The look, the personality and the skill is there.

So are the years — to seize.

But when she’s asked if she’s going to be the Danica Patrick of NASCAR one day, Brandie Levasseur hesitates.

“I could be happy doing dirt track racing like this forever, but I also want to have a family one day,” the 19-year-old Chouteau native said, thinking of the commitment it takes at the sport’s highest level. “I just don’t know. I guess it would depend on the opportunity itself.”

For now though, apples to oranges, she’s outdoing Patrick, the most notable face on the open-wheel circuit, in her own world at Outlaw Motor Speedway. The 2007 Chouteau High School graduate has won four features and has only Tahlequah’s Jason Ward ahead of her in the Pure Stock standings heading into tonight’s double features.

Last season, she won two pure stock races at Siloam Springs, Ark., and finished third in the points standings, gaining her Rookie of the Year honors there. Her first car was a Ford Taurus SHO which she attempted to race with in a front-wheel drive division at Salina Highbanks Speedway, a competition that never really got off the ground.

“I ended up racing it in Pure Stock,” she said. “I remember we got a $500 sticker job for it and my dad and uncle figured that at the very least, the car would look good.”

Russell McLain and Lee McLain, her uncle and dad, head up her pit crew.

“She did fine,” said her mother, Marcia McLain. “They really ran out of drivers on that front-wheel class that could compete with her, the winner got $50 and any other drivers didn’t even get their entry fee back, so they all quit running.”

Levasseur’s Ford Crown Victoria with a 351 Windsor engine has most of the field chasing it. She was second in Outlaw’s postseason Fall Brawl event, setting up the current trend of 2008.

“She had someone offer her a full-time ride in Modifieds last year after that fall race,” Marcia McLain said, saying the family turned it down for her because they felt she hadn’t gotten enough experience yet.

“This car has done her well. It’s basically the same car Lee won a points championship with — same motor, same transmission, but a new skin on it.”

It also has a driver who takes things very seriously.

“I’ve had more seat time and learned more about driving my car this year,” she said. “My mom videotapes the race and I’ll spend time watching it, probably 20 times a week.”

Although several other women drive in the division, she’s the only one in the top five. And, Levasseur said, there’s plenty of questions as to how she does it.