Chase Austin (born October 3, 1989) is an American professional racing driver. He is a former development driver with

Hendrick Motorsports Hendrick Motorsports is an American professional auto racing organization that competes in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team was founded in 1984 as All-Star Racing by Rick Hendrick. Hendrick Motorsports has won a NASCAR-record 316 Cup Series ra ...

and

Rusty Wallace Racing Rusty Wallace Racing, LLC (RWR), formerly known as Rusty Wallace, Inc. (RWI) was a NASCAR racing team based in Mooresville, North Carolina, near Charlotte. Owned by former NASCAR Winston Cup champion and commentator Rusty Wallace, the team compe ...

, racing in

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

's Nationwide and

Camping World Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck-based stock cars. The series i ...

. He also competed in the

Firestone Indy Lights Indy NXT (pronounced "Indy Next"), previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as INDY NXT by Firestone for sponsorship reasons. Indy NXT is the highest step on the Road ...

series from 2011 to 2014.

Background

Austin started racing when he was 7, in an old worn out go kart he built with his father. He earned over 60 wins while racing

kart A go-kart, also written as go-cart (often referred to as simply a kart), is a type of small sports car, close wheeled car, open-wheel car or quadracycle. Go-karts come in all shapes and forms, from non-motorised models to high-performance ...

s in the late 1990s to early 2000s.Hendrick Motorsports Signs Chase Austin
,

, October 6, 2004; Retrieved December 11, 2007 In 2001, he raced in micro sprint cars and won 16 features in two years. Then he moved up to full size sprint cars,

dirt track racing Dirt track racing is a form of motorsport held on clay or dirt surfaced banked oval racetracks. Dirt track racing started in the United States before World War I and became widespread during the 1920s and 1930s using both automobiles and motorc ...

modifieds Modified stock car racing, also known as modified racing and modified, is a type of auto racing that involves purpose-built cars simultaneously racing against each other on Oval track racing, oval tracks. First established in the United States aft ...

, and

late model Late Model stock car racing, also known as late model racing and late models, refers to a type of auto racing that involves purpose-built cars simultaneously racing against each other primarily on oval tracks. This type of racing was early-on ...

s on dirt and asphalt. While competing in the Kansas area, he won over 100 features in karts, sprint cars and stock cars. He won the "Future Dirt Track World Championship", a dirt late model race for around a dozen of the United States' top teenaged drivers.

NASCAR career

In late 2004, at age 14, Austin signed a driver development deal with

. Hendrick assigned him to race for the team's ally SS Racing in the

ASA Asa may refer to: People and fictional characters * Asa (given name), a given name, including a list of people and fictional characters so named * Asa people, an ethnic group based in Tanzania * Aṣa, Nigerian-French singer, songwriter, and reco ...

Late Model Series. In 2009, he won two races with one top five, six top ten finishes and a

pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the ra ...

.Chase Austin: Driver Profile and History
, Chase Austin Official website, Retrieved December 11, 2007 Hendrick dissolved its driver development program in 2006.At 16, driver at diversity crossroad
''

St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', called the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by The Poynter Institute f ...

''; June 17, 2006, Brant James; Retrieved December 11, 2007 Originally backed by the new STAR Motorsports team, the deal fell through after STAR failed to fulfill its financial obligations. Austin's family was given a race shop and car parts, so they used the parts to race in numerous series. While a 16-year-old in

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

, Austin was the driver and crew chief for the family effort. He raced in 23 events in the season, with 3 wins, six top fives, and eight top tens. He competed on dirt and asphalt. He competed in his first USAR Hooters Procup Series race. Austin made one start at the 2007

Sam's Town 250 The Kroger On Track for the Cure 250 presented by the Southern Dodge Dealers was a NASCAR Nationwide Series stock car racing, stock car race that took place at Memphis International Raceway in Memphis, Tennessee, from 1999 to 2009. The 2007 NASC ...

Memphis Motorsports Park Memphis International Raceway (formerly known as Memphis Motorsports Park) was an auto racing park located near the Loosahatchie River in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, approximately ten miles south of Millington, and a few miles north ...

for RWI, finishing 41st after crashing out. In that start, he became the first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

driver to start in a

Busch Series The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a ...

