Prairie Ridge grad Kami York chases her NASCAR dream

Dave York understands why his daughter Kami approaches life without fear.

Kami is the first child of Jennifer and Dave York, a self-described “roughneck dad” who grew up in Johnsburg playing football, wrestling and, later, racing sprint cars on dirt tracks.

Dave York said his daughter, a 2023 Prairie Ridge graduate, quickly turned into a tomboy, doing a lot of things out of the ordinary for girls, like playing football and wrestling. Dave proudly tells the story of when a boy beat her pretty badly in wrestling, but she came back and finished the tournament.

“To that point, she’s always been ‘that’ girl,” Dave York said. “In everything in life, she’s looked for the edge. Whatever she’s into, she pushed everything to the edge.”

So when Kami York kept pestering her father to drive race cars, who was he to say no?

Kami York, 18 years old, 5-3 and 115 pounds, now hops into a 2,750-pound Shelby Mustang GT, a 500-horsepower car, and drives at more than 100 mph against mostly older and more experienced men, and holds her own.

York is a natural. She is in her second full season of racing Super Late Model cars. Her car currently is in Tucson, Arizona, where she does most of her racing under the watchful eyes of Ron Norman, a nine-time track champion in Tucson, who now coaches several young drivers aspiring to reach the NASCAR level.

York began racing only a few months after getting her regular driver’s license.

While racing traditionally has been male-dominated, several women have had success in NASCAR. Former driver Danica Patrick, the most successful female racer in history, who started in IndyCar then moved to NASCAR to finish her career. Patrick had the most career starts (191) of any woman. There have been about 125 women who have started various NASCAR races, with four – Shawna Robinson, Hailie Deegan, Manami Kobayashi and Gracie Trotter – who have won.

In racing, you either make it or you don’t. You never know if it’s going to happen. I want to take it all the way.”

—  Kami York, Prairie Ridge graduate

Dave York gave up racing when he and Jennifer had Kami and son Xander, who will be a senior at Prairie Ridge. Dave York started KDX Auto Painting and Restoration in McHenry, which helps a lot when it comes time to fix Kami and Xander’s cars between races.

“One of his customers wanted to go racing and my dad was like, ‘I’ll take you. I have experience on dirt, but it can’t be that hard on asphalt if I can drive on dirt,’ " Kami York said. “He kind of jumped into that. I was like, ‘Hey, Dad, can I get in your customer’s car?’ "

The customer, McHenry County resident Doug Wheeler, told Dave York to put Kami in the car and see what she could do.

Dave York said there were drivers with $300,000 Porsches and $500,000 Ferraris, none of whom were excited to see a 16-year-old girl in an 800-horsepower Mustang going door-to-door.

Especially after she took third place, beating 15 of the other cars in the race. On the podium, the top three finishers all had a bottle of champagne, which Kami had no idea how to open.

“She’d never touched a champagne bottle, she couldn’t get it open,” Dave York said. “It was pretty neat.”

Fast learner

Dave York said many Late Model drivers have driven for most of their lives, starting in go-carts even before they attended kindergarten. He said there are about four different levels before reaching Late Model.

Kami York competed in none of those, she jumped the line and went straight to Late Models during her sophomore year.

The question of how she became so proficient so quickly stumps Kami York.

“I don’t really know,” she said. “My dad likes to say it runs in the family, we got his genes. I have a really good crew chief (in Norman), he’s a nine-time champion in Arizona.

“He’s pretty good at what he does. I kind of just listen to him. I had another instructor on road course. Some of that translated to super late model in oval track racing. I guess it just runs in the blood.”

Dave York is amazed at how quickly she progressed.

“Nobody just climbs into one of these things and does it,” he said. “They’re very powerful, you have to have a feel. But Ron felt really good about where she was at and said, ‘Let’s give it a try.’

“Her car is the only car I haven’t gotten in and driven around the track because I’m pretty sure I’d wreck it. Her crew chief tried to get me in it and I can’t take the chance of wrecking it. You hit the front end or back end and it’s $10,000 pretty easy if you hit the suspension. She’s been able to get in and has a feel. I can’t explain it.”

One of Norman’s many drivers is budding NASCAR driver Noah Gragson, who will be 25 in July and is ranked 33rd in the NASCAR Cup Series.

“I don’t have the cuddly, coddling ability that some coaches have,” Norman said. “I have the ability to get on the track and show her a lot of stuff. I do help a lot of people. I don’t get as involved as I do with them. I really got close to the family and we became friends.

“We just worked together a lot and it’s worked really well for us. I don’t usually get that involved. For [Kami], from Day 1 I was Mr. Norman to her. Mr. Mentor and the guy who would make her cry the most. I took her heat off the dad so he didn’t have to do it.”

Racing family

Dave and Jennifer York both grew up in Johnsburg. Dave’s family moved to Tennessee for about 10 years, then came back. He wrestled and played some football, but cars were his thing.

