Some professional athletes might find themselves getting frustrated with a seeming lack of progress up the competitive ladder.
But for stock car driver Josh Reaume, the challenges he’s faced trying to make his mark on the NASCAR XFinity Series the past three seasons have allowed him to gain knowledge of the game and to carefully chart out his future, while leaving the door open for breaks that may come along.
During a conversation with the Gazette while home visiting his family in Highlands for Christmas, Reaume talked about his life and career goals and the harsh realities of competing against big-money NASCAR teams when your equipment pales in comparison.
He finished 52nd overall on the XFinity Series in 2016, a far cry from the 33rd place he finished in the previous year. Considering he only had six starts this past season compared to 15 year the year prior, it’s easy to see the lack of opportunities to climb behind the wheel shoved him down the standings.
He did see bright spots in the season, however, like finishing 27th – his second-best career result on the series – in the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway in October, after not driving for four months.
“It was nice, I got a lot of good compliments from people with (team sponsor) B.J. McLeod Motorsports,” he said, noting that building partnerships with sponsors is a critical for trying to secure a ride down the road.
For drivers not on the payroll of the big teams, which often send their drivers down to run the XFinity races on the Saturday for exposure and to practice for the Sprint Cup races on Sunday, it can be extremely tough to make an impression.
“It’s so much about money,” Reaume said. “The greatest opportunities that are based just on talent … there’s going to be drivers that have got a lot more experience (than me) and can bring some corporate sponsorship over.”
He recognizes that to get those opportunities and get noticed, he needs to bring more to the table. “I need to build a bigger fan base, get a name for myself, have more financial partners, more marketing partners …”
The Rick Ware Racing team, for whom Reaume has driven a number of times on the XFinity Series, is running the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for 2017. Reaume has been talking with various people about this season, but said his focus will likely be on the truck series, as a way of getting behind the wheel more often.
“My experience will be a plus for the truck series, given that many drivers are less experienced, plus I have some local sponsors. The goal is you want to get in a car as frequently as you can.”
Now 26, Reaume is fortunate to be able to work both sides of the racing fence. While his dream remains to gain a full-time ride and work his way up the ladder as a driver, in the interim, he’s making a name for himself working as an engineer on the Ryan Seeg team that finished ninth in the XFinity points race and qualified for the first-ever Chase on that series.
“That was really exciting to be with the team that finished third at Daytona,” Reaume said. “It’s exciting and very gratifying to know I was involved in a lot of aspects of that car.”
Looking back at his up-and-down season, he said there were two main takeaways.
“On the business side of things, it comes down to how do I get into a race car more often and have more irons in the fire, with more partners. That’s just a such a slow-moving process,” he said.
“On a driving level, I really saw the benefits of taking notes, so that when I go back to a racetrack, I can be up to speed more quickly,” he added. Before the Kansas race, for example, he looked at his notes from Chicago, which he said is a similar track.
His final race of the season, the Ford Eco-Boost 300 on Nov. 19 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, provided somewhat of a revelation, as well. Freed from the mandate to run smart, protect the car as much as possible and earn its owner some series points before parking the car early, he was given the green light to run as hard as he could and take chances on the track.
“They told me to go out there and put on a good show for the sponsors, and if you crash it, you crash,” Reaume said.
He finished 33rd but was running as high as 25th at one point. He admitted to taking a corner a little too aggressively even as his tires were wearing out, a decision that saw him find the wall and forced to make an unscheduled pit stop, which left him a lap behind the pace and unable to catch up.
“That’s my takeaway from there,” he said. “That’s applicable for a lot of race tracks, tracks these days are getting progressively more banked and there’s the fast line …”
The other lesson he’s learned is that making this journey is more fun with a partner. Last year Reaume got engaged to a woman he calls a “southern belle” and racing fan who grew up in the shadow of the track at Charlotte, North Carolina near where Reaume lives when not on the road. They’ll be married on May 28.
“It’s a Sunday, so that I can hopefully race the XFinity race at Charlotte (the day before),” he said.
The first race weekend for the NASCAR XFinity and Camping World Truck Series is Feb. 24 and 25 at Daytona.
editor@goldstreamgazette.com
