It’s not easy being the child of a highly successful athlete if one is in the same sport. In NASCAR, there are several instances of father-son duos racing at the highest level. The Pettys, Earnhardts, Burtons, Blaneys, and Elliott’s, to name a few. In this age of social media, the pressure on legacy drivers is a lot more than it used to be. Harrison Burton and Ryan Blaney recently sat down with their fathers and Kyle Petty to explain what it’s like.
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Both drivers believe that the pressure comes from outside. They both had supportive families who allowed them to race on their terms. In Burton’s case, he had to “beg” his parents to get him into racing.
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However, the Wood Brothers Racing driver had a hard time growing up. Everyone on social media was quite critical of him even when he was only 15 years old.
“I had a year when I didn’t win a lot of races and we didn’t run very good. Even then, I was like 15 years old, and it was crazy. You’d open Twitter and people be just dogging you or whatever. When I was a kid, that really upset me a little bit,” he said.
However, the moment Burton started winning races, all that criticism turned to praise. That is all that matters in the world of motorsports in the end. If you win, you will be treated well by the community.
Blaney reveals the pressure on NASCAR’s legacy athletes
However, when a driver loses, the difference in fan treatment of a normal driver and a legacy driver is contrasting. There will always be high expectations from the child of a racing legend. Ryan Blaney is one of them, with his father Dave, a World of Outlaws champion and a sprint car racing legend.
“The fans are always expecting more for sure and it’s the same in any sport. Like any son or daughter of a pro athlete out there, they always expect. LeBron James’s kid has the most pressure on his shoulders than any kid out there right now,” the reigning Cup Series champion said.
Rising through these hurdles and becoming successful is what makes a great race car driver. The #12 Ford Mustang driver did that last season by winning the Cup Series title and will be looking to go back-to-back in 2024. The upcoming race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway plays well into his hands, having won at Pocono last Sunday given the facility’s similarities to the quad-oval.