“I was going to build cars some day,” he said. “That’s all I cared about.”

Jennifer York’s family owns Harms Farm and Garden Center and Harms Landscape among its businesses. She keeps books at KDX and is heavily involved with the family’s racing.

Xander, who wrestles at Prairie Ridge, currently races lightning sprint cars at Wilmot, Wisconsin. Both Kami and Xander wrestled in the Crystal Lake Wizards Wrestling Club and Kami worked this year as the Wolves’ team manager.

Norman has grown closer to the Yorks and is impressed with their family dynamics.

“Mom’s the glue. Me and Dave are the loose cannons. We have a lot of heart and desire and can implode at times,” Norman said. “The way they keep together and the support those kids get is unreal. That’s what’s making it all work for them.

“As hard as [Dave] is on [Kami], he loves her more. I’ve learned to do that too. We’ve all grown because of it. If she sticks to it, she’s 18 now, I hope for really great things. I’ve raced with some really great women over the years. She’s got it going. She’s a smart girl.”

Kami York experienced one of the worst parts of racing in her second season when she wrecked at the Tucson Speedway Chilly Willy in February 2022. Dave York said his daughter made a rookie mistake and was hit at 85 mph and crashed into the wall, destroying the car.

There was one small perk to Kami York’s infamy.

“It was the FloSports Wreck of the Week, so it got her some notice, not the notice you want, but it put her on everyone’s radar,” Dave York said. “What happened was people knew she was a young driver, a girl, they didn’t think she was coming back.”

Like the time she suffered a tough wrestling loss to a boy, though, Kami York was undeterred.

“She came back, we got a different car, and at the Turkey Shoot in November she almost won it,” Dave York said. “She was the fastest car on the track. She got down and almost caught up. She took third.

“That was a really big boost for all of us because, at some point, you start wondering ‘Is she going to get back to where she was after a big wreck?’ "

The motor in Kami’s new car was not as powerful, so after some racing, the Yorks pulled the motor from her first car and put it in her new one. After that, Kami York started eating up the competition.

Expensive proposition

Kami York has proven she can drive and has made wonderful progress, but things are going to get tougher. Not only does she have to continue driving well, she has to market herself.

Sponsorships are vital for drivers, which is why their cars are covered with stickers for those who help them out. Dave York said a set of tires will go for about $800 and they will go through two sets in a weekend.

Dave York says drivers need sponsors who can see the bigger picture, that if they make it someday, they will have been a part of helping them get there.

“There’s cars we’re racing against that are $75,000 to $100,000 and her whole race car is $45,000, at most,” Dave York said. “She’s got a knife at a gunfight and she’s holding her own pretty well. Some of the girls we follow through NASCAR all have the same M.O. They don’t beat their equipment up as much as the guys do.”

The Yorks have Rabine Paving, Harms Landscaping and Buddy’s Pizza as three of her biggest sponsors. Businesses or people often offer what they can and every bit is appreciated.

“This is basically her college fund, this is what she wanted to do,” Dave York said. “We’re deep in. We’re at the point where she’s doing well enough to get on people’s radar. What’s happening now is when we get stories on her, the phone was ringing from other places. It’s vital for what she needs to do to be in this thing.”

Kami York may race later this summer in the Chicago area, but her car is in Tucson, where she will race again on July 1. She plans to take a gap year from school, concentrate on racing, and see where it can take her.

“In racing, you either make it or you don’t,” Kami York said. “You never know if it’s going to happen. I want to take it all the way.”

Norman says York may have what it takes, both for driving and for attracting sponsors.

“She’s very marketable. She’s young, she drives very well, she’s fast and has enough attitude and pizzazz,” Norman said. “They need to work on her other side. The business side of racing is hard, it’s what people don’t understand. They get in a year or two and they’re out.

“You don’t do this with your own money. You don’t take money from the house for racing and you don’t take money for racing from the house. You treat it like a separate entity. She has to get on the sponsor train and be a businesswoman and shake people’s hands and not being afraid. She’s working it on both ends, that’s what I like about it.”

Kami York’s enjoys when she meets younger girls at the track after races.

“My favorite thing, by far, is seeing little girls who are shocked that I’m the driver,” Kami York said. “It’s a male-dominated sport, so they see an 18-year-old gets out of the car, 5-3 me, and they’re like, ‘Oh, my God!’ That warms my heart. That’s my favorite part.”

Kami York’s ultimate dream would be to reach the NASCAR circuit like Patrick and others.

“She was fairly mediocre, in five years, her top finish was seventh place,” Dave York said. “She did not have any top 10s after that. I think she crashed in about 30% of her races, but again, everybody crashes. At the end of that mediocre five-year run, she was worth $85 million. I told her, ‘Kam, go be mediocre.’ "