For more than a decade, Kylie Walton and Janey Lee were familiar faces at some of the biggest events in motorsports.

Supercross. Off-road racing. NASCAR. Formula 1. And yes, PBR.

As Monster Energy Girls, they spent years traveling from event to event, supporting athletes across disciplines and becoming part of a motorsports community that stretched far beyond one series.

Eventually, standing beside the action was not enough.

They wanted to race.

What began as a shared interest in off-road racing became something real as Walton and Lee committed themselves to learning the sport, building experience and earning their place as professionally sponsored racers.

Their move into competition was not a one-off appearance.

In 2025, Walton and Lee made their SCORE racing debuts at the Baja 400, finishing seventh in Pro Stock UTV.

Lee later served as a navigator for Donald Cerrone at the Baja 1000.

Then, in February 2026, Walton and Lee pulled double duty at King of the Hammers.

They worked the event as Monster Girls and also competed in the Toyo Tires Desert Challenge, finishing fifth in UTV Pro Stock Turbo.

They had gone from standing alongside the course to sitting inside the vehicle, beginning to carve out a place of their own in off-road racing.

That momentum brought them to San Felipe, Mexico, in March.

Walton and Lee were pre-running the course ahead of the San Felipe 250 on March 24, learning the terrain and preparing for race day, when the fuel system beneath Lee’s seat catastrophically failed.

An explosion erupted underneath her.

Within seconds, Lee’s side of the vehicle was engulfed in flames.

She tried to escape.

She could not.

The harnesses holding her inside had jammed.

Walton was beside her.

With the fire spreading, she made a choice without hesitation.

Walton reached through the flames with her bare hands and worked to release the restraints holding Lee inside.

There was no time to weigh what it might cost her.

Her friend was trapped, and Walton was not leaving without her.

Lee’s husband, Eric Lee, later described just how serious the situation became, saying Janey had at one point been fully engulfed in flames.

Walton stayed inside long enough to free her.

Both women escaped the vehicle.

The injuries were severe.

Lee suffered second- and third-degree burns across approximately 30% of her body, including significant injuries to her legs and shoulder.

Walton suffered second- and third-degree burns to both hands — injuries sustained while freeing Lee from the burning vehicle.

The two were initially treated locally in Mexico before Monster Energy and Terrible Herbst Motorsports helped arrange transportation back to the United States.

They were flown to a specialized burn unit in San Diego.

The San Felipe 250 no longer mattered.

The focus became recovery.

Lee underwent multiple surgeries and skin grafts during a 52-day hospitalization.

Walton also required surgery on her hands.

The weeks that followed brought wound care, rehabilitation, procedures, appointments and the physical and emotional toll that comes with injuries capable of changing the course of a life.

And almost immediately, the motorsports community began showing up for them.

Messages of support poured across social media.

Fellow Monster Energy Girls shared prayers, encouragement and updates as their friends began the long road back.

Fans, friends and family members rallied around them, sending messages, checking in and supporting the two women through hospital stays, surgeries and rehabilitation.

The Road 2 Recovery Foundation also helped turn that support into something tangible.

Kylie and Janey stickers were sold for $10 to help raise money for their recovery.

Limited-edition Monster Energy jackets were auctioned on eBay, with proceeds benefiting Walton and Lee.

As those jackets sold, more were made available.

The community they had spent years supporting from the sidelines was now doing everything it could to support them.

That mattered because leaving the hospital did not mean the hard part was over.

Both women eventually returned home, but rehabilitation continued.

There were still surgeries and appointments.

Still burn treatment.

Still the lasting physical effects of the accident.

Still the emotional weight of everything that had happened in a matter of seconds in the Baja desert.

But there were also milestones.

For Lee, one of the biggest came 145 days after the accident.

During her hospitalization, she had spent countless hours looking out the window of her third Burn ICU room toward the McGrath Outpatient Pavilion.

She watched sunrises and sunsets from that room.

At night, she could see employees working behind the lit windows across the way and wondered what it looked like inside.

Eventually, she got to find out.

After 145 days, Lee shared that her wounds had officially closed.

She had reached the next stage of treatment, meeting with her doctor to begin scar management with custom silicone compression garments and laser therapy.

It was not a podium, finishing position or racing milestone.

It was something much more important.

Progress.

Lee wrote about feeling proud of everything it had taken simply to reach that point and thanked the people who had cared for her, visited, called, listened and helped carry her through the previous months.

There was still more healing ahead.

But another chapter had begun.

Walton was navigating her own recovery at the same time, healing the hands she had used to free Lee from the vehicle.

The injuries were different.

The path forward looked different.

But the two women who had spent years traveling and racing together were once again moving through something side by side.

The accident halted the racing momentum they had spent months building.

It also revealed the depth of a friendship forged over years of travel, competition and shared ambition.

Walton had an opportunity to get herself clear.

Instead, she stayed.

Lee survived.

And what came after March 24 demanded a different kind of strength from both of them.

There were difficult days, repeated procedures and uncertainty about what the future might look like.

There were also homecomings.

Closed wounds.

New phases of treatment.

Messages from fellow Monster Girls.

Prayers from family and friends.

Fans buying stickers.

Supporters bidding on Monster Energy jackets.

An entire motorsports community refusing to let them go through recovery alone.

For the courage Walton showed in those critical seconds and the resilience the two have demonstrated in the months since, Walton and Lee were recognized Sunday with the Horse Soldier Bourbon Be Cowboy Award.

The Be Cowboy Award recognizes everyday heroes who embody the values long associated with the cowboy way of life — courage, integrity, resilience and a willingness to put others before themselves.

Their story fits that mission for different reasons.

For Walton, the defining moment came inside a burning vehicle.

For Lee, it has unfolded over months of surgeries, rehabilitation and recovery.

Presenting Sunday’s Be Cowboy Award on behalf of Horse Soldier Bourbon was Matthew Clark, National Partnership Activations Manager at American Freedom Distillery for Horse Soldier Bourbon and a U.S. Army Infantry veteran.

Clark served multiple deployments during his military career and now travels to PBR events helping Horse Soldier Bourbon recognize Legendary Lives through the Be Cowboy Award.

There was something fitting about having a Soldier present an honor rooted in courage, sacrifice and selflessness.

Because no one had to tell Walton what to do that day.

There was no crowd watching.

No award waiting.

No time to consider the consequences.

Her friend was trapped. But she stayed and because of that Lee survived.

The months since have been filled with surgeries, rehabilitation, burn treatment, scar management and countless moments that never make headlines.

Their racing future may look different than it did before March 24.

There may be more procedures ahead.

There will almost certainly be more milestones.

But what happened in Baja will always say something important about who they are.

One friend could not get out.

The other refused to leave her behind.

Then they both had to find a way forward.

That is the cowboy code at its core.

Courage when the moment demands it.

Loyalty when walking away would be easier.

Strength when the road ahead suddenly looks nothing like the one you planned.

And community when carrying the weight alone becomes too much.

You do not have to wear the hat, buckle or boots to live by those values.

For Kylie Walton and Janey Lee, they showed up in a burning race vehicle in the Baja desert, in hospital rooms and rehabilitation appointments, and in every step they have taken since.

From all of us at PBR and Horse Soldier Bourbon, thank you, Kylie Walton and Janey Lee for reminding us what it truly means to Be Cowboy.

Stay tuned after each PBR Teams event of the 2026 season as we continue to spotlight the local heroes and changemakers who inspire us.

Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media