Chad Hackenbracht is
making a name for himself in the ARCA Racing Series. Hackenbracht, an Ohio-native, started racing
in 2003 in Mid Western Quarter Midgets, and raced in that series until 2006
when he moved up to Legend cars, quickly catching the attention of a driver
development service. In 2007, Chad left
the Driver Development Service and got a ride with CGH Motorsports. The 2010 season marked Chad's first full
season in the ARCA/ReMax Series.
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| Credit: Chad Hackenbracht |
Chad's revelation of
deciding to be a professional race car driver is 'out of whack' compared to
other drivers', he says. "I saw it
on TV and said, 'Hey, I want to do that!'
I didn’t have any family already in racing like many others. My parents sort of shrugged it off for a bit
and didn’t really pursue it until I asked again a few months later."
"Everyone, I
guess, thought it was off-the-wall at first since no one around me did it; nor
was our small town in Ohio any sort of racing town. Everyone at school thought I was stupid and
said there's no way you'll make it into NASCAR, kind of like a 'Good luck,
you're crazy' type of thing."
"The hardest part
of racing for me is putting myself out there.
I'm pretty reserved and shy, so throwing myself in front of people I
don’t know at all is a bit new to me.
For instance, walking up to Rick Hendrick and handing him my
card….probably not one of my strong suits," says Chad when asked about the
hardest part of racing for him. "My
personality on-track is very similar to my personality off-track. I am very calm; hardly say a word on the
radio, and I never get upset. I think
across all of our bad luck last year, I only got angry maybe twice and I bet I
said a total of 100 words on the radio all last year!"
I recently became
interested in fans meeting drivers, so I had to ask Chad what his favorite fan
encounter had been so far. "This
seems to be a pretty common question that I'm getting more and more, so I'm
going to have to come up with something for this. I really don’t have anything in particular
that sticks out. I guess the time I
signed a prosthetic leg in Talladega would have to rank up there as an
interesting one, I don’t know about favorite."
"I love to race
at Salem and Winchester; they are both high-banking short tracks that I've run
very well at in the past. At the same
time, I love to race at the big tracks like Kansas, Chicagoland, and
Michigan."
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| Credit: Chad Hackenbracht |
Chad had an
interesting answer if all he thinks about is winning, "For me, not
really. I guess it could be since it's
been so long since I've been to Victory Lane, but really I just worry about
getting in the car and driving to the best of my ability and with the given
circumstances. I have a mental coach
that tells me to think about the equation A x B = C; A being the things that I can control, my
mindset, etc; B are the things out of my control, like blown tires, other
people wrecking, etc; and C are the results.
So don't worry about the B factors, just do your best with what you can
control."
Different drivers
define "successful driver" in many ways: fan-friendly, a lot of talent,
sponsor-friendly, etc. "In today's
environment, what makes a successful driver is not so much talent; it becomes
more talent-based when you make it to Cup, I believe. But starting out trying to get into NASCAR is
all about money. A successful driver is
someone that can sell themselves to a sponsor and talk themselves up. It's also what you can bring to the table for
a sponsor, so I think that a successful driver coming up is measured by how
personable they are." I think many
of us can agree with this 100%.
Speaking of sponsors
and sponsorship, Chad and his No. 58 team may not have the funding to go to the
next ARCA race at Salem on April 29th, so they can use any help they can
get. "I hope we've got someone on
the car for some amount of money, but it's tough in this economy. Really, I suppose there's not much the fans
can do besides tell anyone they know that they need to support their
driver!" You heard him, people;
tell everyone you know so we can try to get him sponsorship to run at Salem in
April and for the rest of the season!
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| Credit: Chad Hackenbracht |
This past ARCA race at
Mobile International Speedway, Chad finished second behind Eddie Sharp Racing's
Cale Gale, after starting eighth. This
was Hackenbracht's career-best finish in thirty ARCA races. This propelled him into third place in the
Championship standings, ten points behind second place and twenty-five points
behind first place.
If you're interested
in contacting Chad:
- 'Like' his Facebook page: click here
- Follow him on Twitter: @ChadH58
- Check out his website: http://www.cghmotorsports.com/
Throughout
this entire you've been wondering how to correctly pronounce 'Hackenbracht,'
right? No worries, it's pronounced 'Hock
- en - bra.' All of your problems have
now been alleviated!
Check back next week to see pictures from my
tour at Chad's shop in North Carolina!
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