Sam Hunt (racing driver)

Sam Hunt (born June 17, 1993) is a team owner for Sam Hunt Racing, On the surface, the 26-year-old former racer from Midlothian, Virginia, is just another guy trying to make it as a team owner in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. But Hunt’s journey to get here is anything but ordinary.

Hunt grew up in The Netherlands, as his father’s job took his family to. When given the choice of soccer or racing, he gravitated towards a go-kart a the age of five. He caught the bug.

Once his family moved back to the United States in 2004, he began racing more and more, getting used to the “Americanized” racing scene. From limited late models to late model stocks at short tracks such as South Boston, Langley and Orange County, Hunt ate, slept and breathed racing.

Biography
Hunt enrolled at and got his degree in finance. Following his graduation, he sought out J.D. to finish the conversation they started.

“I came back and J.D. helped me start my company,” he said. “He gave me two race cars as kind of an incredible thing he did to help a kid out that couldn’t afford to race, but wanted to be in it. Those two cars have been cycled out, but that’s kind of the reason I have a team. That’s why I run the No. 18. It’s for J.D.”

Hunt moved south to North Carolina and formed Sam Hunt Racing, then known as Hunt Sellers Racing, one year removed from graduating from. Although the team was off the ground and running, things weren’t all peaches and cream behind the scenes.

“David Lewis (of Roush Yates Engines) gave me a corner of their shop in Mooresville and I didn’t have a place down here so I lived in the van or on buddies couches. Just made it happen last year.”

Looking back on the whole year, Hunt couldn’t help but chuckle at what he did to make things work. He said not many people know he lived out of a van right outside his corner of the shop, but is now “living big” in an apartment in Mooresville.

As a owner
Hunt, co-owner of Hunt-Sellers Racing, knows that firsthand. After a full season in the NASCAR NASCAR K&N Pro Series East in 2012, the then 18-year-old Virginian ran partial schedules in each of the following two seasons. He’s never started more than two races in any of the three seasons since.

Armed with a business finance degree from, Hunt – now 24 – saw another avenue for remaining in the racing game he grew up around. He started taking mental notes, even as a teen-aged full-time driver, about what set aside successful team owners. He obtained some cars that were in the Joe Gibbs Racing camp when that team exited the NASCAR NASCAR K&N Pro Series East before partnering with Peyton Sellers to form HSR from the ground up.

It meant Hunt wouldn’t be a driver anymore, but he felt it was a step worth taking.

“I’d kind of come to terms that it was going to be tough to keep driving with my financial situation and the way the sport is,” said Hunt, who made two starts in 2017, finishing a high of ninth at Langley in September. “I had interest in having my own business and starting my own team.

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