Winning at Daytona presents long odds. But so does making it as a NASCAR driver.

Breaking into NASCAR can be a tough endeavor. It’s an expensive sport. Kids are allowed to compete at the Bandolero Bandit division starting at 7 years old and can jump into a Legends Car, a step above Bandaleros, at 10 years old. And that’s just the beginning — before those drivers filter through many other racing series and vehicles en route to a prospective career. It’s a long and consuming commitment.

But there’s another issue, too, that many families with children who want to be race car drivers have probably run into.

There isn’t a concise answer to the question:

How does my son or daughter become a NASCAR driver?

“Right now, I could spend three hours walking you through how to become a NASCAR driver,” Joey Dennewitz, NASCAR’s new managing director of the weekly and touring series, said. “And at the end of the day, I could be dead wrong. Some can find a different path, a different way to do it.”

Dennewitz has spent his life in racing and joined NASCAR about a year ago. He said that making the sport as accessible as possible, breaking down the barriers of entry, is the easiest way to grow the sport. And what can NASCAR do to help with that? Making the information on how to join regional series, how to participate in NASCAR, as public and accessible as possible.

“Knocking down those barriers of entry, especially through information,” he said, “is the thing that drives me every day to show up at work.”

The difficult finances of NASCAR

It’s true there’s not a concise answer to the aforementioned question of how to become a NASCAR driver. But there are people who know how to turn promising young drivers into the faces of NASCAR.

One of those guys is Lorin Ranier, the head of Chevrolet’s driver development program. Ranier has spent his life in racing. His father, Harry, is a former NASCAR team owner. Lorin was a spotter for decades who later played a big role in the careers of Tony Stewart and Kyle Larson and others before creating the driver development program he runs today.

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