BROOKLYN, Mich. — The blueprint to achieve success in racing’s highest levels is straightforward.
There are no left turns or detours — youthful drivers go from Go-Karts to late model cars, to the K&N Series and ARCA, onward to the lower rungs of NASCAR.
Travis Braden opted for the road less traveled. The 24-year-old graduated from West Virginia University in 2016 with dual degrees in aerospace and mechanical engineering, not exactly the standard entry into the cockpit.
“I just don’t believe in not having some sort of education to fall back on in the event that I don't make it as a race car driver,” Braden said. “And what I went to school for hugely adds to what I’m doing in the race car. I’ve always driven for smaller, less funded teams. Not to say that I do a whole lot of the stuff — I help with everything — but having a better understanding of how things work mechanically and physically has helped me in situations. I need to be able to understand things without having all the fancy technology other teams have.”
The 4.5-year pit stop in Morgantown did not slow the Wheeling, W.Va., native’s career. In fact, he won three super late model championships as a college student, and he took the checkered flag in the 2015 ARCA Racing Series stop at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, besting names such as William Byron, Brandon Jones, Chase Briscoe, Ken Schrader, and Brian Keselowski.
Not bad for a kid that never meant for racing to be a career. In seven ARCA starts this season, Braden has three top 10s and one top-five finish. He’s currently fourth in points entering Friday's Zomongo 200 at Michigan International Speedway.
“We’ve had a little bit of bad luck and struggles, probably more struggles than bad luck, to be quite honest,” Braden said. “It’s odd because I’m very well known as a short track racer, but all of our success has come on the big tracks. We’re constantly changing our setups. The packages they were running in the past with the previous driver, I have struggled with and not felt comfortable. As we’ve changed, we’ve had a lot more success.”
A self-professed math and physics guy dating to high school, Braden admitted that he gets knocked for thinking too much sometimes. Drivers are making split-second decisions inside the car. But one would be surprised how many thoughts cycle through the brain at the snap of a finger. It can cause some consternation between Braden and veteran crew chief Dan Glauz, who’s worked in every level of NASCAR.
“He thinks a lot about every change and everything we do to the car,” Glauz said. “He has excellent feedback. His thought process is 1,000 times different than someone who doesn’t have the education he has. It’s a plus all the way around for us as a team. There have been a few times I've had to tell him, ‘You're overthinking this. Let’s just go on with it, work through it, and we’ll be OK.’ He just laughs at me.”
In his analytical mind, Braden breaks it down like this: There are a lot of components and moving parts that make a race car go fast — more than most people would imagine. At any given time on the track, there are three to five specific components drivers are focused on during a run. And they’re constantly trying to improve on them.
As a driver, Braden focuses on what that feels like. So if they’re going to change a spring, he focuses on what should it physically do, what does he feel in the car, and why? He will then apply it to a similar situation in the future.
The goal is to identify possible changes at a quicker pace, resulting in better, faster cars.
“I don’t just give feedback on how the car handles,” Braden said, “I’m always trying to look for ways to make the car better mechanically, all the little pieces to reach perfection in the car’s setup. [Glauz] is still in charge, but I’m giving him a lot of feedback and maybe trying to persuade him.”
Living with regrets doesn’t appeal to Braden, so he plans on racing until he no longer gets a ride. He doesn’t want to wonder if he could have succeeded in the Truck Series, or racing Xfinity or Cup cars.
And once the sand in his racing hourglass expires, staying involved in the sport, possibly as an owner or crew chief, sounds enticing. But so too does working as a military aerospace engineer on supersonic fighter jets, not boring commercial airliners.
“If I couldn’t race again after tomorrow, everything I’ve done as a race car driver would really compliment my career as an engineer,” Braden said. “And I know currently as a race car driver, my engineering experience helps.”
Contact Kyle Rowland at krowland@theblade.com, 419-724-6110 or on Twitter @KyleRowland.
First Published June 7, 2018, 2:30 p.m.
