Family racing fun gets serious as two talented boys give Travis Kvapil a run for his money

Travis Kvapil used to poke fun at drivers who showed up to the racetrack with little more than their helmet and their father’s checkbook.

Now he’s quickly being forced to be one of those dads.

Oh, Kvapil still loves working on race cars, and his sons don’t mind getting their hands dirty and bonding with the old man in the shop.

But Carson, who just turned 15, is quickly outgrowing the family team, and 11-year-old Caden is not far behind, moving on an even quicker pace.

“It’s unbelievable to think about all the races (Carson has) won and the cars he’s raced at 13 years old or 14 years old, and I never even made a lap until I was 16. And that was young then,” said Kvapil, the 2003 NASCAR truck series champion.

 “Nowadays, if you’re not running a late model or on the verge of going ARCA racing at 16, you’re too late. It’s crazy.”

At age 42, a Janesville native who settled his family in North Carolina in 2001, Kvapil has not given up on driving. But he has grown comfortable in the role of racing dad. In fact he has found it more fulfilling than his own career, which included 480 starts across NASCAR’s three top divisions, nine truck victories and the title.

Carson started in Bandoleros and Legends cars and last year graduated to the premier division in outlaw karts, competing regularly at Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury, N.C., and venturing as far as California.

“Kyle Larson shows up there every now and then and races with us,” Kvapil said of the NASCAR star who grew up racing the high-powered, winged karts on dirt. “It’s pretty sweet to watch my 14-year-old son to be throwing slide jobs on Kyle Larson and duking it out back and forth.”

The boys have combined to win 71 outlaw kart features over the past two seasons. Carson has two championships at Millbridge and Caden a second-place finish in the points in his class.

Carson made his late-model debut in the Carolinas last year and has an eye on the super-late model in the shop that his dad had expected to race himself.

“I think I’ve progressed pretty fast and feel like I’m on my way up there,” he said.

In May, Travis brought Carson back to Wisconsin to race with the Midwest Truck Series at Madison International Speedway, where he was super-late model champion in 1996. And this month, Carson drove the super-late normally raced by Ty Majeski, one of the country's top barnstormers, who is from Seymour.

To set those wheels in motion, Kvapil had to swallow his pride and rent a race-ready truck from former short-track and NASCAR driver Kelly Bires of Mauston. Carson finished fifth in his debut in the series at the track and then was runner-up in the super-late in his TUNDRA debut June 9 at Marshfield Speedway.

“It’s tough because we’ve always had the mentality that we’re just having fun, we’re doing it as a family and wherever it goes, it goes,” Kvapil said. “It’s to that point now that, man, Carson in particular … we’ve got to start taking this pretty seriously.

“We’ve won a handful of races in (late models) already. So instead of running one particular track or one series or one particular vehicle full time, we’re kind of running whatever and just getting him in different cars, different tracks, and just trying to continue developing him as a race-car driver.”

Kvapil may bring  Carson back to Wisconsin – and who knows where else – this summer for some more super-late model races.

At the same time, though, he has a shop full of karts and cars to take care of and an eager 11-year-old.

“It’s going to get really expensive,” Kvapil said. “Caden is 11, and he’s already had more success at 11 than Carson did when he was 11. But I give him a hard time. I say, ‘Man, your older brother … we spent all the heartaches and hours of figuring out what makes a Bandolero go fast, what makes your intermediate outlaw kart go fast.' ”

Caden won the intermediate class title in Larson’s Outlaw Kart Showcase in Chico, Calif., last September. He leads the intermediate class points on Wednesday nights at Millbridge and is second in the open class.

“He’s still a kid,” Kvapil said. “He’s still doing soccer, still doing kid stuff, but it’s going to be the same thing at 13, 14, 15 years old. We’re going to have to look at him and be, like, is this what you want to do?”

Kvapil shakes his head when he thinks about the difference of a generation in racing.

He got hired for a NASCAR truck ride on talent. Even though Kvapil has spent time at the back of the pack in sub-par equipment, he has managed a career that has spanned 18 seasons.

Carson won’t get the same opportunity to race at the higher levels without finding a lot more financial help than his father can provide.

“Obviously you have to have talent, because at the end of the day if you don’t have talent it doesn’t matter how much money you have,” Kvapil said.

“We’re trying to be successful at the grassroots stuff, take him as far as I can afford and what I can actually do, and hopefully there’s a manufacturer or sponsor or something that we can partner up with and continue the rest of the way, past late models and beyond.”