If Chase Austin is the next Jeff Gordon, he’ll also be NASCAR’s own Tiger Woods.
With NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity talent search, “There’s going to be a minority soon,” Austin says of the elite Nextel Cup series. “I don’t know if it’s going to be me.
“Me being the first? I’d really like to. I don’t expect myself to. I’m not pressuring myself about it. If it happens, I’ll accept it.”
At 15, the Kansas resident is a few years away from getting a chance to drive on the main NASCAR circuits. He won’t be chasing leaders Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon in the final Nextel Cup race of the season Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. But many expect that someday he will be a contender.
How good is Chase Austin?
Good enough to be signed by the team owner who discovered Gordon and made him a star.
Good enough that Rick Hendrick had to beat the fervent bidding of two other juggernaut NASCAR teams to get Austin family signatures on a developmental contract.
Good enough that he’s already won more than 100 feature races in go-karts, full-bodied stock cars and powerful open-wheel sprint cars in the Midwest.
Good enough that in a league desperate to break out of its notoriety for all-white drivers and audiences, no affirmative action was applied here. The fact that Austin is of ethnic minority “is a bonus,” Hendrick says.
Good enough at the other necessary art for a NASCAR driver, attracting sponsorship, that at a recent race, Hendrick got him together with corporate chieftains who represented more than $50 million a year in sponsorship for the team.
“I have never met a young guy with the maturity he’s got at 15,” Hendrick says.
NASCAR’s minimum age for drivers is 18, so the big time is at least three years away for Austin. He’ll come up through the elaborate Hendrick developmental system, first in late models on short tracks.
NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity already has placed five minority drivers in rides in the entry-level Weekly Racing Series. Black driver Bill Lester is a regular in the Craftsman Truck Series, though he has yet to win.
Black drivers are not new to NASCAR, but NASCAR never has had a minority Jeff Gordon, a consistent threat to win races.
As for other kids in high school, their reaction to Chase is that “sometimes they wish they could race cars too,” he says. “But they all know I have to put in a lot of time, and I don’t get to do things they get to do.
“Sometimes,” Chase says with a hint of a sigh, “I wish I was a regular kid who just got to go outside and play basketball and go home and do my chores and that would be it.
“But this is the lifestyle that I have, and I accept it.”
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Under twentysomethings
Here’s an update on a few notable teenagers making headlines lately.
Freddy Adu 15
Scored five goals and 13 points as a member of the 2004 MLS champion D.C. United.
Michelle Wie 15
Finished in the top 20 in six of the seven LPGA tour events she played in.
Dwight Howard 18
No. 1 overall draft pick in the NBA draft is playing 30 minutes a game in Orlando.
Shaun Livingston 19
Illinois’ Mr. Basketball last spring,is playing 20 minutes a game for the Los Angeles Clippers.
Matt Bush 17
No. 1 overall pick by the San Diego Padres in the MLB draft was arrested in a bar incident and made 17 errors in 27 games in rookie ball.
Adrian Peterson 19
The Oklahoma running back is a strong candidate for the Heisman Trophy.
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Edited by Chris Malcolm (ccmalcolm@tribune.com) and Chris Courtney (cdcourtney@tribune.com)