(then the name of the XFINITY Series)

oval track Oval track racing is a form of motorsport that is contested on an oval-shaped race track. An oval track differs from a road course in that the layout resembles an oval with turns in only one direction, and the direction of traffic is almost univ ...

race, and the second African American driver to start in the series' history. He started in eleven NASCAR Grand National Division, Busch East Series races, with four top ten finishes. He had his first start in ARCA that season. He was scheduled to run 15 races for RWI in the Nationwide Series in 2008, but those plans were postponed. He left the team later in the season. He was announced as the driver of the No. 32 Trail Motorsport

Chevrolet Silverado The Chevrolet Silverado is a range of trucks manufactured by General Motors under the Chevrolet brand. Introduced for the 1999 model year, the Silverado is the successor to the long-running Chevrolet C/K model line. Taking its name from the to ...

in 2009, but the team closed very early in the season. Chase Austin picked up a ride with Xxxtreme Motorsport to drive the #07 Chevrolet part-time. During the Nationwide Series race at

Bristol Motor Speedway Bristol Motor Speedway (formerly known as the Bristol International Raceway from 1978 to 1996 and as the Bristol International Speedway from 1961 to 1978) is a oval Oval track racing#Short track, short track in Bristol, Tennessee. The track ha ...

on August 21, 2009, he crashed heavily with

Kyle Busch Kyle Thomas Busch (born May 2, 1985) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro (sixth generation)#ZL1, Chevrolet ZL1 for Richard Childress Racing and par ...

and

Reed Sorenson Bradley Reed Sorenson (born February 5, 1986) is an American former professional stock car racing driver and Spotter (auto racing), spotter. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 27 Chevrolet Camaro (sixth generation ...

while dropping down the track following a punctured tire. Austin ran a Camping World Truck and Nationwide race in 2010 for the newly formed United Racing Group with sponsorship from Walgreens and Forgotten Harvest.

Indy Lights and IndyCar

When unable to find a ride in NASCAR in 2011, Austin signed on with African American former IndyCar driver Willy T. Ribbs in association with Brooks Associates Racing to make his

debut in the

Firestone Freedom 100 The Freedom 100 was an automobile race held annually at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, as part of the Indy Lights. The event was a support race for the IndyCar Series Indianapolis 500, and since 2005, it was held on the Fr ...

at the

Indianapolis Motor Speedway The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a motor racing circuit located in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the home of the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400, and and formerly the home of the U ...

. Austin also competed in the Freedom 100 in 2012. In August 2012, it was announced that Austin would drive for

A. J. Foyt Enterprises A. J. Foyt Racing, officially and historically known as A. J. Foyt Enterprises, is an American racing team in the IndyCar Series and formerly NASCAR. It is owned by four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, 1972 Daytona 500 winner, 1967 24 Hours of Le ...

in the

2013 Indianapolis 500 The 97th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday May 26, 2013. It was the premier event of the 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series season. Tony Kanaan, a native of Brazil, was victorious on a record-set ...

. However, the second Foyt Indy 500 entry was ultimately driven by

Conor Daly Conor James Daly (born December 15, 1991) is an American professional auto racing, racing driver. He competes in the IndyCar Series driving the No. 76 Chevrolet for Juncos Hollinger Racing. He also competes occasionally in NASCAR and has also rac ...

Personal life

Austin is the son of an African American father and a

Caucasian Caucasian may refer to: Common meanings *Anything from the Caucasus region or related to it ** Ethnic groups in the Caucasus ** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus re ...

mother. He is married and lives in Houston, Texas.

Racing record

American open–wheel racing results

( key)

Indy Lights

NASCAR

( key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Nationwide Series

Camping World Truck Series

Busch East Series

ARCA Re/Max Series

( key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, Chase Living people 1989 births People from Eudora, Kansas Racing drivers from Kansas Indy Lights drivers NASCAR drivers African-American racing drivers ARCA Menards Series drivers 21st-century African-American sportsmen 21st-century American sportsmen 20th-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen Belardi Auto Racing drivers Bryan Herta Autosport drivers Juncos Hollinger Racing drivers