If one glances at Kyle Steffens’ racing résumé, one may conclude he is a restless soul. There have been accomplishments aplenty, and by any standard he has been among the top modified drivers in the land for years.
Maybe it is because he has hit the magic age of 40, or maybe he is spurred by fresh challenges. Regardless of the motivation, as the season wound down Steffens seemed to find the sweet spot in his racing life.
“I think I have lost my love for mods,” but with a bit of prodding he admits there are a few prizes out there he would still like to claim as his own. However, one thing is clear. After a full season that leaves him within grasp of a top-five finish in points, he proclaims with no hesitation, “I love Silver Crown cars.”
Like so many, he began his journey in quarter-midget racing. His father purchased a car from Rod Urish, and because Urish lived in Topeka, Kan., it is where Steffens gave racing a try for the first time. From there his trips were a bit closer to his St. Charles, Mo., home.
He settled into a pattern of competing with the Sangamon County Quarter Midget club in Springfield, Ill., the STLQMA club near World Wide Technology Raceway, and at the Vigo County Fairgrounds in Terre Haute. There were good moments, but like so many racers it seems it is the one that got away that sticks with him.
“I almost won the dirt grands in Jr. Stock at Terre Haute,” he recalled. “But I was lapping Joey Moughan, and he crashed me. That was a tough day.”
He remained in quarter midgets until he was 11 and then spent time racing karts on road circuits. Eventually, the family took their program closer to home. When they weren’t competing father and son often attended races at the now-shuttered St. Charles Speedway.
It was a logical place for Kyle to land. He was a quick study.
“I won a B-mod race when I was about 13 and the place went nuts because at that time kids didn’t race. It just wasn’t normal,” Steffens said. “I remember when Bobby Wente ran Tri-City Speedway they kicked me out before I even got a chance to race. They said there was no way I was racing. So, my parents had me emancipated. At that time, the adults did not like it. It was just not OK. Sometimes I think it is crazy that my parents let me do that, but I also look back and think it is cool that they did.”
On occasion he wishes his next move would have been to a midget or sprint car, but other factors came into play.
“My dad was close to Kevin Gundaker and he was a late model guy,” Gundaker explained. “He helped me hone my skills in modifieds and late models.”
Gundaker knew how to get to victory lane and whatever lessons he offered found an eager learner. To this day, Steffens calls Gundaker for advice his racing endeavors.
In 2000, Steffens shocked the racing world when he carried his modified to a win at the Bill Oldani Memorial at the one-mile Du Quoin State Fairgrounds oval. At age 16, he was the youngest winner in the long history of the venerable plant.
Since that time, he has scored again at Du Quoin and picked up the 2017 UMP championship at Missouri’s Federated Auto Parts Raceway and one year later topped the charts at Tri-City Speedway in Illinois. He has also been a force with the Midwest Auto Racing Series and during the famous DIRTcar Summer Nationals Hell Tour
“Mods are a lot of fun,” he said. “But they cost a lot of money, and you don’t race for a lot of money either, but then, that’s not really why I do it. I feel like I have done all I wanted to do in the modifieds.”
That’s basically true. Last year he was leading the Hell tour points and was atop the MARS standings when work obligations got in the way. He tries to shake that off but admits it left him a bit empty.
“It was pretty difficult and maybe it took a little bit of wind out of my sails,” Steffens said.
With some prompting he acknowledges he relishes matching wits with drivers such as Nick Hoffman and Tyler Nicely, and that winning a major series or tour remains appealing.
There is also the matter of the real world. There was a time when he harbored big racing dreams. He traveled to the southeast and ran in North Carolina and Virginia but as he puts it succinctly, “It didn’t work out, so I came home and worked for dad.”
The family business, Performance Plus Global, is a very successful logistics company.
“We are like the Expedia.com of the trucking industry,” he explained. “We don’t own trucks, but we do all the freight management.”
Interestingly, the business dovetails nicely with his interest in motorsports. “I would say we ship for 80 percent of the World of Outlaw teams, USAC guys, the NHRA, and for a lot of NASCAR owners. I ship parts all over the world,” Steffens said. “It is cool but very stressful. There have been times when I have been bolted into the race car and I have to take a call. It’s crazy. We had to get an engine to Knoxville for Kyle Larson, and a Paul Silva (Larson’s team owner) photo when we came through got a lot of attention. It shed a light on what we do as a business to help racers.”
