The short-track scene is filled with young drivers looking for a break and intent on “making it” in the sport. However, youth is much harder to find among those managing tracks and calling the shots behind the scenes.
That’s where Chase and Carly Brashears enter the picture.
The husband and wife duo serve as general manager and senior director of marketing and administration, respectively, at South Boston (Va.) Speedway. The beloved four-tenths-mile short track off U.S. Route 360 is famous for its bologna burgers and two distinct grooves.
The Brashearses are a bit of an outlier in the short-track world because not only are they a couple, they are also both 2017 graduates of East Tennessee State University.
“We definitely kind of stick out a little bit,” Carly Brashears told SPEED SPORT, speaking alongside her husband.
The two began at “SoBo” last year after Cathy Rice, the general manager who had worked there for more than three decades, and her close colleague, Helen Barksdale, announced their intent to retire. The Brashearses spent the 2021 season learning the ins and outs of the operation before assuming their current roles for the track’s 65th anniversary this year.
Since the mid-2000s, the facility has been owned by the same group that helms Pocono Raceway, the Mattioli family, with Pocono founder Doc Mattioli’s grandson Nick Igdalsky now serving as CEO.
“When Nick Igdalsky at Pocono and Cathy Rice here started searching for someone, Cathy was really the one that kept saying that they wanted some younger people and they just wanted new ideas and revitalized ideas for short tracks,” Chase Brashears said. “We’ve been able to implement things like a new website, new social and digital tactics, live streaming, online ticketing, things of that nature.”
Yet, while both Chase and Carly Brashears are just 27, each has a long background in racing.
Carly hails from Kingsport, Tenn., and spent much of her youth around Kingsport Speedway. She was Miss Kingsport Speedway for several years while also working on various marketing projects. She met her future husband at the track.
Meanwhile, Chase Brashears is originally from Whitesburg, Ky., and as a teenager began campaigning a four-cylinder car at Lonesome Pine Raceway in Coeburn, Va., before transitioning to track operations and marketing while in college.
He and Carly spent time at both Kingsport and Lonesome Pine in their formative years, with Chase also working at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. He made contacts with NASCAR officials along the way and the two moved to Florida immediately upon graduation where Chase took a job in racing operations with NASCAR, while maintaining involvement in weekly racing.
Carly, meanwhile, was employed by the NASCAR Foundation. They then moved to the Charlotte area where Chase was a race director for NASCAR’s national and touring series, while Carly worked as part of NASCAR’s marketing team.
Rice had known the couple for several years, and with a breadth of contacts in the close-knit, short-track scene, reached out about succeeding her and Barksdale.
“I was very, very lucky,” said Rice, who is still employed by South Boston as a consultant. “They both are great people, they’ve got great ideas, they have the youth that can bring things to the speedway and (understand) the technology today, which is changing every day. They can pick up on that stuff quickly.”
Rice, whose own family is deeply involved in motorsports, also understood the benefits of a married couple who are both passionate about short-track racing working side-by-side.
For the Brashearses, it is literally a labor of love.
“In this work you cannot leave it,” Carly Brashears said. “When you go home it doesn’t just stay at the race track. It definitely has its challenges, one of those being home life and the work life, but Chase and I are very much alike. We are very driven people. We know what we want and how we want it.”
The two spent countless hours at the track this year, having brought in multiple big events including the Must See Racing sprint cars, the Superstar Racing Experience, drifting, the SMART Modified Tour and the CARS Tour to complement South Boston’s full slate of weekly racing.
“Getting SRX here was a big thing,” Chase Brashears said. “They were searching out premier venues to go to and, obviously, we consider ourselves to be a premier venue. We definitely wanted them here, that was a huge feather in the cap, but we also wanted to be true to the track, especially on the 65th anniversary season.”
That balancing act is something the Brashearses have been aware of throughout the year. Their intent was to honor the rich tradition of the facility, which began life as a dirt track in 1957, while still putting their own stamp on the track and moving it forward. By and large, their ideas have been embraced, with full grandstands and strong car counts.
“Being the new people is always a challenge, especially when you’re younger,” Chase Brashears said. “But for the most part, it seems to be pretty well received. We haven’t really blown up the model here, the team other than us is largely intact from what it’s been in the past. We’ve just tried to take the momentum that the track had and revitalize it. With time, things get to be the same, so our goal was to come in here and kind of stir that pot a little bit.”
Carly Brashears also serves on the Halifax County Tourism Board, allowing her the opportunity to promote South Boston Speedway in the local community and brainstorm ideas among like-minded individuals in the region.
Rice also stressed the importance of learning the local landscape as an element of Chase and Carly’s roles as they worked under her tutelage.
“They were new to the area and didn’t know anyone,” she said. “The board of supervisors, the town council, the county administrator, those people are the ones that actually make what we do happen. I told them they are the people that you want to get to know real well.”
Rice’s knowledge is often called upon, whether it be for operational questions or how banquets were run in the past. Her passion for the track is obvious, and although she is no longer involved day-to-day, she still serves on the National Motorsports Appeals Panel and Virginia Motorsports Hall of Fame Board, among other endeavors. She also plans to be involved at South Boston for as long as she can.
“They’re doing a great job and of course, we all wish them all the luck in the world,” she said of the Brashearses. “I’m there for them if they need me.”
Among the other individuals who have become synonymous with the track is Peyton Sellers, a two-time NASCAR Advanced Auto Parts Weekly Series national champion who has won six South Boston track titles.
He believes the match of the Brashearses and South Boston Speedway is a “win-win” in the sense that the facility has long been on stable footing, but the young couple’s youth and enthusiasm have also benefited the track as a whole.
“I think they’ve made a few changes, where a few things were stagnant,” Sellers said. “It’s not like they came in and completely changed everything, which is smart. Part of being a good leader is realizing what you have that’s working, and what is not working and being able to build on it. So they’ve made enough changes to where they’ve put their touch on it, but they’ve also been smart enough to leave some stuff alone.”
Sellers also speaks highly of the safety services crew at the track, and is appreciative that Chase Brashears often reaches out to competitors for input, whether or not all their suggestions are implemented.
“He has listened to his competitors around there and I think that means a lot,” Sellers said. “You’ve got to keep an open mind in whatever you do and listen to different angles.”
For the Brashearses, now the challenge is to avoid a sophomore slump, with Chase and Carly each keeping a running list of processes they are looking to improve upon going forward. Among them for Chase is finding a way to streamline the wealth of information coming from the track this year, which between its points races and special programs felt like it ran two seasons in one.
It is perhaps a good problem to have. With the resources of Pocono Raceway, South Boston is operated more as a major NASCAR facility than many other short tracks, giving it a distinct advantage that allows for a wide variety of events.
“It’s structure and organization and how the events are managed, everything from ticketing and gate access to on-track safety and things like that, it’s honestly operated as a small-scale Cup Series track,” Chase Brashears said.
However, like in many aspects of their jobs, the Brashearses also strive to strike a balance between professionalism and pleasure at the track.
“We know how to walk the thin line, we don’t take ourselves too seriously,” Carly Brashears said. “The track is very structured, but at the same time, we know that we’re here to entertain, we know that we’re here to have fun.”