SUN PRAIRIE – It’s a couple of hours before race time, and Logan Julien’s dad is scrambling to get their orange and black No. 85 sprint car ready in the pits at Angell Park Speedway.
Logan will join Brian in a minute.
This is the third of three straight nights of racing and the 27th of some 80 they expect to do in 2026. Thankfully the car is in good shape, but at the moment it doesn’t have a gear in it. Logan knows the job at hand. For the most part, he and Brian are their team, at least between races.
But he also understands the importance of all the other aspects of making it in what is brutally competitive both as a sport and a business. So on one night that’s standing in the pits for three hours in a grimy driver’s suit, meeting fans, signing autographs and selling T-shirts and hats after his career-best finish with elite World of Outlaws series at the Plymouth Dirt Track. Fifteen hours later it’s doing an interview at the next stop 75 miles away.
Oh, yeah. Julien is 17.
He just finished his junior year at Kettle Moraine High School, taking tests early to work around his racing schedule and finding essays to write from his travels.
A racer since age 4, Julien has won go-karting and micro-sprint championships and in 2025 earned two feature victories on the regional Interstate Racing Association circuit. He spoke to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about his inspirations, aspirations and racing/life balance before the start of activities for the Outlaws’ Ted Johnson Memorial Race on June 7. He would place 10th in a race won by Carson Macedo.
Logan Julien finished 8th with Outlaws, is on the verge of regional wins
Question: Is there momentum in racing?
Answer: We’ll start off like how we go to every Outlaw show; we’re just gonna make sure we make the feature, and then everything after that’s a bonus. It’s just laps, too. I was trying different stuff, trying to make sure we can get stuff squared away and figured out for an IRA race. … Last year I won one [IRA] race, getting that confidence, knowing you can do it, and then won a second one back to back. … I think that’s another big thing is making sure even if you do have setbacks, being able to bounce back from that and still be just as fast the next night.
Overall, how’s the year been?
Julien: I’m still so young that seat time is just such a big thing for me that we just need to get out as much as we can. Going down south early in the year, a big part was running at new tracks. That also builds a skill set, a notebook for us. I feel pretty good about it to this point.
I believe we can win races. It’s just putting that whole night together. We’re second in IRA points [with two runner-up finishes]. I’m 26 races in, but summer’s just kind of beginning.
Balancing racing, school, work is a challenge
How do you balance things?
Julien: School’s pretty understanding. I talked to them earlier in the school year and gave them the rundown on what’s going on. I actually have been able to turn that into some credit opportunities for career stuff. … They’re pretty easy on me as long as I’m doing good, not causing any trouble.
You have to be a pretty good student to balance all that.
Julien: Not an A student or anything, but we passed.
Would you be if you weren’t gone 90 days a year?
Julien: Maybe. I just put so much work in on racing things. After school, I’m either going straight to the gym or straight out to the shop. That’s what it takes. It’s just me and my dad in the shop every night. So that’s a huge thing for a team like us, me being able to do everything on the car and knowing about everything so I can put in a lot of feedback.
Logan Julien has built a diverse résumé
When did you move to full-size cars?
Julien: We’ve been just kind of building me up ever since I was little. I started racing karts when I was 4. I did that all the way up till I was 12, and in the middle of that I was running a junior sprint at 8 years old to get into cars with seatbelts. Go-karts, you don’t have any of that. You’re sitting in a fiberglass seat, no belts, no nothing. When I was 10 years old, I drove a Super Cup car. Getting into different disciplines, trying to open me up to make sure that I don’t get too set on one thing, one driving style.
I raced micros from when I was 12, ran those for three years, won three track championships and then moved to a 360 [sprint car] in 2023. I ran that for a full year at Plymouth with MSA. And then this is my third season in the 410 car.
It’s been pretty much my whole life everything I’ve been putting in has been towards this. So we’re getting there for sure. I mean, we proved that [at Plymouth]. Yeah, we’re still learning so much and then to be able to go out there and showcase that to the Outlaws, move from 13th to 8th.
Kyle Larson is an inspiration to Logan Julien
Did you have racing heroes?
Julien: I watched a lot of F1 when I was younger, so I’d say Ayrton Senna was an idol of mine. I did school projects on him. That’s what I always wanted to do was race open-wheel road course stuff, whether it was IndyCar or anything like that. Then we started to get into some of the dirt stuff. My dad and I were looking at what we could take to the highest level and still be able to do on our own and afford it. Because that whole open wheel road is unbelievable, how much money you need.
You see with [two-time NASCAR Cup champion] Kyle Larson, and [second-year O’Reilly Auto Parts Series driver] Corey Day is a newer example, the NASCAR side of things, they look at dirt drivers because I think they have the most raw talent, the best feel for a car.
As you started to transition to dirt and sprint cars, who were you looking up to at that point?
Julien: I’d say I was looking up at Kyle Larson for sure. The limited time that he has in a sprint car, he’s still just unbelievable. His car control is incredible. I’m trying to watch that, I’m trying to understand it, seeing how I can kind of shape myself to drive like that. Larson the way he drives race cars so hard, so aggressive, but he has complete control all the time. He knows exactly what his car is gonna do, but I think almost more importantly, he knows what everybody else’s car is gonna do and where they’re gonna go, playing mind games with other people.
Logan Julien envisions full-time sprint cars and then hopes for NASCAR
If we’re having this conversation in five years, where are we talking?
Julien: That’s a tough one. I’d say in the near future, like maybe two, three years, I’d love to be on a national sprint car tour [Outlaws or High Limit] full time. Five years, I think I’d love to start kind of transitioning into maybe that NASCAR road, maybe running some late models or ARCA, trucks. An end goal for me would be being able to race sprint cars whenever I want but also maybe run Cup full time. To be able to make a living racing, you’ve gotta go where that money is.
How doable is [a full Outlaws or High Limit schedule] with a family team?
Julien: It’s difficult, for sure. I’ve got one more year of school left, but I’m working during the summer for my dad. My dad owns a business [Julien Shade Shop in West Allis]. He’s obviously got to work for his business. It’d be a lot to juggle, for sure. But we built this race team up to kind of transform into a national running team.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin high schooler making inroads on World of Outlaws trail | Q&A
Reporting by Dave Kallmann, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Dave Kallmann, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
