Balancing school and NASCAR dreams, Athens Academy's Jake Garcia making name in truck series
There was hardly time for Jake Garcia to catch his breath as he prepared for his first road course race last weekend at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
Garcia flew out to Phoenix early in the week for a couple days of practice on an Arizona road course before flying back home to Monroe for a day. He was then off to Austin for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series practice on Friday before qualifying and a race on Saturday, where he finished 19th.
By Sunday he was back home for the hardest part of his week: homework.
"I stay pretty busy, for sure," Garcia said.
Garcia is a senior at Athens Academy, preparing to graduate in May while pursuing a dream of reaching NASCAR's Cup Series.
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At 18, he's secured a full-time gig in NASCAR's third-tier series, which is a nice advantage for a young driver looking to impress those in stock car's top series'.
"I’m doing full time in the truck series about as early as you can," said Garcia, who, due to NASCAR age limits, wasn't allowed to compete full-time until turning 18 on March 3. He also couldn't compete on a track longer than a mile until that same day, when he finished 10th at Las Vegas, a mile-and-a-half track.
"To be as young as I am and in the spot that I’m in, it will give me a little more time than others to grow and get better as my career progresses."
Garcia traveled the Southeast racing quarter midgets from the time he was a 5-year old and progressed to full-sized midgets, late models, pro late models and super late models before landing a couple truck races and an ARCA ride last year.
Trips to McAnally-Hilgemann Racing, his full-time race team in Statesville, North Carolina, and late-week travel challenge him to balance classwork at Athens Academy, but Garcia manages.
"There’s a lot to do, and my teachers work with me and I kind of made a stupid decision taking really hard classes, so it’s been a bit of a workload," he said. "I just kind of got used to making up work and developing strategies to help me do it efficiently and help me with time management."
Two weeks ago, Garcia finished 18th at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It was a special moment racing at the track he grew up watching many of the sport's top stars like Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano.
It was his first time driving on a track designed for drafting, pack racing and high speeds. Along with family, around 10 Athens Academy classmates attended to support the senior.
"Athens Academy is a great place with a really good environment, so it’s really cool that we all support each other," Garcia said. "I go to their football and basketball games, so it was cool that they came out to my race. It’s pretty cool to have the support of them and to be able to have a race close enough that they could come."
College might be in the future, but racing will be first for Garcia.
His rapid rise depicts his talent, but there's luck and work outside of the track that helps drivers scale the ranks.
If all goes well, the Xfinity Series would be the next step before his dreams of Cup Series stardom come into focus.
"That would definitely be the dream, for sure," Garcia said. "It’s what I’ve dreamt of since I was a little kid. But it takes a lot to go there. Not only do you have to be a good racecar driver, you have to have good sponsors and a race team that believes in you. It’s just a matter, this year especially, doing well enough to where you can turn some heads and impress people."
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: NASCAR Truck Series driver Jake Garcia balancing Athens Academy, dreams
