Las Vegas native, Brendan Tracy, has captured seven podiums so far in 2023 at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But he isn’t just a racer, he also does a lot of charitable work, one of which is a reason that hits close home. He’s also a supporter of Ross Chastain and a fan of his mother’s home cooked meals!
Hometown: Las Vegas, Nevada
Number: 98
Division: Semi-Pro
Team: ThirdGen Race Cars
1. How long have you been racing and when did it become a passion?
This is my ninth season in racing now, but it became a passion for me when I was about three years old watching NASCAR with my grandpa.
2. What is your favorite movie or racing movie?
I’d have to go back to Disney Pixar’s Cars.
3. What is your favorite pre-race snack?
Cashews, I can sit there and chew on those for a couple hours.
4. What’s your favorite meal overall?
Anything home cooked from my mom.
5. Besides racing, what’s some of your favorite hobbies?
Spending time with family and friends. Going to different race tracks, and being out and about [with them].
6. Living in Las Vegas, how is racing different than the East Coast? Would you describe the competition as different between the two?
I don’t know that’s a hard one. Racing is pretty much the same, aggression levels are pretty much the same. I guess tracks are very far apart [on the west coast] versus back east you’ve got 30 minutes to get to the next one. Everywhere has really fast kids with what they do.
7. What’s your favorite track to race at and what’s your favorite place to travel to race? Do you have a favorite type of racetrack?
Mission Valley Super Oval (Montana). It’s a beautiful backdrop but it’s a long drive so I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite place to travel to, but yeah that’s probably my favorite track. Honestly staying home, it’s an easy drive. Short tracks, like Quarter-Mile between ⅜ and Quarter.
8. What’s your biggest inspiration?
That’s a tough question, I mean there’s a bunch of people whether it be out here or places I’ve traveled to have guided me in the right directions that have inspired me to keep pushing, but yeah, I don’t have a set person on that.
9. Who’s you favorite NASCAR driver right now?
Right now, I’d say an unpopular opinion, but Ross Chastain. His aggression level never backs down, he’s 100% every lap.
10. Your two sponsors are Children’s Heart Foundation and Wrap City Las Vegas, what do those partnerships mean to you and how did they come about?
We’ve added a couple more this year that I haven’t added on [to the website] yet. [One of them is] State Restaurant Equipment. Children’s Heart Foundation isn’t necessarily a sponsor, it’s a foundation I support because my sister was born with heart conditions so I always love to keep that one on my race car. I’ve built some loyal partnerships over the years that have helped me push through the funding aspect of the sport.
11. I noticed on your website that you’re involved in charities and local community outreach. So, what does community mean to you and tell me some things that you’ve been involved with in your local community?
Community is very important to me, I love being around anything and everything whether it’s charity or serving our kids who packs lunches for schools in the area who aren’t necessarily well off. [Like] Project 150 who provides food for teens, homeless teens. Children’s Heart Foundation who supports families who have gone through heart conditions and gone through multiple surgeries like my sister did. I was with Create a Change for a while who grew gardens at school, so these foundations are very important to how I function every day.
12. How has your racing style changed over the years or has it stayed the same?
These past couple years in Legend Cars I’ve spent time learning the cars and running mid-pack or so and mid-pack racing is very different than racing upfront. But this year we’ve been at the front and you have to be quite a bit more aggressive up there. [You have] to be able to use the bumper a little bit more rather than racing around people who maybe aren’t having the best day.
13. What are some takeaways you usually have after a race on how to improve or what you thought you did really well?
Technically I’m extremely hard on myself, so we’ll find out the things I could have improved on better than things I did well. But there’s always those moments were you just have that night were you’re really good and there’s no mistakes to look forward to. The way I point my mistakes is just knowing what I’ve could have done better in a sense of how I could have set up the next pass or how I could have held someone off longer than I did.
14. Going into practice the next few weeks, how do you change those mistakes from happening?
Whether it be focusing on positives or getting on the simulator if I have to. I go through different scenarios [on the simulator] to fix it that way.
15. What’s some valuable lessons that racing has taught you or lessons that you can carry over into everyday life?
That everything can be a family environment, you don’t have to be at each other’s throat the whole time. Racing is a big family, so you can bring that in to everyday life as treating other people as your family rather than some random person.
16. What was your favorite racing memory and do you have an embarrassing racing memory?
Probably 2020, I know it’s weird but we got to travel to the West Coast for the first time. My family picked up and supported me through the way and took school, work, and anything else they had going on the road for three weeks or so. That was a good experience.
Most definitely, I’d say probably my rookie season in Legend Cars when I flipped over off turn 2 at The Bullring and I probably had plenty of time to avoid that incident. There’s been other embarrassing moments of making mistakes I shouldn’t have endured, just being honest.
17. What is some of your racing goals for this season and beyond?
Probably move as many places as we can, chase points. Right now, we have 5 divisional wins so hopefully we’ll push further than that. Just chase points at the end of the day for this year.