Lucas Pipala Racing

Shoutout to the hard-working dads!!! You are appreciated beyond words and respected by the little racers you're raising more than they can express.

This guy is pitting over 90 NASCAR races this season. He's gone Friday - Sunday most weeks, living his dreams and proving to young racers anything is possible as long as you work hard and let your passion drive you.

Shayne moved to North Carolina at 18 to be on a pit crew. He took welding classes and worked in his dad's auto body shop, and started as a welder at Braun Racing to get his foot in the door. He pitted a race for Kenny Wallace for free just to be out there competing and to be seen. He bought his own NASCAR License so he stood out to a team so they wouldn't have to buy it like they might for someone else. He went the Carl Edwards route and handed out business cards. He helped in the shop for free. He studied pit videos daily.

One weekend he drove to from NC to Michigan for one race, to New Jersey for another, and back to NC. He got home at 6am, took a quick shower, then go straight to work in the shop for 11 hours. He drove 14 hours one-way once to do one 2-tire stop (so change one tire).

He's won back to back Brickyards, the Daytona 500, two Southern 500's, an O'Reilly's Series Championship, and has countless other wins while working with some of the biggest names of the modern era of NASCAR. Dream big. Work hard. And our family motto: NEVER GIVE UP.

This is the shadow Lucas is walking in. The shadow of a hard working and passionate man. A man who loves living his dream and he knows how lucky he is. He will talk to anyone and everyone to help them get there too. He's too nice sometimes and will always be there for the people in his life, and his GIF game is unmatched.

Shayne works all week, pit practice, workouts, and helping out in the Fab shop too, then works on Lucas's race car when he gets home. We don't have an outside source taking care of our equipment, it's all on this guy's shoulders. He's there to help Lucas in practice but when the lights shine the brightest on his boy, dad is hundreds of miles away, watching on his phone or the pit box TV at the live of the race.

It rips his heart out to do all the prep and all the research, and not get to be there for the moments with his boy, the celebrations when he did so great and all the kids and adults are proud of Lucas, and those moments when Lucas is heartbroken and needs a hug from dad. He misses it all.

So this post is a thank you to the dads. You have so much more on your plate than the little racers realize, and make more sacrifices than they could understand. Even when they think they know, they really don't. It's the nights you lay awake wondering about shocks and stagger, track temps and track bars. It's your shoes are falling apart, but you'll tape them together if it means money towards a fresh new set of tires for the race car. It's when your heart breaks because the car was off and your kid is devastated because they were so confidant... and you're feeling like you let them down.

We see you. We thank you. We love you. Racing dads are like no other. They love hard, support hard, work hard, and it's not taking a kid to practice and buying a glove or pads. It's late nights covered in grease and busting your knuckles, hoping you're doing the right thing to give your kid all they need to grow and showcase their talent.

Randomly thank a racing dad today for all they do, for no reason other than they deserve it.

🚨The update everyone has been waiting for!!! The new hardware tells one story but the smile tells another!

Lucas had his 8-week checkup today for his broken arm. After 4 weeks in a long cast, he graduated to the short cast for the last 4 weeks.

In today’s x-rays, we could see one of the two bones was almost fully healed. The bad break unfortunately ….was still visible. To quote his doctor “You broke it really good!”

👩‍⚕️ We sat down and his doctor asked to see video and photos of his car to learn more about the style of racing we do. She said with the safety measures we take and racing not being a ‘full body contact sport’ like football.. 🚨She has officially approved Lucas to get back to racing!!!!🚨 (She even went as far as to say racing, but while it can be dangerous, is one of the safer sports when it comes to protecting the body!)

