There’s nothing direct about the path Luke Fenhaus is on, but at least he’s headed forward again.
Little more than a year ago, Fenhaus was wondering.
In 2021 he became the youngest Slinger Nationals winner and won the Slinger Speedway super late model track championship all while making the 300-mile round-trip commute from Wausau. He was just 17. Then he graduated from high school early, moved south and raced on the CARS Tour and won another title. Next step: ARCA East. Fenhaus won two of eight races and finished as runner-up in 2023.
As the stakes get higher, though, so do the roadblocks.
By the offseason that followed, Fenhaus saw a seven-figure budget standing between him and his logical next step. Chevrolet had taken him as far as it was going to, and even his little family short-track team was a step behind where it had been.
Fenhaus’ confidence was bowed and he hadn’t yet turned 20.
“For sure,” Fenhaus said, thinking back to the pessimism of a conversation in early 2024.
“Obviously as a race car driver, you have to believe you’re going to make it, right? I mean, you don’t think you’re not, or there’s no chance. I didn’t have anything, so I wasn’t sure how that was going to end up.
“But I have amazing partners and sponsors that can make new opportunities and (we) worked something out with ThorSport that worked out really well. So now I’m in a good spot, a good learning spot that can potentially lead to more.”
In three NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races in 2024 with ThorSport Racing – an Ohio-based team with a history of employing Wisconsin drivers – Fenhaus was able to deliver a pair of top-10 finishes. Then he and the team were able to put together a package for 2025 that could have him running half the season or more in ThorSport’s No. 66 Ford.
So far Fenhaus has run six of the eight races, with backing from Soda Sense, a Wisconsin-based eco-friendly carbon dioxide cylinder exchange program for soda makers.
The results haven’t come, and progress has been stunted by rainouts of practice and his own mistakes. Still, Fenhaus has had the opportunity to race on four 1.5-mile tracks, the sort that make up the backbone of the NASCAR schedule.
“I’m still learning,” he said in a conversation May 4 at Madison International Speedway. “I’m learning in every way and starting to pick up on some of the things, the side drafting and where to position yourself, whether you’re running side by side, or restarts, or what to do when you’ve got a big run with the draft.
“And learning to be prepared for those situations is what I’m trying to get to, and it’s coming. Last year, three races really wasn’t enough for me to learn and adjust, to where this year I’m running a lot of mile-and-a-halfs, and having that experience is only going to help for the future.”
The experience also allows Fenhaus to be more of a contributor to the progress made by the five-truck team.
ThorSport has three champions racing fulltime, Matt Crafton, Ben Rhodes and Ty Majeski, plus Jake Garcia in his second season with the team and third in the series. Majeski, the reigning champion from Seymour, sits fifth in the standings, Garcia seventh, Rhodes 10th and Crafton 15th.
In addition to Fenhaus, Luke Baldwin and Johnny Sauter have driven the No. 66 entry, and Baldwin will this weekend at Kansas Speedway.
“I lean on Ty the most when going to a new racetrack, but I try to do my own thing, because we all have our own tendencies as a driver,” Fenhaus said. “So we go to a new track we’re gonna figure it out. We usually do, right?
“So yeah, there are certain questions we rely on Crafton and Ty and all of our guys. But when we hop in the simulator, I try to figure out what we need to do and … ask questions and try to perfect it.”
Fenhaus estimated he has six to eight more truck races locked in with further opportunities possible depending on sponsorship.
He also has a schedule of about a dozen Wisconsin short track races planned, including the ASA STARS National Tour events at Madison International Speedway and Slinger on Father’s Day weekend, the Slinger Nationals and the ASA Midwest Tour event at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna.
Fenhaus opened that slate with a victory April 12 in the first of four planned starts at Dells Raceway Park, and his second outing, with the ASA Midwest Tour at Madison, was strong before contact cut his day short.
While moving forward in the truck series is Fenhaus’ goal, a little shot of confidence on the short tracks reminds him that even if the path meanders, he’s generally headed in the right direction again.
“It’s good to come home after not running well, right?” Fenhaus said. “You’re not finishing races, and you don’t know where your truck speed’s at, and that’s the focus.
“But when you come and get to do this, we expect to be competitive, right? The Dells was good for us. Got a win, and good start to the season.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: ‘You have to believe you’re going to make it’: Wisconsin racer hopeful his career is back on track
Reporting by Dave Kallmann, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
