WATCH | Meet Amber Balcaen, the 24-year-old race car driver blazing her way to NASCAR

By Amber Balcaen, the first Canadian-born woman to win a NASCAR-sanctioned race in the USA (as told to Now or Never)

I hug my car every time I see it. Because that's what makes me happy, being in that race car. There's no other feeling like it. I joke with my crew chief because my crew chief used to call the race car a her and I said: "No, that's a him. That's my boy. That's my man right there." 

It's a him because I don't have any men in my life, and race cars have always been the love of my life.

The coolest thing about racing is, you're not paying attention to anything else that's going on in life. You're not thinking about work or relationships or money or anything else. All you're thinking about is driving that race car.

I went to the University of Manitoba and I was about a month in and I was sitting in class, and I just had the a-ha moment, I really did. And I just started asking myself: "Amber, why are you here? Do you want to be here? No. Well, what do you want to be doing? I want to be in a race car. Then why aren't you doing it? You have one life to live. You need to do what makes you happy."

That's when I went home and sat my parents down and told them I was dropping out of university and gonna try and become a NASCAR driver. They were a little bit shocked, but they just reassured me that it was would be extremely difficult to do but even if i have some obstacles to overcome I'm going to make it happen and I'm going to work as hard as I can to try and make my dream come true.