Blake Lothian’s background in racing doesn’t appear too different from those who have ascended to the summit of the NASCAR world.
He got his start at indoor tracks. He found a local league that he liked and wound up winning a lot of races. He built his own go-kart and now competes in the U.S. Legend Car Semi-Pro Series.
“I picked racing over basketball and baseball,” Lothian said. “I tried soccer. What won racing over for me was just the rush and the adrenaline that you get. To me, you can’t get that adrenaline from soccer or anything else.”
Lothian even chose seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson as his favorite driver as a child, but the rising senior at Wellesley High School in Massachusetts is different from most of his competitors. The 17-year-old African American is in his second year in NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity Youth Development Program, and he certainly has been following what Bubba Wallace has experienced in recent weeks.
Wallace, the lone full-time Black driver currently competing in NASCAR’s Cup Series, has been honored by his competitors this year, most notably at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. The Associated Press, however, reported that booing could be heard last Wednesday night when Wallace was introduced at Bristol Motor Speedway for all-star festivities and that cheering could be heard when Wallace crashed during the qualifying event.