Kyle Weatherman

Kyle Weatherman (born August 28, 1997) is an American stock car racing driver. He currently competes in the ARCA Racing Series, driving the No. 78 for Mason Mitchell Motorsports.

Racing career

Early years

Weatherman was born in Wentzville, Missouri,^[1] where he was first introduced to racing by his father and a family friend at the age of eight years old, with Kyle and brother Clayton both racing go-karts.^[1] Early on in his career, Kyle assumed full care for his racing machines. Later on, Kyle moved up to bandolero racing. He spent four years racing Bandoleros, culminating in a national championship.^[2]

At age 12, Kyle moved to the Legends Series, in which he raced until age 15. At the same time, Weatherman participated in some IMCA dirt races. He won the Legends National Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and became the youngest driver up until that point to claim victory in that race.^[3]

ARCA Racing Series

When Kyle was 15, he made the move to the ARCA Racing Series. Running in five races that year, he recorded four top fives and a best finish of second with his family-owned team.^[4] The following year, he also became a development driver for Roush Fenway Racing driver development program.^[5] He made eight starts for the Roush-affiliated Roulo Brothers Racing, finding moderate success.^[6] 2015 was a highly successful season as he was named Rookie of the Year,^[7] won the Short-Track Championship^[7] and contributed to winning the Bill France Four Crown Award, riding with Cunningham Motorsports.^[8] Weatherman won all those accoloades despite not running a full schedule; in fifteen races he won his first career race at New Jersey Motorsports Park, won three straight poles and led laps in ten races while posting just two finishes outside the top ten.^[9] Signing on with Lira Motorsports to start 2015, Weatherman ran eight races with the team before running the next two with Mason Mitchell Motorsports. In his first race, at Madison International Speedway,^[10] Weatherman led over half of the 200 laps and came home second to Josh Williams.^[11] Running a few race for his own team near the end of the season, Weatherman captured the pole at Pocono and was briefly hospitalized after a hard crash with Myatt Snider in the season's final race.^[12] He ended up competing in 15 of 20 events to finish seventh in points; he had seven Top 5 and nine Top 10 finishes.^[13] Prior to the 2017 seson, Mason Mitchell Motorsports announced that Weatherman would run ten races for the team.^[14] Weatherman once again led the most laps early in the season at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.^[15]

NASCAR

Weatherman teamed up with Roush Fenway Racing development team Lira Motorsports to run the 2015 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.^[16] In the debut race for driver and team, Weatherman qualified 21st but was hampered by a pit road penalty in the early stages of the event, resulting in a 23rd place finish, three laps down.^[17]

Personal life

Weatherman was born and raised in Wentzville, Missouri, where he lived until he was 17. He then moved to Concord, North Carolina, and lived with fellow driver Chris Buescher.^[18]

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Camping World Truck Series

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

References