Late to Grid - Grassroots Racing

From Garage to Glory: RadAir Racing Takes on Daytona's 14-Hour Enduro

• Bill Snow

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What’s it like racing at Daytona International Speedway with 120+ cars on track and 14 hours ahead of you? In this episode of Late to Grid, host Bill takes you behind the scenes of one of grassroots motorsports' biggest bucket list events — the ChampCar Endurance Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

Bill follows the RadAir Racing team through the tech line, on pit lane, and post-stint in the garage. You’ll hear first-hand reactions from drivers seeing Daytona’s iconic high banks for the first time, crew members who sacrificed late nights and long drives to make the race happen, and insights into how simulation training, teamwork, and passion make all the difference in endurance racing.

Whether you’re just getting into HPDE, dreaming of your own racing career, or a seasoned autocross or track day veteran, this episode captures the raw emotions, challenges, and victories of real-world amateur racers chasing their motorsports dreams.

👀 Key Takeaways:

  • The thrill and intimidation of racing Daytona for the first time
  • Unexpected car issues, pit lane frustrations, and mental resilience
  • The impact of off-season prep and sim racing on real-world results
  • Tips for getting started in endurance racing and ChampCar
  • What it means to give up your seat for the good of the team

⚙️ Featuring grassroots racers from across the country, this episode is part race recap, part inspiration, and all heart.

👉 Want to race with us?
Follow @RadAirRacing and @LatetoGrid on Instagram & Facebook to learn how to secure your seat in an upcoming event. Let’s get you on track—and don’t be Late to Grid.

🎧 Powered by Atomic Autosports, your destination for HPDE prep, ChampCar builds, and high-performance track support.

#Motorsports #EnduranceRacing #ChampCar #Daytona #GrassrootsRacing #TrackDay #HPDE #RadAirRacing #LateToGridPodcast #AtomicAutosports #RacingJourney

Do you have pit stop panic or trackside trouble? Not anymore!

Atomic Autosports, your trusted shop for getting your car ready for the track now brings you everything you need for race day success with their brand-new online store!

Essential trackside tools, top-of-the-line safety gear, and a full lineup of performance chemicals is now just a click away.

Plus, show your Atomic Autosports pride with their awesome swag! T-shirts, hats, hoodies, and stickers!

Track ready setups for time trial drivers and others 

Thanks for listening and taking an interest in growing grassroots racing. The Late To Grid podcast shares the stories and inspiration that help listeners along their motorsports journey.

Find all episodes on the Atomic Autosports website.

