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Kingsport champion Zeke Shell went from the mosh pits to the race track

Family is the focal point for the Kingsport Speedway Late Model champion …

Johnson City Press

Defending Kingsport Speedway Late Model Stock champion Zeke Shell has been racing for more than two decades, and he’s had his dad by his side for all of it.

But his dad, Pat, wasn’t into racing when Shell was a kid. He was more into music. He was the lead singer for an 80’s hair metal band called Mercy.

In his spare time, Pat had a Corvette he would tinker with in the garage, and the younger Shell would tag along, helping, taking things apart, and putting them back together.

That’s when Pat got the idea to see if his son could drive a car as well as he could put one together.

“He went out and bought a really old, outdated go-kart and we went to a track, Beechnut Raceway. First time ever,” Zeke Shell said. “And we did very, very good, apparently. We didn’t know what we were doing. We raced out of the back of a pickup truck.”

Not long after, the Shells’ focus turned from music to cars.

“I was raised in a mosh pit, and grew up at a dirt track,” Shell said.

READ MORE: What’s going on with the Super Late Model engine debate?

That first race came when Shell was 8 years old. Now, the 32-year-old is celebrating his first championship at Kingsport Speedway, a .375-mile semi-banked concrete oval in Kingsport, Tennessee, just minutes from Bristol Motor Speedway.

Zeke has been racing at The Concrete Jungle since it reopened in 2011. He not only won the track championship last year, but also the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Tennessee State Championship.

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Other than crew chief, Pat Shell has worked just about every job on his son’s team over the years, from spotting to building – “Pretty much whatever it takes to keep it running,” Zeke Shell said.

The two have worked together for so long, it’s second nature to Shell.

“Me and my father, we started at a pretty young age and just did our best for as long as we could with what we had to work with. It was more of a father/son activity. We just had fun. We took it serious, but some people go camping once a week, some people go on a picnic once a week or a movie night. We go racing.”

“He’s a part of it every day, every step of the way… I’ve always had him. I don’t know what it’s like to not have him.”

Shell is now starting to get to see the side of racing from a father’s point-of-view too. He has a 4-year-old daughter, Bristol, who is growing up around the sport just like he did.

“She is in love with racing,” Shell said. “She’s always under the car with me. She knows her wrenches. She loves race cars.”

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Even though Shell has been racing so long it’s become a way of life more than a hobby, he admits last season’s championship chase felt different than in years past.

“The team wanted it more than anything. I think that’s really what drove that car to success,” he said. “There was nothing that this track or the other drivers were able to throw at it that stopped it.

“If they had to carry that car across the finish line it was going to be there.”

This year, there’s a different excitement around the team as they prepare for another full season. As long as there’s funding, Shell expects to race another full season at Kingsport as they prepare to defend their title.

There’s very little that could keep him away. And thankfully, he has a family who loves it as much as he does.

“Everything in my life is scheduled around racing. Birthdays, events, vacations, my finances, it’s all around racing,” Shell said. “Honestly, it’s just, it’s another day. I am excited for this year but I know I’ve got a target on my back and at the end of all the races there can only be one best. And hopefully it’s us again. But if not, as long as we had fun, nobody got hurt, everything was enjoyable. Because let’s face it, I’m in my 30s. This is it. This is as far as I’m going. And I’m fine with that… So I kind of have to put my values in order, and as long as I’m still a good father and husband and I can still afford to do it, then we had a successful year.

“Honestly, the only thing that could probably keep me from it is my little girl and my wife, and they are definitely a racer family. So I don’t foresee us having any issues with coming here and taking more podiums.”

Kingsport Speedway will begin the season this Saturday night.

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