TEMPERANCE — A Bedford Township girl’s teen crush on a young NASCAR driver led to a song, a performance seen nationally, and a YouTube video clip that has attracted almost 20,000 viewings.
Megan McCormick, a sophomore at Bedford High School, describes herself as a big stock-car racing fan, a girl who “enjoys the sound of roaring engines.”
The 16-year-old’s favorite driver is Joey Logano, who set a record four years ago when he, at 18, became the youngest stock-car driver to win a Nationwide Series race. He has had a successful run since, with earnings exceeding $20 million.
Megan, a singer/songwriter, plays acoustic guitar and performs regularly in the township. Among her musical credits is The Joey Logano Song, a sort of sappy, tongue-in-cheek teen love song in homage to her stock-car idol.
“I was in my room, practicing, when my mom said, jokingly, ‘You should write a song about Joey.’ So I did,” she explained.
She did more than that. She recorded her performance of the song, uploaded it to YouTube, and as she put it, “Joey never saw it. But his fans saw it, and they put lots of favorable comments on the Web site.”
Eventually, the Logano camp did see it, along with reporters covering the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, who mentioned it in their coverage. The number of views, Megan said, “went from 100 to 18,000 in about a week. It has about 19,000 now.”
Joey Logano then tweeted that he liked the song very much, and something happened that nobody expected: The Speed Channel invited her to perform at the April 7 race at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. Scheduled to appear with her was retired NASCAR driver Kyle Petty, the son of stock-car legend Richard Petty.
And so it was that Megan, her mother, Beth, and father, Kevin, left for the race April 5. The next day, a Saturday, she rehearsed with Mr. Petty, and on Sunday gave her three-minute performance seen by 2 million viewers on SPEED, a cable/satellite channel. That performance, along with others by Megan, can be found on YouTube with the user name meganelizabethsings.
She also met Mr. Logano, an encounter that gave her more butterflies than performing did.
“That’s the only time I was nervous,” she explained.
Since her star turn in Virginia, Megan has become a modest celebrity. The YouTube link has been emailed around the high school, and students often sing the opening bar of her “Joey song” when they pass her in the hall.
Her mother considers her daughter a talented singer, but doesn’t seem to share her interest in racing.
“It was louder than expected,” Mrs. McCormick said, when asked how she liked the Martinsville race. “I really can’t go to another one because, well, that was the best.”
First Published April 22, 2013, 4:00 a.m.