What's it like racing at the Daytona International Speedway? Well, I chased the RadAir Racing team around the World Center of Racing. As they get ready for the 14 hour Champ Car endurance race. And I follow up with them after their stints. In the. Hi, it's Bill and I'm back in the Atomic Auto Sports studio. And like I said, I chased the RadAir racing team around Daytona, and I wanted to get their initial impressions of what it was like being at Daytona. And then also, as soon as I got out of the car, there I was with the microphone to ask them what they thought it was. Being on the high banks in Daytona. Well, let's throw the green flag on this episode. All right. I caught up with Joe Harbert. It's a windy here. We are waiting in the tech line. You're with less apps. We're gonna get to less than a minute, Joe. It's been a long offseason. You guys cranked it out. Long nights, long weekends. What's your first impressions rolling into Daytona International Speedway? It's a legendary experience. I mean, this is. Truly a once in a lifetime opportunity for myself and and my teammates. So I'm just going to do my best to make the best of it. Awesome. I can't wait to see you on track. Less apps. What are you doing here? I don't see you in a driver suit. I know, I know, I still got some yellow on though, so it's all good. I'm actually doing pit lane reporting, and I'll be announcing on the live stream, so we real good. I'll be giving. You guys plenty of interviews of. Sure. All right. Can't wait to see you running up and down pit lane. All right. This weekend radio racing has Jeremy, downforce Media and Jeremy, you're gonna be following the team following the racing action. What's your plan of attack at Daytona? Make sure you get great coverage. Record everything. Memories cheap. But mainly it's getting, this the story of the team, the camaraderie, everyone working together. Obviously the action on the track. But, enjoying the scale of the track, the speed, the variety of everything going around. And then everyone's first time here, their reactions once everything starts kicking off and then at the end, if everyone's falling asleep or, you know, had a food or drink, you know. I can't wait to see everything. Thanks for being here with us. All right. I caught up with Matt Harbor. Matt in the tech line, radio racing. Matt, it's been a long offseason. You've led the team, got us all organized, got the cars here. What are your initial impressions rolling into the Daytona International Speedway? It's, We got beautiful sunny weather. Unfortunately, it's a little, a little windy here. If you can hear that on the microphone, but should be a good weekend for it. 125 cars in the field. The complex here at Daytona. The people here at Daytona are great. The complex is huge. The track isn't as wide as I thought it'd be. So a little nervous about that. But we got ourselves a couple hot rods and we'll see how the weekend goes. Awesome. I can't wait to see everything unfold from, Sam Watkins says he guesses he's ready to be interviewed on the Late to Grid podcast here. As we stand in the tech line and, Sam, a lot of fabrication, a lot of work in the off season to get the cars ready. You were a big part of getting it done, but here we are in the sunshine. Daytona. What are your initial impressions being here? Man, I'm just happy to be here. This is an amazing facility, world class. I've been over in Indianapolis for, right next to our hometown, Ohio. And this is this is on another level, I think, I'm really enjoying my time here again. Like you said, lots of work in the offseason. Lots of late nights. And I'm glad it's finally time to make it pay off and show up here. The track with, watch buddies and watch friends, and we're going to go out there and go race and a lot of fun. It's going to be fun, for sure. We're going to catch up with you a little bit. Eric Robbins is a regular on the radio racing team, one of our rental drivers, one of our fast drivers, one of our consistent drivers. Eric, you're here with us at Daytona International Speedway. First race for many of us for the season. What's it like being here? It's pretty wild driving in through the gates, under the tunnel, looking at the parking at this place, it's a lot narrower than it looks. It looks like you're going to be driving on a wall. Hopefully these neons don't don't tumble down. They're plenty fast. You know it. And they are dialed in for the year. One big goal for the weekend. Just drive safe, get the car to the next driver. Awesome. Can't wait to see how it unfolds. All right, I caught up with Nick Luther. Nick. He just landed this morning already in line with, one of our cars to get teched busy off season. Lots to do. Cars have not run yet. No practice day. Green flag tomorrow. What are your initial impressions about being here? Well, first of all, I can't think of a single thing that go wrong. We got this dialed. It's gorgeous. Weather's great, sunshine and light breeze. Track is awesome. Banking looks severe. I'm excited. It's gonna be a good weekend. We're all excited to see the RadAir Racing guys on track. We're gonna catch up with you later. That's all right, Dylan. It's been a long offseason. You got, everyone's got the sleeves rolled up tight down here, but we're finally at Daytona, rolling the cars through attack, getting ready to take the green flag tomorrow. A long trip to get here. You guys drove down over 12 hours, but you're here. What are the initial impressions of this place? So it's pretty surreal being here. It's one of those things when we're loading into the in the stalls, there kind of feels like a normal race day. And then you look up and out and see the see the stands and see the palm trees and it all kind of