Kade Brown, a three-time Texas Bandolero champion, has his sights set on becoming a NASCAR driver. The 13-year-old Fulshear, Texas, native has a head start on his dream job, too. Brown will compete alongside more than 100 drivers in the Bojangles' Summer Shootout, which kicks off its 26th season with a doubleheader on Monday and Tuesday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Brown, who began visiting Charlotte in the summer with the AK Performance team three years ago, will spend his first summer in a Legend Car presented by WIX Filters. He'll compete in the PMG Young Lions division.
What draws the teenaged hotshoe to America's Home for Racing each summer?
"It's where the most competition is. You learn so much at the (Bojangles') Summer Shootout," said Brown, who began his racing career in go-karts at age 5. His father, Kenny Brown, took him to a go-kart shop where they went racing for the first time.
"I just couldn't stop," the younger Brown recalled.
He raced karts until he was 8 years old, when he graduated to the closed-cockpit Bandolero cars. On the frontstretch quarter-mile at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Brown said, Summer Shootout machines can reach 75 miles per hour.
For fans looking to witness speed merchants of all ages, the Bojangles' Summer Shootout will feature area school principals throwing down the gauntlet in an exhilarating school bus race on Tuesday night - the perfect follow-up for Monday's "Bark Your Engines" night, which features fans bringing their dogs to the track for the first time in the speedway's history.
Gates open at 5 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, with opening ceremonies scheduled for approximately 6:15 p.m.
