Emilee Mills didn’t know she would be a peacemaker when she was signed on as Miss Short Track Super Series. With her smile and demeanor, she quelled a dispute between winner Mat Williamson (left) and second-place Danny Creeden. The two began to argue as they made their way to victory lane at Accord Speedway in New York. Onlookers feared it would develop into a physical altercation.
“F-bombs were flying,” Mills, 20, of Milford, Delaware, said. “I welcomed Danny and motioned to him to come up and stand with us in victory lane. It was very awkward. I tried to keep the peace.”
Mills knew she had something to stop the conflict that no other man yelling at the two drivers would have.
“I don’t think they wanted to fight in front of a girl in a bikini,” said Mills. “I stepped between them and kept on smiling.”
The conflict came to a head after Williamson and Creeden made contact during a restart late in the Short Track Super Series feature. Creeden recovered from losing three spots to a second-place finish.
“Danny cussed about Matt having all the money in the world, and Matt told him to calm down,” Mills said. “The fans were going wild.”
Emilee Mills, a nursing student at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware, said she won’t be taking psychology classes until next semester. She drew on her years watching her father, Jamie Mills, race.
“My dad always told me ‘rubbin’ is racin,’ and sometimes you got to do what you got to do,” said Mills. “My dad had gotten into a few fights, and I didn’t like it. I did my best to keep these drivers from brawling.”
Some say sports, such as auto racing, can teach valuable lessons that apply to the world beyond them. This situation may serve as an example of that.
“Being Miss Short Track Super Series has already helped me in my career,” Mills said. “I practiced conflict resolution and kept the peace. A member of Danny Creeden’s crew came up to me and thanked me after victory lane. That meant a lot.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
