Lane Christensen has won nearly 20 races in his first full season driving a Bandolero. His win list includes victories at Winter Nationals, Thursday Thunder, and the Bandolero Nationals Bandits Championship race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Christensen is following in the footsteps of his father and brother with a “never give up” attitude that has put the Bandits National Championship in his sights.
Hometown: Pendergrass, GA
Division: Bandits
Number: 46
Team: Lane Christensen Motorsports
Favorite NFL team: Detroit Lions
1. What subject is your favorite in school?
Probably Spanish, I speak a lot of Spanish. I’ve gone to a dual language school my entire life since pre-k.
2. What is your favorite restaurant?
Probably a pizza place in North Carolina called Rosario's. Whenever we go up to U.S. Legends to get a motor or something we always stop by there.
3. Have you always lived in Georgia?
Yes, I have, We have family in Michigan so we’ll go up there a couple times a year.
4. Out of all 50 states, which one is your favorite?
It's gotta be Michigan. I mean Michigan has cold winters. I love winter. It's my favorite season. But yeah, we also got a bunch of family up there. My cousins are up there, my grandparents. It's just an awesome state too. They have skiing hills and I love to ski.
5. How old were you when you first started racing?
I was four and a half when we started racing quarter midgets. I started practicing at four and a half and you have to be five to race so I started racing when I was five.
6. How did you get into racing?
My dad took my brother to a quarter midget race and he loved those so my dad got him into quarter midgets and then I started watching my brother and I told my dad I wanted to race and he got me one then I started racing.
7. Does your brother still race?
Yes. He runs the Pro Late Models. He won the Alabama 200 (at Montgomery Motor Speedway) in March.
8. What would your dream street car be?
A red Ford Mustang.
9. What's your favorite activity to do outside of racing?
It's gotta be soccer. I've played soccer a lot. At my school, soccer's really big. The high school that's right next to our middle school, [and they’ve] won state championships many times. I'm gonna try out for the soccer team in middle school. And if I don't make it, it's fine because I mean, we still got a bunch of racing to do.
10. Do you have someone you look up to in racing?
Josh Barry because he was just like a 30-year-old man racing late models and then [Dale Earnhardt] Junior offered him a ride to go run in the Xfinity Series and now because of that he's a part-time driver in the Cup Series. So, I really look up to him. Just not giving up at all because you could stay in late models but then there could be somebody that offers you a NASCAR ride.
11. What is one thing that racing has taught you that you carry in your everyday life?
Never give up. That's when I still ran quarter midgets we were at a national or we were at a regional race and I was running first and I hit a turtle or like I hit the rumble strips and I spun out and I was so mad and when my dad was pushing me back off. He said, ‘Don't give up. You can still win this.’ And I went out there and I passed on the last lap for the win.
12. What track would you like to race at one day?
I would say Daytona and Talladega. Those are just the fastest tracks at NASCAR and they just look fun.
13. Do you have any pre-race rituals or anything that you have to do before you race?
I'm never on my phone. I always shut my phone down, just put it so it doesn't distract me you really have to be focused. Sometimes I'll pray before races. Especially before the national, that was the biggest race of my life.
14. What's your best memory that you've had on the track?
Winning the Bandolero Nationals in Charlotte. That was probably the best race I've ever had in my life. We've only been there once and that was Summer Shootout. We ended up winning. That was a really big deal for everybody that was there running the whole Shootout.
15. Who motivates you the most?
My dad, he motivates me a lot. He used to race himself. Also, a big thing that he told me about not giving up is that he ran a race before. He used to run like these vintage cars. He was the slowest car he didn't qualify for but he just never gave up. He held off the second-place car and won. It's just always coming back like never give up. It's just the most important thing in racing.
16. What were your feelings when you won at Nationals?
I was on the verge of crying because we're not on a team or anything. It’s just three people. Me, my brother, and my dad working on it and all those other kids out there had teams and more stuff than we had. And the fact that we went out there and beat them, that was a huge deal. I'm still happy about it. I'm still in shock that I won that.
17. What advice would you give other drivers who are new to racing?
Never give up. That's the most important thing you could ever hear. We were thinking that we are just gonna run top five at the nationals but my dad said, ‘No, we're here to win. You just gotta focus on it and you can't give up yet.’ And I said, ‘Okay!’ We went out there and won it. It's because I never gave up that we won that.