Growing up in the heart of NASCAR country with parents who both worked for its longtime title sponsor, there was never much doubt about whether I’d become a race fan.
As a kid, watching the races on TV while I wheeled my diecasts around the carpet planted the seed, but hearing the roar of engines and seeing the cars flash by at the Charlotte Motor Speedway helped my love of racing truly take root.
Sitting next to my dad while he drove hundreds of laps around the virtual version of the same track in the original NASCAR Racing game created a similar connection to sim racing, and while my own first tries weren’t the smoothest, I got better with practice.
Aside from a brief break during college, sim racing has remained a part of my life, and my interest was reinvigorated when I joined iRacing in 2018. That sim not only offered competitive racing, but it also let me try my hand at both the oval discipline I grew up with and the road and endurance events I quickly fell in love with.
During my time on iRacing, I have won multiple oval league championships and prestigious endurance races. Those successes — along with some failures along the way — are all part of my sim racing story, which I’m proud to share here on The Driver Diary.
If you’re stopping by for the first time, I recommend reading these posts as some of my favorites:
- The Son Also Races — connecting with my dad, years after he passed away
- Championship Butterflies — my history of oval league championship battles
- Truth in 24 — realizing a childhood dream in winning the 24 Hours of Daytona
- Indy Go Go — the story of my unlikely Indianapolis 500 win and last-lap heroics
- Ten Best Drives, Part 6 — why a qualifying run was the best drive of my career
