Two weeks ago, on March 25, the NASCAR Xfinity Series experienced an upset at Circuit of the Americas.
During practice, that is.
With only one race ever run on the 3.4-mile circuit the year prior, it’s a track that NASCAR drivers and teams alike are still getting used to, and it showed.
For most of the session, drivers were unable to get any laps completed for on-track incidents. However, the closing minutes of practice opened a small window of just enough time to get a couple laps in. When that train of 30-plus cars finally finished crossing the start/finish line, all eyes went to the top of the scoring pylon.
But at the top, it wasn’t the series championship regulars.
Instead, it was Preston Pardus, a three-time Spec-Miata Champion out of New Smyrna Beach, Florida driving for DGM Racing, and he was almost two-tenths faster than second place.
It wasn’t a win. It wasn’t even a pole, but it was enough to have FOX Sports interview him for the first time since he had began racing part-time in NASCAR in 2019 – three years ago.
In those three years, Pardus has raced part-time with DGM Racing on almost all of the road courses on the Xfinity Series calendar. In 15 starts, he has earned three top 10s, with his highest finish coming on the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL in seventh.
But Pardus’ exposure to the NASCAR scene didn’t start three years ago. In fact, he grew up in it. After all, he’s a second-generation racer.
His dad, Dan Pardus, raced in the Xfinity Series and ARCA Menards Series part-time and even made a Cup Series start in 1998 at their home track, Daytona International Speedway.
Or at least, it’s their NASCAR home track. Because the Pardus family lives even closer to New Smyrna Speedway, where Dan Pardus was track champion in 1980 and 1981 and where Preston began his racing career competing in quarter-midgets.
So, how did the son of a short track champion — one that had never raced a road course in his life — become the same Xfinity Series road course ringer that’s teaching sports car veteran Boris Said‘s son how to race on them?
Frontstretch talked to him to find out.
The following Q&A has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Dalton Hopkins, Frontstretch: Tell me about your dad, Dan Pardus… about what your relationship was like growing up with your dad?
Pardus: Yeah, it’s a little different. I feel like it’s a lot different than (most) father-son racing dads and stuff. When he was racing and actually got done racing, I was like 4 or 5, so I never really got to really remember a bunch of the NASCAR stuff. Not saying I was shielded from it, but I didn’t really live the life like, Chase Elliott, for example. I mean he grew up when his dad was racing still in his prime and stuff, and when he started racing as a kid, his dad was still doing NASCAR, so that was obviously a little bit different for us, but we got into it.
Anyway, my dad was doing broadcasting still when he got done doing NASCAR for awhile and then from there I was 7 or 8 and we started out doing quarter-midgets. Just kind of as a hobby, more or less. We really never took it seriously. We only stayed at our local track in New Smyrna, so we really didn’t travel a lot like a bunch of kids doing quarter midget racing. We did it as a hobby probably four or five years. We did a lot of dirt biking and stuff like that, but nothing really serious.
We ended up getting a Miata and started taking it a lot more serious than we did before with the go karts and stuff. Probably two or three years went by, and I actually got pretty good at it. It’s been fun. The whole time I’ve been racing, my dad’s been right there. In Spec-Miatas he was my crew chief. In the Xfinity stuff, he’s basically my car chief/crew chief half the time.
Hopkins: Your dad was the track champion in New Smyrna Speedway which you mentioned growing up around there … New Smyrna Speedway is a short track for late models and it’s…
Read More: Meet Preston Pardus, Rising Road Course Ringer & Spec-Miata Champion