Champion Race Car Bears Sick Girl's Design

13-Year-Old with Cancer Wins Contest, Provides Design for Carl Edwards' NASCAR Vehicle

(CBS)  Defending champion Carl Edwards, broken foot and all, is racing in tonight's big NASCAR race in Atlanta. If he wins, Edwards can credit the help he got from a very special girl who designed his car's color scheme, as CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports.

NASCAR nation knows Carl Edwards as a winner. He drives the number 99, the Aflac Ford Fusion car. What matters to him is finishing first.

But to Jody Lawrence, what matters is finishing at all.

She's 13, and fighting cancer for the second time.

"It was in my spine," she said. "And my bone marrow and my stomach."

This summer her Atlanta hospital sponsored a coloring contest. The winner would redesign the colors of Carl Edwards's car for one race.

So Jody drew what she knew. "The hospital rooms have different colors," she said. "The radiology room has blue."

She picked crayons to match the colors of the hospital - colors she sees ever week during her cancer treatments.

Jody's greatest pain came right after her cancer diagnosis. Her mother died. She became an orphan, raised by her sister Leveda.

"She may cry. She may sigh. But it's not for long," Leveda said. "[She's] extremely tough."

Tough and talented. Her drawing won the contest.

"I'm happy with the results," she said.

In the coloring contest, there were 55 entries, all from kids with cancer. At the time, Jody didn't know much about NASCAR. She does now.

First she met Carl Edwards. Then she saw her drawing come to life on his car.

"If we can put it in victory lane, it will look real good," Edwards said.

They're a competitive team. To Carl Edwards, it's the checkered flag. To Jody Lawrence, a finish line called remission.