Despite a wrecked race car, Kaleb Miller could still crack a smile in the pits at Bristol Motor Speedway. That’s because he got to race where his late uncle Bo Miller once turned laps.
Bo had won a heat race at Bristol during the early 2000s in the now-defunct UARA-STARS series. (For more on the tour, read “10 UARA-STARS Drivers Who Became NASCAR Stars”.) Kaleb hoped to rekindle some of that magic in his race at Bristol, which marked his dirt late model debut.
“My uncle had raced there, so I decided I’m going to get a car and run Bristol,” said Kaleb, 25, of Georgetown, Kentucky. “He passed away two years, so that’s why I picked up racing to try to do what he did.”
Kaleb started racing last year in street stocks and decided to move into late models so he could travel more. Unfortunately, his late model debut at Bristol did not go as expected.
He time-trialed mid-pack, but then his night took a downturn. During his heat race for the American All-Star Series portion of the show, he found his first night in the late model end abruptly in the turn two wall.
“I had a car come up and cut the nose off,” Kaleb said. “When it cut the nose off, it threw all the air around. Once she got air cut off, she just turned right. Once she turned right, there was no correcting her. I just let go of the steering wheel and braced for the wall.”
The wall did a number on his 2015 MasterSbilt, inflicting serious damage on the front and the rear of the car. Thankfully, Kaleb came away from the hard impact without injury.
Kaleb sat in a Kirkey full-containment seat, with a set of Impact belts. He wore a neck collar paired with a Zamp helmet.
“It looks like we’re going to need a new one,” said Kaleb, referring to his car. “Maybe it’s not as bad when we take everything off and look at it.”
Sure, Kaleb Miller may have destroyed a car. But, he got to feel what his late uncle felt when he competed at Bristol nearly two decades ago.
“It’s fast,” Kaleb said of Bristol. “I never drove that fast in my life. I had fun. I’m a little tore up about the car, but you can always replace them and come back and try it again.”
The Outside Groove Executive Editor has covered motorsports since 2000. His many awards include the 2019 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Jim Hunter Writer of the Year and the 2013 Russ Catlin Award for Excellence in Motorsports Journalism.
