Start Racing

Welcome to Pole Position Prep, your ultimate resource for embarking on your stock car racing journey. Discover valuable insights, tips, and guidance to kickstart your racing career.

Exploring Racing World

Discover the thrill of stock car racing and how Go carts, Cars, and iRacing can kickstart your journey in this adrenaline-fueled sport. Whether pursuing a career or a hobby, Pole Position Prep is your central hub for getting your start. Watching in the stands to down on the tack, stock car racing is somthing anyone can participate in. If getting down on the track and involed in the race is the thing for you, Pole Position Prep is the right place.

Your Big 3

Go Carts

Price: SBR motorsports (other options available) 8-12 year olds is $395/ 13-15 year olds is $415 for the school and rental (a cart costs $4,095)

Accessibility: Moderately accessible

Additional costs: Firesuit($175 ) Gloves ($85 ) shoes ($100) Fuel and tires (Depends on your location and local prices) Entry Fee (Depends on your local track)

Notable Drivers who came from carts: Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurray, Kevin Harvick

iRacing

Price: $13.00 a month

Accessibility: Easily accessible

Additional costs: $400 for a cheap wheel and pedal setup for the program

Notable drivers: William Byron, Rajah Caruth, Kaden Honeycutt

Cars

Price: around $10,000

Accessibility: Moderately accessible

Additional costs: Trailer($5,000) Truck ($15,000) 91 octane ($3.08 a gallon using national average) Firesuit($175 ) Gloves ($85 ) shoes ($100) Fuel and tires (Depends on your location and local prices) Entry Fee (Depends on your local track)

Notable drivers: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Alex Bowman, Bubba Wallace, Rusty Wallace, Michael Waltrip

Stories of Success

Modern Era drivers with stories of success who came from the beginnings of the Big 3

Kevin Harvick

Harvick was born in 1975 in Bakersfield, California, to parents Mike and JoNell (Walker) Harvick, and has a younger sister, Amber. He began kart racing at an early age, after his parents bought him a go-kart as a kindergarten graduation gift. Harvick grew up a fan of IndyCar driver and fellow Bakersfield native Rick Mears, and raced go-karts with Mears' son Clint. He achieved considerable success on the go-kart racing circuit, earning seven national championships and two Grand National championships.

While in high school, Harvick began racing late models part-time in 1992 in the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series. During the racing offseason, he competed on the North High School wrestling team, qualifying for a CIF Central Section title in his weight class his senior year. Harvick also played baseball, basketball, football, and soccer. After graduation, he attended Bakersfield College with the intention of majoring in architecture, but later dropped out in order to pursue a full-time racing career. (from wikipedia)

Kurt Busch

Busch's first racing experience was in a Dwarf car at age 14 at Pahrump Valley Speedway. He was put in the Dwarf car by his father. Busch also dabbled in IMCA Modified racing.

Busch has driven for Chip Ganassi Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing, Furniture Row Racing, Phoenix Racing, Penske Racing, and Roush Racing in his Cup career, which began in 2000. He is the winner of thirty-four Cup races and won his championship in the first season using the "Chase for the Cup" points format. With a 2006 win in the Busch Series, he became one of only 36 drivers to win races in all three of NASCAR's top divisions: the Cup Series, the Xfinity Series, and the Camping World Truck Series. His early career received significant media attention as his aggressive driving style led to incidents with other competitors, while also having confrontations with his team members and members of the media itself. His later career saw him gain a reputation for helping his race teams improve their programs over time, and is the only driver to have won at the Cup level for the four manufacturers (in order) Ford, Dodge, Chevrolet and Toyota.

In addition to his stock car racing career, Busch has also raced in the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Daytona, and in the National Hot Rod Association. In 2023, he was named to NASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers.
(From Wikipedia)

Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin drives the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing and co-owns 23XI Racing with NBA legend Michael Jordan in the NASCAR Cup Series. He has amassed 54 wins, including triumphs in the Coca-Cola 600 (2022), Daytona 500 (2016, 2019, 2020) and Southern 500 (2010, 2017, 2021). Most recently, Hamlin won the 2024 Würth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway in April, matching him with Lee Petty for 12th on the all-time wins list...(From NASCAR.com)

He began his racing career at the age of 7 in 1988, racing go-karts. By 1997, at 15, he had won the WKA Manufacturers Cup. At 16, he started racing mini stocks, and in his first stock car race at Langley Speedway, he not only secured the pole position but also won the race. Hamlin progressed to the Grand Stock division in 1998 and moved on to Late Model Stock Cars in 2000. In 2002, he achieved ten Late Model victories, surpassing that with 25 wins and 30 poles out of 36 races in 2003. In 2004, while competing full-time in Late Model Stock Cars, he signed a driver development contract with Joe Gibbs Racing. (From Wikipedia)

William Byron

William Byron is in his seventh season as driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. He has 13 career victories, with the latest coming in April 2024 in the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway in Hendrick Motorsports' 40th anniversary season. Byron got his first taste of NASCAR Cup Series Victory Lane by winning the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in August 2020 at Daytona. He earned Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in the Cup Series in 2018... (From nascar.com)

Byron became interested in racing when he was six years old after seeing a stock car race on television, later attending a race at Martinsville Speedway in 2006. He began racing on the iRacing simulator as a teenager with over 100 wins and 298 top fives in online competition. (From Wikipedia)

Bubba Wallace

Bubba Wallace drives for 23XI Racing for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season. Wallace became the second Black driver to win in the Cup Series with his victory at Talladega Superspeedway in the 2021 fall race — the first of his career and first for newly-formed 23XI Racing. He earned his second victory at Kansas Speedway in 2022, his first in the No. 45 entry. He finished runner-up to William Byron for Sunoco Rookie of the Year in 2018, a freshman season that saw Wallace place second in the Daytona 500 and post two other top-10 finishes... (From nascar.com)

Wallace started racing in the Bandolero and Legends car racing series, as well as local late model events, at the age of nine. In 2005, he won 35 of the Bandolero Series' 48 races held that year; in 2008 he became the youngest driver to win at Franklin County Speedway in Virginia. ( From Wikipedia)

Rajah Caruth

Rajah Caruth, a product of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Driver Development Program, competes full-time for Spire Motorsports in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Caruth competed part-time for Alpha Prime Racing during the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season. Caruth scored his first career win at Las Vegas, becoming the third Black driver to win a national series race alongside Wendell Scott and Bubba Wallace. Caruth was named the 2021 Wendell Scott Trailblazer Award recipient in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series, an award based on a driver‘s final Weekly Series national standing and on-track performance, sportsmanship and community service. (From nascar.com)

Rajah first got his love for racing after watching Disney Pixar's Cars as a kid. When he was 12, his parents surprised him with a trip to the NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway in September. In 2018, while juggling from school, basketball, track, and a summer job, Caruth and his family fundraised an iRacing sim, and once he turned 16 on June 11, he began racing virtually in the eNASCAR Ignite Series. Rajah was able to catch the attention of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Program, which resulted in him having a shot to race in a legends car at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2019 for the Bojangles' Southern Shootout. Rajah ended his rookie season getting two top 10s, and ending up 13th in the Semi-pro points. (From Wikipedia)

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