it's all pretty surreal. I go into the tunnel, I kind of stuff too. So just really excited to be here, nervous about the cars, how much stuff we did in the winter. But we're just really excited to be here and really hoping for a good race and just kind of can't believe it. So. Well, the radio racing team is always rate air ready. What's one big goal that you have for the race tomorrow? So I think for the team wise, I just want to see both cars finish without incident, whether that's on an on track incident or like a mechanical incident. But to see, at least one car top ten in class, that would be, be jazzed. So awesome. I'll catch up with you as the weekend goes on. All right. I am here on pit lane. Race day 14, our Champ Car race, Cadillac Road, just got out of the car. First stint. You took the green flag for the team? Man, how'd it go? How'd it feel? It was amazing. It it felt so good to be back here and get up on the high banks and just that car it. A lot of people think a neon, but it a neon and it just it was so much fun. These guys are the best in the business. They they set this thing up perfect. I could put it wherever I wanted it. It handled so well. It just felt good. The dice in traffic were good in the infield. We let those faster cars tow us around the banking, let them do the work. And, I'm really proud of all the prep that these guys have done in the training with The Sims, all the work with the cars. I can't thank everybody enough. It's amazing. I'm just looking forward to seeing these things get to the finish, have a great run. And I just want to see smiles on everybody's faces and have a rad time. You spent a lot of time in the off season helping the radio racing team get ready through simulation, coaching, sending videos. How important is that to a driver to get out of the seat? Education. It really makes a difference because when you get to the racetrack, when you can get your points of reference somewhat close, mind you simulation, it only gives you certain feels, hand-eye coordination, etc. but you have a reference point and then when you get there and then you actually feel what the surface is at that point and what your car does, you can make those adjustments as a driver, but that's something that we strive really hard to do and work on in the sim sessions. And I said, here's a reference, but know that you're going to have to make adjustments as we get to the actual race day and you guys feel what your comfort levels are and what the car can take. All right. One last thing. So you just jumped out of the car. It's about almost 70 something, almost 80 degrees. Now you're going to go sit in an air conditioning booth and do a little bit of, jam car live. How do you prepare to cover. A live race? Well, honestly, I do a lot of research. What I like to do is I like to pull the entry list, see who's there, if there's previous notes or races teams have done. I like to get a little bit of that research, maybe try to organize folks that come up in the booth. As far as for the track, I like to get historical facts and little tidbits about the top five last couple years. Really just try to deep dive, but also give behind the wheel insight because a lot of people think, oh, they're just driving in a circle, but you don't realize you're fighting the wheel, you're setting your shift points, your break points, and the drivers are really busy in there. Plus, your eyes are always on a swivel, checking both mirrors and your rear mirror, just trying to make sure you're clear yourself. We're lucky we have a couple spotters here this weekend that were phenomenal on the radio and good, good insight, but you just you try to give them the best you can without being there, but then not make but then encouraging them to be there at the same time they want you kind of want to let them live vicariously through you. All right. Thanks, Kyle. Thank you. All right. Mark Nolan, no stranger to being interviewed, being, microphone in your face. Dude, we're standing here at Daytona International Speedway. Cars are in line for tech and, Ruby racing here tomorrow. You've been here as a spectator, never on track driving. What are your impressions? I tell you, it's every time I come here and it's. I'm in double digits now. I am taken by how huge the facility is, the track, everything. And the first thing I said when I walked in the garage is, can you believe we get to do this today? I can't, I can't, I still can't, it's amazing. Yeah. That's awesome. So, I know a goal would be to finish the, you know, finish your stand, do well on your stand. But any other goals or things you're looking forward to this weekend? You know, I, I haven't seen from the stand so many times to be able to get, you know, on the track, see things the way I believe they're going to look whether it was from sim racing or whatever, and to be able to get out there and just put together a bunch of clean laps, that's what I want to do and not become a spectator while I'm out there either. By the way, I don't want to look like, hey, look at that. It's the checkered flag stands, you know, something like that. I want to be able to, you know, just get out there and enjoy it and just really be smooth the whole time. Awesome. Best of luck. Thanks, man. All right, Jim kid, we call him Mister Neon. Team dad sometimes keeps us in line. Great stuff. Helping us with the neons. Jim, you joined us for the first race of the season here. Daytona International Speedway. What's it like being in the garage, hanging out with the cars and, getting ready to go racing tomorrow? This is a culmination of many years, basically just checking off part of my bucket list. I've always wanted to come to the 500 or the Rolex, to actually be a part of a