The versatility that NASCAR Cup Series road ringer Joey Hand has long been known for throughout his storied career is being passed down to his 15-year-old son Chase.

Making his full-bodied stock car debut at All-American Speedway last Saturday, Chase quickly worked his way through a small-but-competitive field of cars to take home a checkered flag in front of his family during the 20-lap Jr. Late Model field.

Chase was originally supposed to just practice the Late Model owned by Mike Mitchell, but the pace he showed in the days leading up to Saturday’s on-track activity led to the opportunity that turned into the proudest moment of his brief auto racing career so far.

“I was hoping for a win, but I didn’t think I’d actually get it done,” Chase Hand said. “We weren’t expecting to race it after practicing on Thursday. We qualified on pole, but the invert put us in the back. We avoided a couple of wrecks, got it to the front and pulled away on the last restart for the win.”

FLORACING: Follow the on-track action at All-American Speedway

Chase never once felt uncomfortable during his first venture into full-bodied stock car racing knowing he had Joey’s knowledge and experience to rely on.

Among Joey’s many accomplishments include class victories in the 12 Hours of Sebring and 24 Hours of Le Mans, as well as the overall win in the 2011 24 Hours of Dayton with Chip Ganassi Racing, which he shared with Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Graham Rahal.

Whenever Joey was not busy seeking out the best competition around the world, he maintained his own successful karting operation in the United States. The go-kart team served as Chase’s first direct exposure to auto racing. He even took his first laps when he was just 4 years old.

Chase did not immediately share the same passion for auto racing as Joey, but he gradually gained an appreciation for it by spending more time around go-karts. He eventually confided with his father about becoming a driver himself.

“When I was 10 years old, a switch just flipped,” Chase said. “I was playing baseball and basketball, but I decided that I wanted to go racing. Like my dad, I enjoy battling others, passing and especially winning. The best feeling in the world is winning.”

Once Chase told him about his desire to race, Joey took it upon himself to make sure his son accumulated as much track time as possible at a young age.

Most of Joey’s free time away from his normal commitments is spent mentoring Chase. The two are always regularly searching for events that will help Chase gain valuable experience, whether that involves competing at the GoPro Motorplex in Mooresville, North Carolina, or participating in major karting and Legends races around the country.

A big part of Joey’s philosophy as a driver is to always seek out opportunities to race different types of cars. Competing in NASCAR, IMSA, Supercars, DTM and other series have only broadened his knowledge on how to find success at any track.

By instilling that same mindset into Chase, Joey believes that he will be able to carve out a successful racing career regardless of the discipline.

“I’ve driven just about every type of car short of an F1 car,” Joey said. “The important thing is to be ready for anything. The more cars you can drive and adapt to quickly, the better you are, and that’s something I think Chase is very good at. All of this is going to come back and help [Chase] later.”

Even before his win at All-American, Joey had already started to observe several qualities in Chase that made him stand out from others on track.

Along with displaying raw speed on the track, Joey said Chase excels at avoiding trouble on the track and can adapt quickly to any situation. He also praised his son for being attentive when it comes to analyzing video and data away from the track.

With motorsports becoming increasingly reliant on technology, Joey said the copious amount of time away from the track is more important than ever, which is why he emphasizes to Chase the importance of using the simulator and film to improve himself before every race.

“Chase is smarter than me, so that’s a good start,” Joey said. “There’s a lot to racing these days, and it’s a different game once you get out of go-karts. People don’t always understand how little you get to drive in racing compared to football, basketball and baseball where you’re always practicing. That doesn’t happen in racing, so you need to understand data.”

While looking for ways to help Chase further develop his craft, a conversation with his long-time friend and Trackhouse Racing Team owner Justin Marks got Joey connected with Mitchell, who was Marks’ neighbor and wanted to become more involved with go-kart racing.

RACING REFERENCE: Career NASCAR stats for Joey Hand

The partnership between Joey and Mitchell has excelled at providing more resources for Chase and Mitchell’s daughter Kenna as they continue to gain more experience in go-karts, which eventually led to Chase climbing into Mitchell’s Jr. Late Model at All-American.

Joey expected that Chase would be fast in Mitchell’s car since Kenna had just won the Jr. Late Model title at All-American the year before, but watching Chase cross the start-finish line first proved to be a surreal moment for both him and his wife Natalie; a former go-kart champion herself.

Joey admitted that he is still processing the idea of Chase winning in the same types of cars he and Natalie competed in back when they were kids, but he has been thrilled by his son’s early success and said everyone in Chase’s support system is determined to help him build upon that first win at All-American.

“I’ve been racing for 32 years, so this is kind of a full-circle moment,” Joey said. “I’m doing everything over again with my son, but this is what I love to do. This is a great family of racers, and we’re happy to win the first time out of the box, but we know this doesn’t come easy. We’re constantly driving and working to get better.”

There is currently no concrete plan for Chase to progressively through the ranks, as Joey still wants Chase to explicitly focus on go-karting and Legends racing. He also hopes that Chase can make a few more Late Model appearances before the 2022 season concludes.

Joey’s main goal for Chase is to make him a racer and have him capitalize on every opportunity that comes his way, but he also wants his son to find enjoyment in whatever career route he chooses to take.

For Chase, he is enjoying traveling to a variety of different tracks across the country and is eager to keep gaining more knowledge that will help become a more composed and well-rounded competitor.

“The more I drive, the more everything will come to me,” Chase said.

Chase has plenty of time to develop further behind the wheel and intends to maintain his commitment toward improving so he can one day have a diverse and prestigious resume just like his father.

