They dub Kayden Outlaw as “The Outlaw Kid.” He turned heads last year as a 12-year-old in the pure stock class at Lancaster Motor Speedway in South Carolina. Outlaw scored four wins, and finished second in points to Pebo Johnson, who’s 25 years his senior.
Outlaw, of Lancaster, South Carolina, started racing in 2020 as an 80-lb., 11-year-old. Nearly two years later, he doesn’t tip the scales much more.
“We always have to put a lot of lead in the car to make weight,” said his father, Chicken. “He’s only 5’6″ and weighs 105 lb. now.”
Lancaster Motor Speedway offers a young guns class, a four-cylinder division specific to children. However, Kayden races in the pure stocks.
“I don’t care that I am racing with adults,” Kayden said. “I don’t even think about it. Some of the adult drivers really don’t like it. They think I should be in karts or young guns.”
Kayden’s father, Chicken, and grandfather, Rooster, disagree with those sentiments.
“My dad said you learn from adults, not from other kids,” said Kayden. “One of the older drivers put me into the wall, but I didn’t think much of it. It was the last lap, last turn, I still managed to finish second.”
Such incidents provide learning opportunities, according to Kayden.
“I try to keep cool,” Kayden said. “I may get a little mad at someone, but I work through it. I’ve learned from my mistakes.”
Some of those mistakes cost him the championship last year. Two disqualifications for engine infractions set him back.
“He doesn’t let things bother him,” said Chicken. “He brushes things off and moves on to the next race.”
The seventh-grader will race a Crate Racin’ USA-legal street stock this season. He plans to pick up races in two series, the Ultimate Street Stock Challenge and Mid-East Street Stocks. The tours will take him to new ovals.
“The racing will be a lot faster, and there will be a lot more of it,” Kayden said. “We’ll also be racing at Lancaster, Carolina [Speedway in Gastonia, North Carolina], and Cherokee [Speedway in Gaffney, South Carolina]. There will be no breaks. My goal is to make the show and keep my car in one piece.”
With success in the pure stocks under his belt, Kayden Outlaw carries with him confidence as he enters this new phase of his racing career.
“Driving a CRUSA street stock will be a learning process,” said Kayden, “but I know I will figure it out. I did so in the pure stock.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
