Carder Miller
When sports that most 13-year-old boys take part in are discussed, basketball, baseball and football are the most likely to be mentioned. However, young Carder Miller has opted to take a different path. While the Salem, VA native has tried some of those more typical teenage sports, he has settled on Dirt Late Model racing as his activity of choice.
“I’ve pretty much been into racing my whole life,” Miller pointed out in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “I started out in motocross. After I got hurt real bad, my dad took me to a Dirt Late Model race and asked if that was something I wanted to do. I said I would do it and then I tried it out and was actually pretty good at it. I played football and I tried baseball out when I was younger, but I’m pretty much committing to this right now.”
Good at it he has indeed proven to be. At the mere age of twelve, the driver raced to the 2016 Limited Late Model track championship at Natural Bridge Speedway in his home state. The driver of the No. 69 Rocket Chassis would like nothing better than for his success in the sport to continue, but he believes his team is lacking in one crucial ingredient.
“I hope it keeps going the way it is,” Miller declared. “We need some good luck on our side. We’ve been having some bad luck so far. We feel like we’re finally getting this car figured out and we feel like we’re going to be pretty good.”
Further, 2017 has proven to be a year of adjustment for the young talent. Taking on a new type of racing has called for changes in his driving style. But he believes he is starting to see a breakthrough.
“I’ve had to make a lot of adjustments because the track I used to race at was pretty slick every weekend, and I feel like I’m pretty good in the slick,” Miller said. “But I’ve got to get used to this hooked up racing. I was in a steelhead car and now I’m in a Super Late Model. It’s definitely a lot easier to drive with this car. The super is easier to me. It steers better and everything about it is better. These things are meant to have super engines.”
In order to achieve his racing goals, Miller is home schooled. Still, he has friends his own age but they do not necessarily believe that their peer is involved in such a high speed sport.
“They don’t believe me,” Miller said with a laugh. “I go to this home school co-op thing and I show them pictures or videos and they say ‘that’s not you’. I’ve got to get them here to make them believe it.”
Even though he may not engage in the same activities as many kids his own age, Miller still has the same interests and hopes as his fellow teens. And those include getting to legally drive on the highway despite the fact that he can already motor around a clay oval at break neck speed.
Miller’s No. 69 machine
“In about two years I’ll be able to drive to the track, hopefully,” the racer declared. “But I like being able to drive a race car better than being able to drive on the street, I guess.”
As far as his goals for racing are concerned, Miller has a big one.
“I’d like to be where Scott Bloomquist is right now, or at least try to be.”
