Even the best veteran drivers have rough nights, as Kayden Outlaw found out at 14 years old. He had a car land on his during the super sportsman feature at Carolina Speedway in Gastonia, North Carolina. Then, in the thunder bomber class, he received the black flag after being involved in two cautions.
“It is all in a night of racing,” Outlaw, of Lancaster, South Carolina, said. “I wanted to race in the super sportsman division because racing with experienced drivers makes me a better driver. I couldn’t repeat what I yelled when I was told to park the thunder bomber.”
Fortunately, Outlaw did not receive injuries in the super sportsman wreck, which allowed him to race the thunder bomber of his brother, Seth. He sat in a ButlerBuilt full-containment seat, with a Simpson five-point harness. Outlaw wore a Zamp helmet paired with a HANS device.
The super sportsman incurred some sheet metal damage and a few bent bars. The night disappointed both Outlaw and his father, Michael.
“The first incident was no fault of Kayden’s,” said Michael. “When Kayden got into it with another driver in the thunder bomber division, both cars spun out. The track got on the radio and said if there was another incident between the two cars, they would be parked for the night.”
As you may have guessed, the two cars found each other again.
“I taught my kids not to back down — don’t let people run you over,” Michael said. “The track made them both go to the pits. There’s nothing you can do at that point. It’s their track, their rules. It was a lesson learned.”
Kayden Outlaw; his father, Michael; and brother, Seth, will return to racing this weekend. They’ll bounce around to various tracks this year, including Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, South Carolina; Lancaster Motor Speedway in South Carolina; and even Whynot Motorsports Park in Meridian, Mississippi.
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.
