SRO Road America 2026

I watched everything fall apart at this racetrack, twice in a matter of weeks. A year later, it was a place of rejuvenation for me that led to where I am today. And it was at this racetrack that the words which saved my career in motorsports were spoken to me: “if you can’t handle disappointment, you shouldn’t be in motorsports”.

It was the combination of those words and the people I’ve found myself around at any given race lately that kept my head above water this past weekend.

… because this past weekend absolutely sucked. I spent most of it pondering “do I hate this racetrack or does this racetrack hate me?”. I can’t tell you the number of times I wanted to make a profanity-laden Story ranting about my feelings, or just say “fuck this” and leave the session and/or track early. You know why I didn’t? Because seconds after those emotions flooded my brain, different synapses fired in counteraction saying “no - you’re part of something bigger. You represent so much more than yourself. This isn’t about you. If you can’t handle this, you shouldn’t be in motorsports… but this is where you belong, so handle it because you know you can and you know it’s worth it”.

It’s easy to miss the forest when within the trees… and I can’t even begin to express how grateful I am for the closely knit extended family of relative strangers that I share nearly half my weekends a year with who’ve helped me to stay centered. It’s not their approval that I seek - it’s their disappointment in me that I fear. There is no “I” in motorsports.

Weekends like this past one have been fewer and farther in between over the last year, and yet again, I have to thank the people I work with for that, even if it’s indirect.

And the last ironic layer here is that I’m typing this delayed in the airport that stranded me away from a family Christmas vacation seven years ago but then subsequently set the chain reaction of events in motion that led me to this current dream-come-true career.

Onto the next one. Onto the better days that lay ahead. We learn each time out.

There is no trash cannot - there is only trash CAN.