Chase Randall wants to be a World of Outlaws sprint car champion.
And he hopes that day comes soon.
The 18-year-old has been making a steady progression through the dirt-track ranks, moving from quarter midgets to micro sprints and, most recently, to 360 winged sprint cars. This past season, Randall’s chief focus was running at Knoxville Raceway in Iowa in the effort of mastering the famed half-mile.
He will return to the track next year to continue his mission, with the “small goal” of winning a race during the Knoxville Nationals.
His passage to Knoxville was instigated following the 2021 season during a dinner-table conversation with his dad, Jon, and mom, Jessica. The way they saw it, there were two options. One, repeat the past season’s campaign with the American Sprint Car Series. Two, move from Waco, Texas, to Knoxville and run one of the most prestigious tracks in America every weekend.
“We chose to go to Knoxville and it was one of the best decisions we could’ve made,” Randall told SPEED SPORT on stage at PRI. “Met a lot of new faces and kind of exposed myself to the sprint car world there.”
His mom remained stationed at the family homestead in Texas while Randall and his dad packed up to spend the season in Iowa. The plan was for Randall to continue his career aboard the No. 9 sprint car owned by his dad and primarily sponsored by Bush’s Chicken, CSI Shocks and Fisher Race Engines.
Although the youngster presents a timid exterior off the track, he is certainly not to be underestimated once the helmet goes on.
In his year at Knoxville Raceway, Randall experienced ample success, wrapping up the season third in points. Though he wasn’t able to secure a win, he earned rookie-of-the-year honors as well as the Lyle Boyd Hard Charger award.
Randall also competed with the Iowa-based Sprint Invaders series this season and won six times in 10 starts. He may not be where he wants to be, but Randall admits that there are many areas in which he has grown as a driver — lessons he plans to put to good use in 2023.
“I’ve really improved on my mental game in the car and during the night, when something bad happens,” Randall said. “You always take it one night at a time.”
He’s had his fair share of bad nights through his career thus far, with the worst one occurring in 2017 when he was 12 years old. It was at a micro sprint race in his home state of Texas and Randall was starting back in the pack. A major wreck took place ahead of him, and with all the chaos and swirling dust, Randall couldn’t see the crashed cars fast enough to slow down.
“The other car’s front bumper came inside my car and hit my helmet, which was one in a million things that could’ve happened,” Randall said. He was air-lifted from the track to the nearest medical facility, where he was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury.
But, “as soon as I woke up at the hospital, I knew I wanted to keep racing and I just kept working as hard as I could to get back at that.” Randall spent the next several months in therapy and eventually found his way back into the cockpit of a sprint car.
“Luckily enough, I don’t remember the accident, because I think it would’ve been that much harder to come back if I did,” Randall said.
Five years later, Randall is traveling full speed ahead toward his World of Outlaws dream.
From mid-December to early February, he will be touring Australia and competing in 16 sprint car races before settling back down in Iowa. He’s hoping the extra seat time and laps in “the land down under” will aid his charge for the track championship in Knoxville.
Armed with undying support from his family, Randall has high hopes for 2023.
“When you have all your family behind you, it feels like you can do anything,” Randall said. “My mom and dad never gave up when I was at the hospital. It was just one of those things. I didn’t want to give up on them.”