Navigating the Path to Success: A Parent’s Perspective on Mentoring a Young Race Car Driver

With he and I the last several years, um, it’s more been about mindset and. And what I have tried to instill in him is that do not, in bad times, become a person that’s looking around saying, well, if you did this and you did that and you did this, I’d be okay, because that’s not how things work. You can influence what it is that you need people to do, and you can influence 100% influence what it is you need to do. But let’s focus and pay attention to what the things you can control are, and don’t become a person that’s just blaming everybody else when things aren’t going well, because there’s no future in that. And, you know, he has struggled. He has struggled in my eyes, understanding, number one, how hard. How difficult CUP is. No. 2, how you. You have to take control over so many situations, um, and. And. And off the track, and that’s. It’s really important. And. And you did it. You and I were teammates. You and I both know how aggressive we both were in trying to get the things we needed. And to me, that’s the thing that he’s. He struggled with the most. And then as of late, you know, a few weeks ago or some. Or so I just told him, I said, you are standing in your way, your own way of being the race car driver that you can be. And. And what Does that mean. And I don’t have the answer, but you gotta go figure it out. Like you. Cause you’re a better race car driver. And then what you’re portraying. And some of that isn’t what you’re doing on the racetrack, it’s what you’re doing off the racetrack to make sure you can be successful on racetrack. And that doesn’t mean. Look, he’s training, he’s watching video, he’s doing all those things. But how do you better interact with the team? How do you get more out of the team? How does the team get more out of you? Like, you gotta find a way. And uh, we. We had that conversation a few weeks ago and he was. It’s really interesting. He was starting to really explore and try to understand what that meant and how he could be better. And, um. But that. That’s all you can do. And. And. And you also have to, um. As a parent and. And you have to know when to shut the hell up too. You know, there’s times. Yeah, you just. Not every conversation with your kid is a teaching moment, right? And so there’s times you just have to. Hey, man, what’s up? You know, and we spend a whole lot more time with that than we do talking about racing. Because I wanna be his dad. I don’t wanna be. Look, man, I. I don’t wanna be that guy that is just constantly pounding on my kids about Do this, do this, do that. I don’t wanna be that guy. I want them to be their own people. I want them to learn from my mistakes. Take advantage of the opportunities that are given to them. But it’s their lives, it’s their career. It’s not mine. And so that balance is hard to find.