In a division full of several top prospects, a potential next big thing will soon arrive in the NASCAR O’Reilly Series with a resume to support the distinction.
Carson Brown.
The Richard Childress Racing development driver is the presumptive ASA STARS National Super Late Model Series champion, and championship contender in the CARS Late Model Stock Tour, but also an ARCA and Trans-Am winner.
But as impressive as the resume reads, it’s actually the intangibles that make the 18-year-old from New London, North Carolina such a fascinating prospect. Literally everyone that has fielded cars for him says he’s the model youngster, a racer that does things the right way, while also inspiring crew members to find an extra tenth on race weekends.
That includes Anthony Campi, a no-nonsense straight-shooter, who fields the Super Late Model that Brown has taken to three wins and two seconds across five ASA STARS appearances this season.
“Some of the cars we’ve given him, I would be irate coming off the hauler in like we have a couple of times,” Campi said. “But he just comes over the radio, and calmly says ‘yeah guys, nearly backed it into the fence; need to go a different direction,’ and I have worked with drivers who are completely the opposite.”
Campi praised Brown for being amongst the first to clock-in when the garage opens on race days while leaving alongside the team once everything shuts down. In TA2, Brown drives for Scott Lagasse, who offered the most robust assessment of his maturity.
“The biggest thing that stands out to me with him, and this will help him so much as he climbs the ladder, is that he understands that he’s part of a team,” Lagasse said. “He really appreciates everyone working alongside him. He supports us in a way that I wish I had understood to do when I was his age.
“I don’t even know that he fully understands yet what he’s doing but he’s gaining a lot of momentum in terms of people who want to fight for him. To win races at any level, it takes people who are willing to stay at the shop after hours. Carson is really good about motivating his team and being appreciative of the work they put in.
“You can’t train that.”
To wit, when asked about his team-first mentality, Brown didn’t seem to fully understand the question. To him, gratitude and collaboration just came natural. Brown says his job isn’t to just drive the car but to do whatever is asked by those around him.
Brown mentioned that he grew up playing baseball before first climbing into a Legends car at 10-years-old. Maybe his team-first instincts came from that background.
“Everything in my life has revolved around being on a team,” Brown said. “I think that just comes natural. … I feel like teamwork is even more important on the racing side and I really do want to be a good teammate.”
Again, all the victories are one thing but the poise is quite another.
His most disappointing defeat this year came in the CARS Tour race at Dominion Raceway in Virginia. He led the most laps but was penalized (a row) by race control for a borderline restart violation and then got pinballed around during the ensuing restart.
Pulliam and crew chief Teddy Musgrave were incensed over the radio, but Brown stayed even-tempered and was even more composed when asked about it during his post-race interviews.
It’s not that he didn’t care but his philosophy was to support whatever decision Lee Pulliam Performance made regarding a conversation with the series director. He didn’t want to undermine that with a public lashing.
That is not a universal attribute in teenaged prospects.
“If that had been our first race together, I would have expected him to snap,” said Musgrave. “But we started working together in January and that’s just how he handles adversity. He isn’t going to start driving over his head and bounce off people. He fell outside of the top five and just got back to work and drove up to fourth.
“In those situations, it’s hard to balance having a personality while also staying cool. He has a ton of personality. Come into our trailer and it’s a comedy hour on race weekends. He’s hilarious but he just doesn’t get wound-up behind the wheel. That’s going to take him a long way.
“There are drivers that have character and need to throw stuff around in the hauler after a race and he just doesn’t have that in him. If someone eventually pushes him to that point, more power to you.”
The relationship with Richard Childress Racing gave him access to the Josh Wise Optimization program. At this point, the race craft is undeniable, even if a work-in-progress, and Wise is focused on the intangibles.
Wise says he’s responsible for drivers ‘physically, psychologically, technically, and tactically.’ He is focused on ‘competence’ over ‘confidence.’ Meanwhile, Musgrave says he sees all the little things Brown is doing beyond driving race cars.
Jason Reasin Photography
“We raced at Langley earlier this year and my daughter came with me, and as we were pulling into the racetrack, she spots Carson running along the side of the road,” Musgrave said. “She was like, ‘it is 8 in the morning and it’s hot out, what is he doing?’
“That’s Carson. He’s 110 percent into everything he’s doing. His conditioning is ridiculous. I never have to worry about him falling out of the seat. He climbs out looking the same way he did climbing in.
“He’s just a complete package, man. I feel like he prepares himself in every way possible from his homework, how he handles himself in bad situations, and then his workout regimen and conditioning.”
Even more impressive is maintaining that commitment with a schedule that includes ARCA, CARS Tour, ASA and TA2, virtually racing every weekend and sometimes two different cars on the same weekend.
Every single team owner and crew chief says Brown never needs to be told when to show up. He makes his own schedule, sends it to each program manager, and is punctual for every stop on his personal world tour.
“The day I turned 18, that’s when I became the bus driver and motorhome driver,” Brown said. “I’ve taken that thing from the ARCA race at Phoenix, after we won, and drove it down to Nashville for the CARS Tour race.
“I have to handle it because my parents are busy or I’m the only one that has to be somewhere. And honestly, because of my age, I can’t rent a car or hotel room so this is the only way to make my schedule work.”
His various teams appreciate the punctuality but also the focus that has to be challenging with that kind of schedule. Pulliam says Brown has occasionally missed CARS Tour practice days for ARCA or ASA races the day before, races that he frequently wins, and the team wanted to celebrate him but Brown was focused on them instead.
“He doesn’t want to talk about the last race,” Pulliam said. “We ask him about it, but he’s not interested in bragging about winning this big race or the other because he’s worried about how to make up for the lost time from missing practice.
“To me, that just shows you how focused he is on being the absolute best. He reminds me of myself when I was racing every week, because I would win at Motor Mile on Friday and we would be going through tech and I’m already thinking about South Boston the next day.
“I see that in him. He’s not distracted by whatever happened two days ago, good or bad.”
So now it’s just a matter of whether Brown is ready to make the jump to the highest levels of Stock Car racing.
On one hand, Wise says ‘you are never really ready’ but also praised Brown’s support group and expects him to ‘maximize his opportunities.’ Pulliam recently made his own O’Reilly Series debut at Martinsville and said Brown is more focused than any prospect he has seen since he shepherded Corey Heim several years ago.
High praise.
“They’re not making a lot of Carson Browns,” Pulliam added.
For his part, Brown is satisfied with his race craft and development but knows national tour racing requires more than just talent.
“These days, it’s simulator work and preparation, fitness training,” Brown said. “Once you get to that level, you don’t get to spend as much time in the race car, so I think I need to make sure I know how to get the most out of a simulator with my feedback. That’s taking over right now. It’s 90 percent of the battle from what I’ve been told.
“So that’s the biggest thing I’m focused on right now. That and just continuing to put the work in at Wise Optimization so that I’m ready to avoid the mental and physical fatigue that comes with these longer races.”
Stay tuned for the potential next big thing.
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