Watch the New Year's Bash This Weekend on Racing America
Jan 4, 2022
Forget Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon, Boo Carlisle wanted to be like All-Pro Super Series aces Ricky Turner and Jason Hogan.
The 33-year-old is still working on that first Late Model, but has accomplished everything else he has set out to achieve and more over the past decade.
Carlisle competes in the race-winning No. B00 Street Stock throughout the Southeast and has entered the 12th Annual New Years BASH Street Stock Nationals at Dillon Motor Speedway in South Carolina, but that’s not even his biggest claim to fame.
He operates the Kick ‘n Asphalt Vlog on Youtube, which has a respectable 1,500 subscribers, not bad for a Street Stock racer from Middle Georgia.
But to boil him down to just a ‘Street Stock racer,’ would be disingenuous. Carlisle is actually a definition short track enthusiast. Between racing stints, he has served as a crew member on several Late Model teams, has spotted and even worked at Gresham Motorsports Park for three years as a jack of all trades.
Why?
"I just want to be around race cars," Carlisle said. "Especially the short tracks. I went to races at Lanier (International Raceway, Georgia) and Ricky Turner and Jason Hogan were my heroes. I watched them race a dozen times before I even went to a NASCAR race. So, whatever I could do to be closer to that kind of racing, I’d learn how to do it and make it happen."
Carlisle bought his first race car in 2007. A family friend told Carlisle he wanted $500 for the car but could probably be talked down to $250 if they went to his house on a Saturday when he liked to drink around his camp fire.
He left $200 poorer but with his first street stock -- a 1979 Chevrolet Caprice.
"It took me a year of saving to even get it to the race track," Carlisle said. "And then, I didn’t even know what to do with it. I didn’t know what air pressure, camber or caster was. It was a huge learning curve and I probably would have quit if social media was around.
"I found out later everyone thought I sucked. I didn’t finish on the lead lap of a 15-lap feature for two years. I’m glad I didn’t know until later. But if you keep showing up, and you’re willing to shut up and listen when people talk, you’re going to figure it out."
He eventually sold his Caprice and bought a car passed on from the defending track champion and methodically began to contend.
Carlisle wasn’t allowed to race when he worked at Gresham, because Jim Gresham, John Close and Mickey Cain wanted him entirely focused on track management, but that paid dividends, too.
Gresham was the premier NASCAR Cup Series test track after its 2009 renovation. While working for the facility from 2014-2016, Carlisle made connections that turned into friendships that have lasted through today and will probably result in a move to North Carolina this coming summer.
"Everything about working at Gresham was an eye opener. I never realized the number of drivers who called the track mid-week just to complain and you have to do your best to keep them happy and wanting to come back. It made me appreciate the tracks I raced at even more."
— Boo Carlisle
His racing comeback suffered a major setback in 2016 when he purchased another street stock, and when on the way to its first race at Anderson Speedway in South Carolina, lost an engine in his pickup truck. He had to sell the car to afford a replacement engine before it could even hit the track.
Carlisle would not be deterred.
He kept saving to race, something he had become a master at budgeting over the past decade and was back on track in 2020. He purchased the Huntsville Motor Speedway track champion’s car after seeing a Craigslist advertisement and won in his third race back at Greenville-Pickens Speedway.
He called it ‘beginner’s luck,’ but had been thinking about nothing but this moment for almost four years.
The Kick ‘n Asphalt social media channels began as a way for Carlisle to simply chronicle his races. If he ever has children, he wanted to be able to show them what he did when he was younger and to show them their grandfather.
He took inspiration from the ‘Hunt the Front’ vlog in Florida.
Carlisle frequents Southern Super Series and CARS Tour races in the region and creates content around those events for the same reason he got into racing in the first place. He thinks Bobby McCarty, Bubba Pollard, Josh Berry and Deac McCaskill are the coolest racers in the world -- modern day Ricky Turners and Jason Hogans.
"I had no idea it would take off like this. What boosted it the most was when the Sprint Cars came to Anderson in May. I was going to shoot the first couple of laps because I just thought they were cool and there was like a 10-car pile-up on the first lap. And then there was an awesome finish and the leaders brawled on the frontstretch."
He called it 'Fightin' at Anderson' and it got 80,000 views and bumped him over a thousand subscribers -- the threshold needed to make money off the platform.
"I can’t always afford to race, but I can usually afford the $30 to drive to Greenville, Hickory or Anderson to be around race cars," Carlisle said.
Carlisle is a mainstay at numerous short track events across the region. He turns wrenches for Late Model Stock racer Janson Marchbanks. He frequently has fans stopping by to chat and is always open to show youngsters his race car -- whatever it takes to make a fan the way he was made a fan.
He hopes to show everyone his car in Victory Lane on Sunday at Dillon but knows it’s likely a tall task. For him, getting the No. B00 inside the top-20 in time trials would be akin to a win, and he thinks he has the car to do it too.
"This is like the Snowball Derby," Carlisle said. "We have 60 cars going to 20 spots in time trials. The intensity is going to be off the charts. We tested last weekend, and we had comparable times to the top-20 last year and that was with it being 20 degrees warmer than what it was last year."
But even if he doesn’t make the field through time trials, he’s committed to racing his way into the main event through the last chance race too. Just as he has always saved money to make it to the race track, Carlisle has saved all summer to make it to Dillon for the Street Stock Nationals too.
"I’m all in on this," Carlisle said. "If it comes home in a box, I’ll just put it together piece by piece," Carlisle said. "I put all my eggs in this one basket this year so I hope I’m making good scrambled eggs on Sunday."
Fans can tune into the action all weekend long on Racing America if they are unable to attend the New Year's Bash in person. Click the link below to order your pay-per-view video ticket for the New Year's Bash.
Sunday's racing will feature the Carolina Mini Stock Challenge Series, Legends Cars and the Street Stock Nationals. Sunday's card will begin with the Street Stock B-Main, which will complete the field for the 100-lap main event and also pays $500 to the winner.
Racing America subscribers will also be eligible for a discounted rate on the pay-per-view broadcast, and are encouraged to keep a close eye on their email inbox for more details regarding that discount.