He knows a time will come when he takes over the company, so he must give it full attention. That alone can make the USAC Silver Crown schedule attractive, but it isn’t pragmatics alone that fuel his passion for the big cars.
Given his success on one-mile tracks in both modifieds and late models, his ability to adapt quickly was not surprising. This year he came in with an entirely different mindset. He was prepared to race the entire slate and make it his No. 1 racing priority. The goal was to somehow finish in the top five in points.
As the season draws to a close, he has a great shot to reach his goal. When it comes to the dirt, he feels as prepared for the challenge as anyone on the tour. To the surprise of some, he feels that modifieds are a bit more difficult to handle on the mile ovals than the bulky Silver Crown cars.
“The modifieds are tied down more,” he noted. “Where the Silver Crown car is on the top of the race track and they kind of float around. A modified is in the race track and then the speed and the air pushes the car down into the ground even more. Then you have a six-to-one steering box, which is more like a stock Chevy steering box. You have to really muscle it in the corner and it is bouncing on the right-front springs. There is more of a physical factor to it.”
He feels like the style of racing needed for the Silver Crown series is right in his wheelhouse.
“I like the speed and I like the fact we race more than 20 laps so there is a mental side to it,” Steffens said. “In a late model or a modified you can be yawed out early, but when the track starts to blow off you have to utilize your right-front to left rear all the time because this is how you get traction. You have to keep your car straight because on lap 80 to 100, you have to have rubber on the tire. It is just a game of being smarter. It took me a while to get more sideways in qualifying, which you need to do, but I’m getting better at that now.”
Taking on the pavement was an entirely different matter. Nothing beats experience, but he admits he may never get comfortable at fearsome Winchester (Ind.) Speedway.
“I like high-speed places, but that is a whole different deal.”
However, overall, he feels the transition to the hardtop has gone well and credits a number of people for helping him get comfortable.
Beyond Winchester, nothing provided a bigger challenge than World Wide Technology Raceway. He knew the speeds would be high on the 1.25-mile paved oval but said his game plan was to “just put it out of my head and try not to put myself in bad spots.”
Logan Seavey, the defending series champion checked in with Steffens and reminded him that in race conditions the ability to draft would come into play.
“When we started drafting, I liked it even more,” Steffends said. “But I realized that if someone crashed, we were not going to be able to stop.”
Steffens also learned another valuable lesson about the draft at the St Louis-area oval albeit a painful one. He was working with longtime Gene Nolen Racing associate Rick Laughlin and drawing on his experience was invaluable. However, one small detail escaped both men.
“When you get behind someone there and you get pulled up to them you jump up 200 to 300 rpms,” he noted. “I had made it up to fifth and was right behind Kaylee Bryson when I ran out of fuel on the last lap. We didn’t calculate for the added rpms in the draft and that led to more fuel consumption.” If there was any solace, he wasn’t the only driver in the field to suffer that fate.
Overall, he counts the season as a success.
“I am really proud of the people around me who are helping me,” he said. “I’m not a one-man band. There was a time in my life when I thought I could do it on my own and you just can’t.”
The baseline he needed to become a future title contender is in place. Maybe as important, as the year has progressed, he has kept his eyes wide open.
Whether it is actual competition, or what happens pre-race Steffens reveals “he studies people who are fast.” He has a list of those he considers the best in the business and believes there are times when imitation is the highest form of flattery.
He already has a lot on his plate but may try to break into pavement sprint car racing, and he hopes the midgets he has in the garage do not gather dust much longer.
Still there is a business to run, and his boys Rhys who is 8, and 5-year-old Ryker keep him busy. Rhys has already raced in quarter midgets and outlaw karts, and his younger brother is not far behind. It is a lot to balance, and he credits his girlfriend and co-worker Emily Besgrove for being a stable force in life.
By now no one should be surprised to find Kyle Steffens running up front in the Silver Crown ranks. His previous ex