{"id":459392,"date":"2024-07-30T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/?p=459392"},"modified":"2024-07-24T14:40:27","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T18:40:27","slug":"ferns-the-next-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"FERNS: The Next Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 My passion for motorsports began at a young age.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I first sat in a race car, a quarter midget, when I was 6 years old and had instant butterflies; like love at first sight. I remember buckling myself in, reaching for the pedals and acting like I was racing, although the car was up on stands.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I didn\u2019t want to get out of the car unless it was coming home with me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was hooked.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After an hour of sitting in the quarter midget, my parents pulled me out \u2014 and the car came home with us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In all honesty, although my mom and dad are responsible for introducing me to the sport, I\u2019m sure they didn\u2019t foreshadow their daughter carving a 22-plus-year career out of what was intended to be a family hobby. Yet here we are.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, I have spent some time at quarter-midget and micro-sprint races throughout the state of Indiana. While attending these events, I have paid attention to the racing, interacted with some of the families and young racers and observed the competitive environment(s) from an objective point of view.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/speedsportinsider.com\/2024\/07\/24\/ferns-the-next-generation\/\"><em><strong>Read more…<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>THIS ARTICLE IS ACCESSIBLE TO INSIDERS ONLY…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/speedsportinsider.com\"><em><strong>SPEED SPORT Insider<\/strong><\/em><\/a> is the ad-free premium extension of SPEEDSPORT.com. <em><strong>Insider<\/strong><\/em> is dedicated to the best and brightest in motorsports journalism \u2013 created by the best writers, photographers and reporters in the business. From veteran Hall of Fame writers like Bones Bourcier, Dave Argabright, Pat Sullivan, Keith Waltz, Ralph Sheheen and Editor in Chief Mike Kerchner, to behind the scenes SPEED SPORT reporters like Grace Woelbing, David Hoffman and more.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/speedsportinsider.com\/subscribe-or-manage-your-account\/\">By subscribing to Insider,<\/a> you not only get exclusive access to this premium content, but you support the journalists that are vital to telling the stories that matter most. Subscriptions are just $5\/mo or $44.95 for an entire year. <a href=\"https:\/\/speedsportinsider.com\/subscribe-or-manage-your-account\/\"> View plans and details.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/speedsportinsider.memberful.com\/checkout?plan=87510&coupon=INSIDER2024\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>SPECIAL OFFER! Subscribe now with this link and save $5.00!<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/13\/INSIDER-LOGO2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-410415\" src=\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/13\/INSIDER-LOGO2-300x82.jpg\" alt=\"Insider Logo2\" width=\"300\" height=\"82\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/13\/INSIDER-LOGO2-300x82.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/13\/INSIDER-LOGO2-1024x280.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/13\/INSIDER-LOGO2-768x210.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/13\/INSIDER-LOGO2-1536x420.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/13\/INSIDER-LOGO2-2048x561.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/13\/INSIDER-LOGO2-855x234.jpg 855w, https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/13\/INSIDER-LOGO2-350x96.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/13\/INSIDER-LOGO2-330x90.jpg 330w, https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/13\/INSIDER-LOGO2-70x19.jpg 70w, https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/13\/INSIDER-LOGO2-90x25.jpg 90w, https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/13\/INSIDER-LOGO2-960x263.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/13\/INSIDER-LOGO2-443x121.jpg 443w, https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/13\/INSIDER-LOGO2-922x252.jpg 922w, https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/13\/INSIDER-LOGO2-800x219.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My passion for motorsports began at a young age.\u00a0","protected":false},"author":21483,"featured_media":459393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ndms-widget-blocks_gb_metabox":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12516],"tags":[12485,9766],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>FERNS: The Next Generation - SPEED SPORT<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FERNS: The Next Generation - SPEED SPORT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SPEED SPORT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-30T17:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-24T18:40:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/07\/24\/450328846_949457203648349_3179776809555410389_n.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"586\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Staff Report\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Staff Report\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/\",\"name\":\"FERNS: The Next Generation - SPEED SPORT\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/07\/24\/450328846_949457203648349_3179776809555410389_n.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-30T17:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-24T18:40:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/#\/schema\/person\/083dae192b61a0dd0a3da9df6d6fe04c\"},\"description\":\"My passion for motorsports began at a young age.\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/07\/24\/450328846_949457203648349_3179776809555410389_n.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/07\/24\/450328846_949457203648349_3179776809555410389_n.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":586,\"caption\":\"Quarter-midget competition at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as part of the NASCAR Youth Series. (NASCAR photo)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"FERNS: The Next Generation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/\",\"name\":\"SPEED SPORT\",\"description\":\"The official site of SPEED SPORT\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/#\/schema\/person\/083dae192b61a0dd0a3da9df6d6fe04c\",\"name\":\"Staff Report\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2021\/03\/17\/ss_Logo-150x150.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2021\/03\/17\/ss_Logo-150x150.png\",\"caption\":\"Staff Report\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/author\/staff\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"FERNS: The Next Generation - SPEED SPORT","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"FERNS: The Next Generation - SPEED SPORT","og_url":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/","og_site_name":"SPEED SPORT","article_published_time":"2024-07-30T17:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-07-24T18:40:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":586,"url":"http:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/07\/24\/450328846_949457203648349_3179776809555410389_n.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Staff Report","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Staff Report","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/","url":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/","name":"FERNS: The Next Generation - SPEED SPORT","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/07\/24\/450328846_949457203648349_3179776809555410389_n.jpg","datePublished":"2024-07-30T17:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-24T18:40:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/#\/schema\/person\/083dae192b61a0dd0a3da9df6d6fe04c"},"description":"My passion for motorsports began at a young age.\u00a0","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/07\/24\/450328846_949457203648349_3179776809555410389_n.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/07\/24\/450328846_949457203648349_3179776809555410389_n.jpg","width":900,"height":586,"caption":"Quarter-midget competition at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as part of the NASCAR Youth Series. (NASCAR photo)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/insider\/ferns-the-next-generation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"FERNS: The Next Generation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/","name":"SPEED SPORT","description":"The official site of SPEED SPORT","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/#\/schema\/person\/083dae192b61a0dd0a3da9df6d6fe04c","name":"Staff Report","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2021\/03\/17\/ss_Logo-150x150.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2021\/03\/17\/ss_Logo-150x150.png","caption":"Staff Report"},"url":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/author\/staff\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21483"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459844,"href":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459392\/revisions\/459844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speedsport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}