This weekend will be good training for Landon Pembelton’s future in racing.

The 17-year-old from Amelia, Virginia, will start Saturday racing at Dominion Raceway, a NASCAR-sanctioned track in Woodford, Virginia. Dominion will host twin late model races beginning at 1 p.m. ET.

After he gets out of the car there, Pembelton will race against time as he travels down south from Dominion to South Boston Speedway, a NASCAR-sanctioned track in South Boston, Virginia, about 2 1/2 hours away. South Boston will have twin-75 lap late model races beginning at 7 p.m. ET.

With two races at each track, Pembelton estimates it’ll be about 270 laps of racing in about 10 hours.

“I think we’ve got it planned out where we can try to run both races this weekend,” Pembelton said in a phone interview this week. “It’s going to be tough, but I feel confident going into these two.”

Watch live on FloRacing: Weekly Series racing at South Boston

Pembelton’s hope is the long day and many laps behind the wheel help prepare him for the rest of the summer.

“It’s definitely going to be tough and a learning curve, but I feel like it’s going to strengthen me as a driver and mentally and physically because of how hot it’s going to be this weekend,” he said. “I feel like it’s going to be a little tough because of the heat, but I’m really confident. I think we’ve got two good cars going into this weekend.”

Pembelton got the best training for long races last fall at Martinsville Speedway, where he won the track’s annual ValleyStar Credit Union 300, one of the biggest late model races in the country. In his first time racing at Martinsville, the teenager bested former Martinsville winners, late model legends, and his own teammate, Peyton Sellers, last year’s NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national champion, on the way to the win.

“It’s definitely a big deal for me,” Pembelton said of winning Martinsville. “I’ve gotten a lot of publicity from just that race in general. We had a great couple weeks leading up to Martinsville, and we were close to clicking off some wins at Dominion and South Boston, and it all clicked together at Martinsville. I really don’t know how we did it, but we came away with a win and got to bring the clock back home.”

The grandfather clock trophy Pembelton won in that race is now sitting in his family’s living room, giving him a reminder of his victory every time he walks in the house.

“These last couple months I’ve been very thankful,” he said. “Just from Martinsville itself, it’s opened up a lot of opportunities and it’s starting to make me realize how big of a deal Martinsville really is. I feel like I’m going to accept it a lot more in five or 10 years than I am right now.”

In addition to winning Martinsville, last season Pembelton was named the Virginia State Division I and the South East Division I Rookie of the Year in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series.

The successful 2021 season opened many doors for Pembelton. A few weeks after Martinsville, Pembelton’s dad got a text from Billy Venturini, co-owner of Venturini Motorsports, asking if he would interested in running some ARCA Menards Series races with his team and Toyota Racing. Pembelton will race four times with Venturini this summer at Elko Speedway, the Milwaukee Mile, Toledo Speedway and Phoenix Raceway.

“I’m blessed to have this opportunity. Martinsville really created a lot of these opportunities for me, and I’m just very thankful,” Pembelton said. “I’m really looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be a good time.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun. I just want to have as much fun as I possibly can but I want… to learn everything I can and hopefully we can race some more ARCA next year.”

Beautiful Day for testing at @motormile with @VenturiniMotor! Thank you @ToyotaRacing for the opportunity! @KevinReed2013 see ya June 25th! pic.twitter.com/E1A025Eo7c

— Landon Pembelton (@lbpem0) May 17, 2022

The biggest thing Pembelton said he learned at Martinsville is how to focus during longer races. Up to that point, he was used to running twin 60 or 75 lap races at his weekly short tracks.

He’s hopeful that experience in longer races on bigger tracks will serve him well as he now enters the ARCA Menards Series.

“I don’t really get to run the longer races much,” he said. “I’m usually running twins… It’s whole lot different than the 150 lappers or 200 lappers. I just really think I learned a lot in the longer races, how to keep pace with the guys who have been racing for a number of years.”

In addition to his four ARCA races, Pembelton is also running another full season at South Boston, where he’s currently fifth in the track’s late model division points standings.

He also plans to run sparingly at Dominion and Hickory Motor Speedway, a NASCAR-sanctioned track in Hickory, North Carolina.

With 11 races under his belt so far this season, he’s currently fourth in the latest NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division I points standings.

The late model competition at South Boston is stiff – all of the top four drivers in the national Division I points standings have raced there this season – making wins very hard to come by.

With more races under his belt, though, Pembelton’s expectations for himself have also increased. Even though he has five top fives and nine top 10s so far this season, he said he’s not where he’d like to be quite yet.

“We struggled a little bit this year, but competition is very, very stiff everywhere we go now,” he said. “Everyone is really, really good and we’ve just been struggling a little bit. When I say struggling we’ve been running third, fourth, fifth. We’re just trying to get the wins. I feel like we need to be competing for wins.”

No matter where he’s racing or who he’s racing against, the young Pembelton has proven you can never count him out.

“I just want to thank Toyota Racing, Sellers Racing, and (crew chief) H.C. (Sellers). He’s been a role model for me, been my mentor over the years,” Pembelton said. “And Billy Venturini, and all the guys at Venturini Motorsports, and all my family. I can’t thank them enough for supporting me and helping me out.”

Dominion Raceway will host Twin Late Models, Dominion Stocks, Mini Stocks, AnyCars, Legends and Bandoleros on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. ET.

South Boston Speedway’s Southern Virginia Higher Ed Center & God’s Pit Crew First Responders Night on Saturday will feature late models, Budweiser Limited Sportsmans, Southside Disposal Pure Stocks and hornets, all beginning at 7 p.m. ET.