08/20/2026
Going out to the racetrack, you hear a lot of conversations between parents and kids about winning. Go faster. Let it all hang out. You’ve got to do this. You’ve got to do that.
And I get it. Racing is competitive. You go out there wanting to win.
But I take a little different approach with my kid.
I tell him all the time, I don’t care if you win.
You’re not racing for me. I don’t care if you finish first or last. I care that you’re having fun, giving it everything you have and coming off that track with a smile on your face.
But I also ask him a pretty simple question.
Are we doing this as a hobby because you enjoy it, or do you want to become competitive and win?
Because there’s nothing wrong with either answer. But they require two completely different approaches.
If you just want to ride, race and have fun, I’m all for it. Let’s have fun.
But if you tell me you want to win, then we’re going to talk about what it actually takes to win.
And those conversations aren’t always fun.
Sometimes I have to tell him he wasn’t fast enough. Sometimes we have to talk about a corner he could have taken better, a pass he should have made or a mistake that cost him.
As a parent, that can be hard because naturally you want to tell your kid how amazing they did.
And I’ll always tell him I’m proud of him, because I am.
But being proud of your kid and being honest with your kid can happen at the same time.
If he tells me he wants to get better, then I owe it to him to help him understand why he lost just as much as why he won.
At the end of the day, I don’t care if my kid wins.
I care if winning matters to him.
Because he’s not out there racing for me. He’s out there racing for himself.
And if he decides he wants to win, my job isn’t to make him win.
My job is to help him understand what it takes to accomplish the goals he chose for himself.