KCK’s Cobb serves as ambassador in Russia for U.S. State Department and sport of NASCAR
Jennifer Jo Cobb, a groundbreaking NASCAR driver, has found a second calling.
Diplomacy.
Cobb, of Kansas City, Kan., spent portions of the past two years as a goodwill ambassador for the U.S. Embassy in Russia and the Republic of Georgia as part of the Department of State’s U.S. State Speaker Program.
And once it’s safe to travel again, Cobb has plans to expand her outreach through her launching of an international non-profit organization, Driven Diplomacy International, that will promote cultural diplomacy programs and exchanges throughout the world.
“It’s changed my life,” said Cobb, who as part of her day job will compete in the two NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series races at Kansas Speedway on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.
Cobb, one of three females racing full-time in NASCAR (all in the trucks series), spent 12 days in June 2018 in the Republic of Georgia as a U.S. Subject Matter Expert. The program included a one-week campaign, “Women Can Do Anything.” She addressed mostly female students from elementary school through the university level on several topics, including her racing career, overcoming obstacles, and how STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — relate to her profession.
The experience in Georgia was so rewarding, Cobb took advantage of idle weeks in the trucks series in 2019 by making three trips to Russia, encompassing 30 days in May, July and September. She traveled coast-to-coast from St. Petersburg to Moscow to Vladivostok on the Chinese border on behalf of the U.S. Speaker Program.
“Every city, every venue, was a little bit different topic,” she said “I would speak on topics such as the culture of sports in America or to a small business group … or if it was to all female students, it would be about being a female in a male-dominated environment. Topics ranged depending on the group or region I was in.”
The original opportunity to speak in Georgia came as such a surprise, Cobb thought she was being scammed when first contacted by the Georgian embassy especially when she was asked for bank account information. After further investigation, she learned it was a legitimate offer.
When her embassy contact in Georgia moved to Moscow for 2019, Cobb asked about speaking engagements there and speaking assignments were arranged for the three trips to Russia.
“Every day was beautiful, and it was so well received,” Cobb said. “The people were friendly. I was a little nervous and scared at first, but the guide who greeted me in Moscow is now a lifelong friend.
“They’re wonderful people … not from a governmental standpoint, not from a political standpoint, but these trips are for regular citizens to get to know other regular citizens, and for us to maybe break down some of those stereotypes.
“I was the first English-speaking person they ever met in some of these cities. There’s nothing like seeing culture and history through the eyes of the citizens.”
New experiences
The only time Cobb, 47, felt threatened occurred on Fourth of July last year when she attended a party at the home of U.S. Ambassador John Huntsman.
“While we were walking there, there was a protest,” she recalled. “People were irritated at America for something. The two Russian guides from the embassy were a little worried. It was the only time I was a little scared. It was a group of female auto workers mad at the (U.S.) sanctions and had lost their jobs. I thought, ‘Man, I have a lot in common with those women,’ and wasn’t scared anymore.”
Cobb required a full-time translator in Georgia but was impressed how many students in the major Russian cities were conversant in English — and about NASCAR.
“In Vladivostok, these Russian children on the border of China studied like 15 different NASCAR tracks as part of their STEM studies,” she related. “Each set up a table and had me stop at every table where they put up a poster board and drew the configuration of the track, told me about the degree of banking, the track surface. They drew pictures or cut out magazines or printed from the internet and gave me presentations of about 15 different NASCAR tracks.”
With both the U.S. and Russia now reducing staffs in their respective embassies, Cobb decided to form Driven Diplomacy International, which will include board members from Kansas City, NASCAR and some retired pro athletes who have shown interest.
“The government has grants and programs for this type of diplomacy, and they can’t always fulfill them from a personnel perspective,” Cobb said. “The money is there. But the logistics in making all this happen just isn’t there, especially when you have a political rift between two countries.
‘”The paperwork was filed last week for a not-for-profit, to take the grants that already exist from the government and to help spread this goodwill. It really touched me.”
She’s especially interested in visiting Saudi Arabia, “because women there just got the right to drive, and I’d like to teach them the fundamentals of driving and light maintenance.”
Still excited to race
Cobb is excited to compete in NASCAR’s first trucks doubleheader this weekend at Kansas Speedway.
The only female in history to make more than 100 career starts in the trucks series, she will make her 197th start Friday night. Her sixth-place finish at Daytona in 2011 was the best finish by a female in the 26-year history of the series until another woman finished fifth this year.
Even with all her outside interests, Cobb, has no plans on leaving the sport.
“My hero in that regard has always been Morgan Shepherd,” she said of the veteran driver-owner who made 12 starts in the Xfinity Series last year at age 77. “My dad didn’t stop racing until he physically couldn’t, until he was like 68. Morgan is going well into his 70s. As long as I am physically capable, and as long as I want to, I’ll do it.
“As I say in my speeches, why would you put an arbitrary number … and limitation on your life?”
TV schedule at Kansas Speedway
Thursday: 6:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series Kansas 400, NBCSN
Friday: 6 p.m., Kansas 200 (NASCAR trucks), FS1
Friday: 9 p.m., ARCA Kansas 150, FS1
Saturday: 12:30 p.m., Kansas 200 (NASCAR trucks), FSN
Saturday: 4 p.m., Xfinity Kansas Lottery 250, NBCSN
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 12:27 PM.