need four days to get over jet lag; if possible, become a local, set up shop in one place to enjoy it and remove time-sensitive pressures; and when budgeting, add an extra 10% and then another 1.5 times the amount in the event of emergency.

Recently she’s kept busy with freelance projects and nonprofit work, but she has yet to commit to a new full-time legal gig.

She has no regrets about taking the year off.

“I don’t know a single person whose past few years weren’t chaotic, intense, exhausting, and at times, terrifying,” she said. “The whole journey is part of my career, even if I stepped away from the workplace for a short while.”