The 12-year-old racer learning the ropes under the watchful eye of 18-time Cup Series race winner.
taught his first-born, Brooklyn, to drive his truck in his driveway at age 4 while she sat on his lap.
“I can see what she likes and what she wants to do,” says Ryan, who’s racing modifieds, in selected NASCAR Cup events and the SRX Series. “She’s always enjoyed being at the race track.”Brooklyn, now 12 years old, currently races on three North Carolina dirt tracks—Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury, Woodleaf Raceway Park in Woodleaf, and Mountain Creek Speedway in Catawba. Millbridge and Woodleaf are each an eighth mile in length while Mountain Creek is a sixth-mile track.
Brooklyn’s younger sister Ashlyn initially showed an interest in racing, but decided it wasn’t something she wanted to do. Instead, Ashlyn helps prepare Brooklyn’s cars and sometimes pushes her sister to the staging area.Going fast was always something Ryan did well during his NASCAR Cup career, earning the name “Rocket Man” for his domination of qualifying, recording 51 poles in 14 years, including 11 in 2003.
“My dad showed her how to drive the race track, but he never showed her how to get on the race track,” Ryan said. “It was December 23, the tires were cold, I had the idle set too high. She ended up driving right into the wall trying to get onto the race track. It just about broke both of her thumbs. We got her recalibrated she went back out. If it wasn’t for Colt McKinney who’s here driving his car, I don’t know if she would have kept doing it.
“We’ve had to move her up because of the weight bracket that there is in each class more so than her skill and ability,” Ryan says. “Not to say that she doesn’t have the ability, but when we move up to the next class, we add weight to the cart and she’s way more competitive. So, we do things like that, that just kind of age her out. It’s good the process is set like that because you don’t have an 18-year-old kicking the kids’ tails.
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