racing. A team that's racing at Daytona is it's mind blowing. I'm happy to be part of the team, help out with whatever I can as far as chassis and tires and whatnot. And the guys are great. They will welcome me with open arms. It's been, been a lot of fun. This is what, like, my fifth race I've done with the team, I think. I think so it's great to have you here. We're going to catch up with you as the weekend goes on. Great. Thanks a lot, guys. All right, Matt Harbert, went out first. And one of our cars, the radio racing cars, number nine, 76. I just caught up with him. We're sitting on pit lane. How did I that first didn't go? Not as not as long as I wanted. Well, it was timeline wise. It was the right amount of time, just not where we wanted to be. Spent a lot of time in the pits, spent a lot of time on the end of the tow truck and a lot of frustration. A couple minor issues. Broken ground wire, broken fuze. Yeah, it took us out having issues and of course, but then we bumped, fuel line and it broke the clamp so that we had to deal with that. So a lot of frustration. But we got the shoe in running Daytona on the bank and, and, Hopefully it goes for the next two hours. So what are your impressions of being on track? I mean, you're out there for a few laps, right? So I did the I did approximately like a pace lap or two and then half a lap. So other than that, the track is great. It's really, really quick. The, stuff we did on the cars on the off season felt real good. So I'm really excited to get out there, maybe at the, end of the race and wrap it up for us and, and see the track and enjoy the banking more. That was insane. That's great. I can't wait to see you back out there. We're going to catch up with you after your next stint. Awesome. Thanks, Belle. All right. Caught up with Joe Harbert. We heard from Joe yesterday about what he was expecting today. Joe, did the Daytona International Speedway. Your stint being on track, did it live up to your expectations? It blew my expectations out of the water. I didn't grow up watching NASCAR, right? Or things that came to Daytona. But in my recent years of racing, I've really come to enjoy watching, you know, cars that tire, cars that come here through inside NASCAR and being able to mark my name down with people. Legends that have driven on this racetrack is really something special. 121 cars on track, a lot of traffic. How do you deal with that? Find me on shaped holes and stick it where it doesn't fit. You had a clean lap. No offs, no incidents. You handed the car off to a good driver. In good shape. What would be your advice for someone that wants to get into motorsports, like endurance racing? Keep your, keep your expectations low. But, go out and have fun. There's there's nothing stopping literally anybody from doing this themselves. Build a car, find some friends, you know, put something together with them. And then just go drive. Finding friends might be tough, but last question. Who are going to be heading into the darkness soon? What are you thinking about seeing? Our Dodge neon on track under the lights? That's going to be something really special. Especially after after doing a virtual 24, watching the Rolex the last couple of years and then watching Daytona the last couple of years, seeing our car under, you know, under the Florida sunset and then under the Daytona lights is I might get a little messy, I won't lie. There you have it, folks from Joe Harbert. All right. We are at a red flag condition here with 4.5 hours left to go in the Champ Car endurance race. Caught up on one of the radio racing drivers, Jack Butler from Illinois. Jack, you had a, pretty awesome stint out there. First time at Daytona. What did you think? So pulling in initially this morning. Super intimidating. But honestly, this track's very easy to learn with like just like so few corners and most of the time you're wide open. Going up on the banking for the first time was definitely crazy. But yeah, no, it was really good. Absolutely no issues with the car the whole stint. And basically the goal was just to bring it back for the team. Yeah. And you did that. So, you're relatively new to wheel the wheel racing. This is your second full season. You got your start, with the Lucas Oil school. So if someone's listening to this and says, man, I want to be like Jack and start racing, what would you recommend they do? I recommend any racing school because they really just get you up to speed in the car. I remember going to Lucas Oil, it's a zero pressure environment. It's really great because in racing you don't get zero pressure environments. And racing school is the best place to start, not only to learn how to race the car, but to make connections to push your career even further. And then what do you have in store for the rest of the 2025 season? A few more Champ Car races for sure, just to get some, more races under my belt, more drive time and just get more familiar with the cars. All right. Thanks, Jack. Rome. All right. Eric Franz is out of the car. He's well-rested. He's at the team's fastest time of the day. What was it like being out there? It was. I was super scared going in. Just, you know, huge place, man. Once you got out there, it was so much fun. These neon. This neon was so dialed in. Coming out of the Lamar street, I could just eat cars. It was. It was really impressive. What was the thing you think that prepared you the most for just putting down some lap time, some consistent lap times? Fortunately, one of the guys on the team let me borrow his sim for, for an evening. That definitely helped watching a bunch of YouTube videos, but, fortunately, some experience and probably a little bit of luck. Gotcha. And so what's the rest of the 