brings people together. We’re not friends. We’re family.
Everybody there’s family.”
Besides, it’s not always easy to guess who’s positioned
where on the political spectrum, another reminder that
people are complex and that easy binary shorthand often
fails us. As Barber distances himself from politics, Sprouse
says, “I ain’t gonna lie, I will be the first one to say, ‘Yeah,
I’m gay, but I’m a Trump supporter.’ ”R
ACE CARS ARE like strippers: i keep throwing
money at them hoping for the ride of my
life. So reads a popular T-shirt they sell at the tracks of
West Virginia. If this reinforces, unsubtly, just how male,
heterosexual and indelicate racing can be, it also speaks
to another truth: The sport is damn expensive.
Even before the current kinks in the global supply
chain threatened to jack up prices even more, you’d be
hard-pressed to f ind a sport with higher barriers of entry.
Tires cost $180 a pop. You can’t buy a decent engine
for under $30,000. A driver’s seat and harness will set
you back $2,000. This is to say nothing of gas that runs
between $11 and $15 a gallon, and might be good for
a mile of dirt track driving. And quite clearly there’sno GEICO 15% or Progressive
bundle for guys who drive their
cars 120 mph in tight spaces.
One crash can result in $25,000
worth of repairs.
As a consequence, races are
often won in the garage or,
more accurately, on balance
sheets. Drivers can put in the
work and make sure every bolt
is tight. But if you don’t have
financial backing, there’s the
equivalent of a restrictor plate
on your success. Their cars
plastered in logos, the rich
get richer. The unrich struggle.
And here is where Sprouse feels
the sting of anti-LGBTQ prejudice most sharply.
While he can’t prove that sponsors have avoided his
car because he is gay, it is conspicuously light on decals
compared with other competitors’. Time and again, he’s
gotten vague promises of help, only to see the partner-
ships fizzle. He can draw only one conclusion. “I’ve foundit hard with my lifestyle to get sponsors,” he says. “It’s
also harder for me to ask somebody because I’m afraid
to be judged. And I don’t want that.”
Midway through a race earlier this year, Sprouse was
hanging with Scott Bloomquist, a towering figure of dirt
track racing, whose many partners include Penske and
Hoosier Racing Tires. On the 18th of 35 laps, Sprouse’s
fan belt gave out, and he had to leave the race. “I have
three of the four pillars,” he says. “I have the crew. I have
the technical support. And I have the moral support of
the family and stuff. I just need the financial support.”
Sprouse has also had to economize whenever possible.
He doesn’t change tires as often as he’d like. Relying on
the kindness and community of other drivers, he borrows
equipment. He picks and chooses his races.
Sprouse works full-time as a customer service rep
at DHL in Parkersburg and makes “decent money.”
He lives at home to avoid paying rent. Even so, he has
nearly bankrupted himself trying to become a full-time
driver. Kryptonite Racecars—one of his few sponsors—
gives Sprouse free technical help, sells him parts at cost
and allows him to pay on credit. Even with that bit of
generosity, Sprouse estimates he owes the company inexcess of $10,000. “Every last
penny I have is in these race
cars,” he says between drags of
a Marlboro. “I mean, my bank
account rixght now, it’s $20
in there.”
It’s a source of both hope and
pity that, as his finances are
ebbing, both his results and dirt
track racing more generally are
f lowing. All while NASCAR’s
popularity has stalled out.
When Tony Stewart, NASCAR
royalty, recently bought a dirt
track, not a paved one, it hardly
went unnoticed in the racing
community. Neither did the fact
that, earlier this year, the Bristol Motor Speedway held a
Cup Series race on dirt, the first for NASCAR’s highest
level in 51 years.
The racing is a sort of happy anarchy, an unruly f leet,
screeching and juking and angling and avoiding collisions
and walls by a distance no wider than the iPhone so many68 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED | SI.COM
“I’VE FOUND IT HARD WITH MY
LIFESTYLE TO GET SPONSORS,”
SPROUSE SAYS. “IT’S ALSO HARDER FOR ME TO ASK SOMEBODY
BECAUSE I’M AFRAID TO BE JUDGED.”DUSTINSP
ROUSE