{"id":52497,"date":"2021-07-01T08:00:21","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T12:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=52497"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:21:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:21:10","slug":"this-girl-can-wrench","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2021\/07\/this-girl-can-wrench.html","title":{"rendered":"This Girl Can Wrench!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s that time of year when high school seniors are graduating and gearing up for new adventures and the next chapter of their lives. They\u2019re ready for the onslaught of typical \u201cWhat\u2019s next?!\u201d questions with the most popular being \u201cWhere are you going to college?\u201d Eileen Dominguez recently faced those questions, and knew exactly which path would lead her to her dream job \u2026 and she was ready for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Eileen<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We had the pleasure of meeting Eileen at the NHRA New England Nationals race where she was working with the crew of Leah Pruett\u2019s Top Fuel Dragster team. There\u2019s a long history of successful women in the racing world, but rarely do you see a female crew member on a pro racing team \u2026 wrenching on a Top Fuel engine. We knew right away we needed to know her story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eileen Dominguez grew up in El Paso, Texas, and wasn\u2019t your average girl. Eileen was into driving all kinds of cars and, particularly, learning how to make them go FASTER! As soon as she turned 16, she got her hands on a 1995 Ford Mustang and immediately began modding it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in how things work and how I can make them better,\u201d explained Eileen. After graduation, she began looking into a career within the automotive industry, more specifically large diesel engines. Her school of choice was Western Tech. \u201cI chose Western Tech because of their broad range of automotive programs. I like the fact that they\u2019ll help me secure a job immediately upon graduation. I\u2019m due to graduate in a few weeks and I\u2019ve already had a few interviews with reputable companies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how did this driven young woman secure an internship at Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) with Leah Pruett\u2019s team? \u201cWestern Tech had an internship program with DSR, so I applied and was selected,\u201d Eileen says casually. A typical day at the shop is going around helping different mechanics work on a variety of projects. She\u2019s worked on everything from headers and superchargers to clutches, and her favorite part is that no two days are ever the same. On race day, the pace is kicked into high gear and she\u2019s able to help each crew member do various things on the dragster. She points out that she learns best when she\u2019s hands on, so the knowledge she\u2019s been able to secure is priceless, and an opportunity that she understands is pretty exclusive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Eileen<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We asked Eileen if she was intimidated coming into DSR. \u201cIt\u2019s a little intimidating being a female in a mostly male-dominated field, but the key is to not be intimidated. You will learn a lot more that way. Leah and her crew have taught me so much in such a short amount of time. Seeing their confidence both on and off the track has helped me be more confident myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as Eileen\u2019s plans for the future, she wants to take some ASE certification courses and secure a job doing what she loves. We bet we\u2019ll see her working on pro racecars at a track again someday, and wish her luck in her future adventures. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s that time of year when high school seniors are graduating and gearing up for new adventures and the next chapter of their lives. They\u2019re ready for the onslaught of typical \u201cWhat\u2019s next?!\u201d questions with the most popular being \u201cWhere are you going to college?\u201d Eileen Dominguez recently faced those questions, and knew exactly which path would lead her to her dream job \u2026 and she was ready for it. We had the pleasure of meeting Eileen at the NHRA New England Nationals race where she was working with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":52501,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[575],"tags":[849],"class_list":["post-52497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-dsr"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/ThisGirl_Feature.png","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52497"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59226,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52497\/revisions\/59226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}