By that point, the Faulk family had moved to North Carolina so Michael Faulk could continue to pursue his racing dreams. Suddenly, there was no path for Michael Faulk to continue his climb up the racing ranks and the family needed to make a living.
“We just kind of had to sit here and say, ‘You know, we need to figure this out … how to make a living,’” Lee Faulk said. “We had all the equipment and cars and trucks and all that stuff, but I had decided at that point we couldn’t do it off of my wallet and I just wasn’t up to chasing the money anymore. Michael had gotten old enough in life that he’d gotten married and I’m a little more responsible and he wasn’t the kind of kid who just wore you out about going racing, going racing, going racing because he understood the business side of it.”
That’s when the idea struck — why not take the equipment they had and start renting it to up-and-coming racers who are looking to gain experience?
“Before we left Florida, we had had a couple of late models that a friend of mine had rented a couple of times,” Lee Faulk said. “So when we came up here, we had some people from Florida call us about teaching their kids how to drive up here. So one thing led to another and we ended up buying one car and we started with one car and one enclosed trailer.”
Lee Faulk Racing and Development’s first client was Mario Hernandez, a Miami, Fla., resident. From there, the team has had numerous drivers come through the doors of its 7,500-square-foot shop.
Among those who have driven for the team are Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kyle Larson, Haas F1 Team reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi and, more recently, Richard Childress Racing’s Anthony Alfredo and DGR-Crosley’s Taylor Gray.
The team currently fields full-time late models for Nolan Pope and Jonathan Findley in the Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour late model stock division. Michael Faulk still races occasionally, recently finishing third at Tri-County Motor Speedway in Hudson, N.C.
The team also fields limited late models, super late models and Legend Cars for drivers throughout the Southeast. In addition to Michael and Lee Faulk, the team has one other full-time employee, Nick Hughes, who started with the team as an intern seven years ago.
The goal of the team is to teach young drivers the ropes and help them develop the skills they need to advance up the ladder. However, the Faulk clan doesn’t let just anyone climb behind the wheel of one of their cars.
“I make the joke that Jeff Gordon would have to do a mandatory evaluation test if he were to drive for me,” Lee Faulk said. “Everybody who comes through our program, you have to do what we call a mandatory evaluation test. We go to the race track with you, spend a day with you and at the end of that day we know where your level is.
“We know if you’re going to be able to do this or if you’re not going to be able to do it,” Lee Faulk added. “And we’re really bluntly honest with the parents for several reasons, but the No. 1 reason is it’s expensive to do this. I wouldn’t want anybody wasting my time or money if I was a parent with my son doing it. So honesty is our policy. We’re going to sit you down and say, ‘Look, Junior doesn’t need to be doing this. You better go get some golf clubs or a catcher’s mitt because he doesn’t need to be doing this.’
“Or if he can do it, we’ll say, ‘OK, here’s the next step.’”
Michael Faulk says that if a driver is not willing to put in the effort to get better, Lee Faulk Racing and Development can’t help them.
“These drivers really have to put their effort into it to learn from us,” Michael Faulk said. “It’s up to them to do what they will with it. The ones that really take it serious and focus and sacrifice what they’ve got to sacrifice with their personal life to be successful in racing, those are the ones you’ll see racing on Sunday.”
“We’ve done this long enough and we have a lot to offer if you want to learn, but I’m not here for you to waste my time and your parents’ money,” Lee Faulk added. “So that’s the way we go about it.”