The A.J. Alsup story: Sleepless nights, one goal

By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive
July 31, 2001
10:43 AM EDT (1443 GMT)

CONCORD, N.C. - Believe it or not, there are Kevin Harvicks all over this country. But in the diluted world of stock car racing, driving diamonds are often left undiscovered in the short track rough.

A.J. Alsup: "You get slammed and you get back up and figure out how you can go back to the racetrack."

To ascend to the big time, one must be phenomenally gifted behind the wheel, well-spoken in front of the camera, deep in the pocket and as lucky as a leprechaun in Dublin on St. Patrick's Day.

A.J. Alsup is one such aspiring talent, only his story is a bit different than most. Alsup, you see, came from a racing family, is well-spoken, has some cash saved up and, oddly enough, has beaten Harvick head-to-head.

Purvis wins at Pikes Peak  Busch Series Standings

Still, he's struggling just to pay the tire bill.

"The primary aspect about racing that makes it so brutal is that there's no real justice," said Alsup, smoking a cigarette while kicking back on his porch swing at his home in Huntersville, N.C. "It's not necessarily how hard you work, and it's not necessarily how bad you want it and it's not necessarily how much homework you do to get there.

"You can work your ass off and do everything to the best of your ability and can still come up short due to circumstances that you can't possibly control."

One such circumstance for Alsup came at Kentucky Speedway last month. The Alsup Racing Team's two full-time members -- Alsup and a buddy -- had spent months preparing their Chevrolet for the Outback Steakhouse 200, and had assembled a competitive race car.

Alsup was quick off the truck, registering among the top-20 in each of the first two practices, despite having not made a single sticker tire run.

When the time came for Alsup to qualify, he knew he had a solid ride, and set course to start in the top-15. But as he entered Turn 3 on the first lap, the car spun around on him, shot up the track and into the wall.

Hank Parker Jr. battled with Alsup in the Gatorade All-Pro Series.

Game over.

Alsup's father, open-wheel legend Bill Alsup, was furious at his son, thinking he'd driven the car too deep into the quirky corner and subsequently totaled their only car. However, the replay later showed water spewing from the car just before Alsup lost it, making father and son feel a bit better, but not totally removing the sting from a lost car they'd spent weeks preparing.

"I think that's what really makes it one of the most brutal sports, is that there are so many factors outside of your control," Alsup continued. "We've faced that repeatedly. We've evolved a lot as we've gotten older, but every single time we've gone to the racetrack we've gone with our best effort and we find flaws in our best efforts by adversity at the racetrack. That's kind of a rough way to have to improve because there's so much on the line when you're at the racetrack.

"You get slammed and you get back up and figure out how you can go back to the racetrack and avoid that potential slam. I think that's why this is a business that's pretty much dominated by experience. The more times you get worked over in this business the more you figure out how to avoid getting worked over.

Kevin Harvick: "A.J. has worked harder than just about anyone I’ve ever known in this sport."

"That's not very comforting for people that are new into it. We try so hard, and I know that there's so much heart in my team, but it doesn't always pay out."

Three years ago, Alsup had all but given up on the racing dream. He'd been competing in various forms of motorsports his entire life. He raced motocross until age 15, at which time his older brother, Nipper, began racing stock cars. One day, Nipper was out testing his cars when A.J. decided to take a spin. He was fast, and a career was born.

After running tandem for a while, the money ran out. There was funding left for just one last-gasp effort - the Featherlite Southwest Series L.A. street race.

"I put together a deal to go run the L.A. street race, just a one-race deal because I was pretty good on the road courses," said Alsup with a sly grin. "That was the only race I ran in 1999 and I won it. I beat Harvick and (Ron) Hornaday and (Ken) Schrader and a bunch of guys like that. That renewed my interest."

Now, he's back at it, slaving more than 60 hours at a time without sleep in order to prepare his cars for competition. His tiny legion of followers work their collective guts out all day, every day, and he enlists advice from the most prominent talent in the Busch Series.

Still, there is so much to learn and not so much money with which to do it, so rather than attack the full schedule they sit down and target certain racetracks, and with that in mind begin the tedious process of piecing together cars for those particular dates.

"A.J. has worked harder than just about anyone I've ever known in this sport, and still most people don't even know who A.J. Alsup is," Harvick said. "That's the hard part about our sport. There's some people that come in with money and just buy themselves a ride. Then there's people like A.J., myself and some others who - I can't tell you how I'd really like to say it. I'd get in trouble. He deserves a lot more than he's gotten, I'll say that."

Pit road at Pikes Peak, where Alsup made his second start of 2001.

Alsup & Co., traveled West to Colorado last weekend to take part in the NAPA AutoCare 250 at Pikes Peak International Raceway, a track Alsup targeted due to numerous laps he'd turned there while helping Nipper out with the Richard Petty Driving Experience. He fared well, coming home 30th with an intact racecar -- the lone blemish from a Harvick love tap early in the race.

"Just getting ready for Pikes Peak last week I don't think any of us slept more than 10 hours in a three-day period," Alsup said. "You're just pounding coffee and doing whatever you can to stay awake. The motivation of getting to that racetrack and being able to take part in it is motivation enough for me to stay up.

"Most situations where you're up for that many hours straight, it would seem like prison camp, but it just seems like fun to us. It's what we live for. It doesn't seem so laborious at that time. When it seems laborious is when you get to the racetrack after all that effort, knowing you've got a good piece, and still come up short."

Alsup's hardships speak volumes about the level of competition in the Busch Series.

"We have a pretty tight program right now and we're still way behind," Alsup said. "We've got some of the best engines that money can buy, we've got a great racecar with a great body and some pretty smart dudes working on it, and we're still coming up on the bottom third of the (time) sheet.

"The way I look at that is, you've got to start somewhere. I said to the guys on the radio the other day, 'you've got to crawl before you can walk.' We've just gonna keep crawling. I wouldn't know what else to do if I wasn't struggling along in this deal. I just wouldn't know what to do."

Hopefully, he'll end like his old buddy Harvick.

"Harvick has reminded me through his actions that we're just a couple of kids out there trying to go racing for a living," Alsup said. "He's a little bit ahead of me, but when he sees me he doesn't hold that over me, and he's always really encouraging.

"When he won that Winston Cup race, his first one, I was at Applebee's watching it on TV. I was so damn happy for Kevin. I was yelling and screaming at the TV, but when he won, there was a part of me that was really jealous of his accomplishment."

Jealousy is a natural reaction, and often a negative one. Not for Alsup -- it only helps fuel his fire.

"A phone call from a friend reminded me that, hey man, you can race with this guy," he said. "You've beat him before. Maybe if you were in that situation you could pull off the exact same thing.

"That is so encouraging to me, to know that essentially one of my peers feels that way. Kevin's got a lot more experience than me, but I've run with him before. That's really encouraging to think that in the right equipment it's fully possible that I could pull off what he's pulling off. That's motivation, that's so much motivation that it just oozes from me.

"He's a light at the end of the tunnel. If ever I get discouraged, it's easy to find him on TV now. I just kick it on and see him and think, man we've come way too far to stop now."