👉🏼The only stipulation - Lucas must wear a hard brace in his races, just to protect the bone. This brace was molded to his arm for comfort, but it does have a hard spot at the pad of his hand that might be difficult to hold the wheel with, so we’re going to look into other options for a race brace which his doctor suggested…. He needs to wear it for any activity (so recess and PE) but and no push-ups quite yet, but otherwise he’s got his arm back, and doesn’t need it all the time! We have one more appointment in 6 weeks and hopefully then he’ll be good to go completely and we can see what kind of racing we can get into for the off-season 👀

Any friends want to go practice with Lucas next week? 🏁 We’ve got to get this guy a little seat time to get back in the swing of things!! He’s ready to hit the track and make his comeback in 2 weeks at the Carolina Fall Nationals!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

All the cool kids have a pool from The Pool and Patio Company and a motor from Flash Products while driving their Ultimate QM Quarter Midget in their Accelo Racewear firesuit at North Carolina Quarter Midget Association (NCQMA) 😏

We’re out here at our track today at the Honda Cup race to support our friends! We are honored and beyond appreciative that Lucas was invited to be included in the Senior Honda walkout and driver intros!

Well, after 4 weeks in the whole arm cast, the x-rays looked good enough to move Lucas into a short-arm cast! And they ordered green just for him!

He's been in this new cast for 2 weeks and it's been so nice for Lucas to be able to move his elbow and have a little more freedom, although he was HEARTBROKEN when they cut the old cast off, right through his Carson Hocevar and Riley Herbst autographs (many tears!). Two more weeks and we'll go have another look at it, and if the x-rays look good, he can finally be cast-free and will move to a removable brace for a little while.... and maybe will be approved to race again??? 🤞🏼Lucas would love to get to race the 3rd race of the triple crown in early September at North Carolina Quarter Midget Association (NCQMA), the Carolina Fall Nationals! He's 11th out to 17 in points for this series, and points are super close, he's only -6 to 9th place!

It's been a low-key summer with Lucas having to miss about 7 races, but we have still snuck in a little fun. A trip to EchoPark Speedway to watch dad pit for Austin Hill, a beach trip, a few trips to Spire Motorsports (this being his new favorite past-time since it's 10 minutes from home and he can see 77 cars all the time) and lots of fun in our The Pool and Patio Company pool thanks to a cast cover!

Today school starts, and tomorrow we head to the track to cheer on our friends in the last Summer Series race of the year where champions will be crowned, and Saturday...well... we'll see what we do.

It's the big Honda Cup race, one Lucas raced his way into last year even with a hunk of junk car. The biggest race of the year for his class with driver intros, walkout songs, driver intros, interviews.... this is the race that broke his heart to have to miss (catch Lucas doing all the rain dances for Saturday this week so it gets rescheduled 🤞🏼😂) He had a tough time after the last race we went to, seeing his friends talk about the race, support each other and be so proud of each other... he just felt so left out and he misses being in the action so deeply. It's going to be a touch one for the kid to be on the sidelines for and watch all the fun...

Dad is picking up the engine from Flash Products today, his HANS device was sent off to Simpson Race Products for a tune up and is back and better than ever, we got a new roof net to replace the torn one from RaceDay Safety Inc racedaysafety.com (they have the best lime green and it did it's job in the crash!) and now it's time to do lots of repairs in hopes that a month from now the boy will be back on the track!

Now that we're getting the car put back together, well, it's been a lot more than we thought in the damage depot from that one wreck. Weird how the most simple crashes can cause the most damage (to the car and driver apparently!). Shocks were bent so badly they thought Lucas was the one that flipped (Thanks for fixing them up RE Suspension, Inc.!!) lots of bent tie rods, steering shaft was bent and a weld actually broke as well (Luckily dad is a fabricator when he's not changing tires and can take care of that!)... and some cosmetic damage too. Luckily we drive a safe and strong X-Wing from Ultimate QM! Accidents will always happen but knowing Lucas is tucked in that leaned cage, we know he's in the best seat!!

We're busy in other ways too, making plans to get this guy more seat time to make up for the races he's missed. Plans in dad's head include looking at new trucks, RVs, different tracks in the off-season from NCQMA and another race car...? 🫣 (Mom hopes the track dads lose his number!)

Lucas just can't wait to drive again. But until then, he's gonna keep taking his vitamins to get stronger and cheering his friends on... and he's getting really good at driving NASCAR on Xbox with one arm 😉 All we can do for now, but we'll do all we can until the green machine is back out there!!