Young guns driver Drew Tharp certainly found a way around leader Kyler Reynolds. He took the high side — the extreme high side — to win his heat race at Greenville Speedway in Mississippi.
“It was the only way I could get around [Reynolds] because we were both running on the outside,” Tharp, 11, of Indianola, Mississippi, said. “I was committed to the outside groove.”
Tharp’s father, Matt, watched his son make his move from the infield.
“Drew scared the shit out of me,” Matt said. “I thought I was going to see a disaster. It was his first time out in his new Acura RSX.”
Drew Tharp knows how to get around Greenville Speedway. In his rookie year last season, he won seven of the nine features he raced there. This season has won every young guns event at the track, except one.
“Yes, I thought I might go over,” said Drew. “I just stayed on the gas and rode it out. I laid back for a while because I was in a new car, and then I came on strong at the end of the heat race.”
By virtue of his heat race win, Tharp started the outside pole for the feature. He went on to lead every lap.
The young driver has a great mentor in his father, Matt, who used to race street stocks. However, he has new competition on the way. Younger brother Austin will make his debut when he turns 10 later this year. Ultimately, the Tharp family — Matt and his sons Drew and Austin — enjoys racing at the Greenville, Mississippi, dirt track.
“Greenville Speedway has a good family atmosphere,” Matt said. “It is family fun to have a night out to race. I figure if my boys spend all their money on racing, they won’t have any money to get into trouble with.”
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.
