They start YOUNG. I don’t know if I’d let my 6 year old charge a ⅕ mile short track at 50MPH – and that’s the restricted class. It seemed most were fulfilling their parents’ ambitions, but generally just thought it was fun. It felt like a swim meet, but with sprint cars. And then there were the Larson kids. At 7, and 11, they were already highly competitive with each other and set on winning. They may have all had that spirit, but with a superstar dad, the Larsons got a lot of coverage.
Even the hecklers were children. There was a section of pint-sized hecklers at the fence known as the ‘Toddler Rowdies’. They had a variety of quippy hand-lettered signs, haphazardly scrawled on torn cardboard to distract and egg on the competition. Messages ranged from “your mom’s hot” to “brakes are for wussies” and “slide that mothertrucker”. They were also armed with horns and foamies, creating quite scene at the turn. It was definitely the pace to be if you were under 12.
The young ones are GOOD. 13-year-old Cullen Hutchison topped a field of 477 entrants to make it to the stock non-wing feature. There, he would lead every lap to take his first Golden Driller from a field of full-grown men. I was surprised at how thoughtful and articulate he was in his podium interview. He had the awareness of what a major accomplishment it was, thanked his family and support team and acknowledged his sponsors. He had a mature perspective of his shortcomings in the race and what he would do differently, but he said he couldn’t be mad with the win. Keep an eye on this one.
Many of the ‘full grown men’ were children too. There was a clip floating around of a 50+ year old man charging a teenager to get a swing at him. Two teens had been involved in some mildly physical trash talk and this guy decided to have a go at one of the kids, who looked appropriately shocked and horrified to have the man’s hands on him. That got 2-3 more adult men involved in what looked like a staged bar fight in a bad TV show. By the time security stepped in, the kids weren’t even there any more.
Perhaps the most notable adult v. child story of the weekend was Kyle and Brexton Busch racing in the same class. At 10, Brexton is already faster in a sprint car than his two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion father, and already has a Golden Driller, earned in last year’s Jr. Sprint Category. They competed in 4 races together, and Brexton topped his dad in every round. Following the race, Brexton threw a little lighthearted shade to his dad, sharing a screenshot from Kyle’s onboard footage, with a clear view of the back of his son’s car. “This was my dad’s view for all 8 laps of our Heat Race, the @SERVPRO #18B. Hope he liked it.”
The weekend made it clear that age was irrelevant. The drivers who pushed to the front weren’t necessarily the biggest or the most experienced. What counted was skill and talent and an ability to compartmentalize risk and just go for it.