2025 seven season have in store for Eric? A little too early to tell. Hopefully a lot with my personal 350 time attack car. Maybe 1 or 2 more trips out with rider. If my team doesn't go out and run itself. All right. Thanks. All right. I'm with, Dylan, and we he and I just did a, quick splash and go. Actually, you did it. I just held the fire bottle. But, man, you had an awesome stint out there for Rad air racing. You lay down a two, 2122 and 222 at nine. Awesome. Fast. First time you ever here. How did you acclimate to the track? So quickly? Honestly, I don't really know. I guess it's a lot of banking, a lot of straights. So it kind of it's kind of a simple track. But I first couple of laps I just kept realizing where the braking zones were, where I could push and where I could, you know, go faster. And I just kept kind of building up to it and kept, kept making this, you know, just kept dropping time, I guess. So endurance racing is anything but easy. It's been a we had a day of an accident, a car that, wouldn't charge, a car that wouldn't start a fuel leak. But yet you persevered and you went through and put down some fast laps. How do you get through the mental challenges of having to work on a car, deal with the car and then drive a car? Honestly, it just comes down to your mindset about the whole thing, and you just have to, like, like Nick said, because I know early in the morning we were all pretty down on ourselves with the one car having some mechanicals and the other car getting hit, and Nick goes, well, there's worse places we could be, you know, we're in Florida, the weather's nice and we're at Daytona, so, you know, there's worse places to be. So you just kind of go, you know what? We're here. We're so lucky to be here and just time to enjoy it and have fun, do the work and go out and have fun. That's an awesome perspective. What else do you have in store for 2025 racing wise? So I'm time traveling my own, Corvette. So I got to get that thing prepped, hopefully make it out and give Nick a run for his money and three, for the, open challenge. And then also more endurance racing here. This is our this is our first time Daytona. We're also doing our first ever 24 hour race this year. So we got that coming down the pike. And I'm really looking forward to that too. So awesome Dillon. All the best in 2025 to you. Thanks for watching. Folks. Chris a lot of weight with LMC. If I, ran a stint earlier with Rad Air Racing. Chris, you laid down some pretty fast laps. First time you've ever been on this track? How was it? It was amazing. I have a much greater, appreciation for NASCAR drivers now. Being on the banking, track's amazing. Had a lot of fun. The car was amazing. Their offseason upgrades were just spot on. Car was great. And you guys just been working your butts off all day? Was a lot of fun. Yeah. So what do you have in store for the rest of the year for 2025? I got a couple races planned with you guys, and, it's about to hit, just see what happens, you know? Nothing really set in stone. All right? If someone wants to get into the crazy world of endurance racing, what would you recommend? How they get started? Give a rider a call. Absolutely. You know, you guys, you do a great job. And, just happy to be associated with you guys and and, you know, get to experience what you guys do. It's been a lot of fun and really gratifying. And the cars are great. I wasn't expecting a commercial, but I guess I got one there. Thanks a lot, Chris. Yeah. No problem. Anytime. I'm all right. Well, I hope you enjoyed hearing from the team and let me share some of my impressions. I, you know, this is a complex like none other. So when we roll into a track, there's there's a little security. Oh, here. There's security everywhere. And you can't ride this bike and you can't have this motorized vehicle. Leave that here. Oh, you can't park there if you're going to be there for 30s. Yes, you will get towed. Everybody was really nice. It was a lot of fun meeting the staff there. Of course, Champ Car, they always do an awesome job being inside that facility. It gave me goosebumps. Not like Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Goosebumps, but still goosebumps. The high banking. How close you can get to the infield, portion of the track and watch the cars on track. Seeing it all lit up at night. It's just a pinch me moment. I can't believe that we had two cars racing at Daytona. Super cool. Well, there was one interview that you didn't hear and that was mine. I didn't get the race, although that was the plan. When we have a car that's involved in an entourage incident and can't continue, I'm the first one that raises my hand to say, hey, let's make sure the rest of the team gets the race. With RadAir Racing, we have a group of guys that work very hard, long hours during the week and weekends and make sure our cars take the green flag and finish to get the checkered flag. So I always give them first preference. And we have individuals that pay us money to race with us. So when they travel and take time off of work and pay us money to race, well, they get to the race seat before I do. So I can't wait because we're going to go back in 2026 and give it another try. So you want to be on this journey with me? I invite you to do so. Listen, let's do this. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Late to grid. That's the podcast handle on Facebook and Instagram. Also follow Rate Air racing on Instagram and Facebook. Heck, you want to get in one of the cars you can. When you follow us, you're going to see when we make those seats available. And I can't wait to race with you sometime with RadAir Racing at an awesome track. In the meantime, do me a favor don't be late to grab.