Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Patrick Staropoli: NASCAR Driver & Eye Surgeon | Lights Out With John Roberts

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Patrick Staropoli: NASCAR Driver & Eye Surgeon | Lights Out With John Roberts · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:05
  And it is time to go lights out with driver Patrick Star.
• 0:08
  Apolly. Patrick, first of all, thank you
• 0:10
  so much for joining us here. I think everybody that drives a
• 0:14
  race car has a compelling story. But right off the bat, there are
• 0:18
  very few board certified surgeons that are in racing.
• 0:23
  How did this whole thing come together for you?
• 0:27
  Yeah, thank you very much for for having me.
• 0:29
  I'm excited to be on the show today.
• 0:31
  You know, it's, it's a crazy journey that's led to this
• 0:33
  point. I've been racing stock cars for
• 0:36
  over 20 years now. Most of it's been on a local,
• 0:39
  regional level, super late models, St.
• 0:41
  Stocks, things like that. Ten years ago, ironically, I won
• 0:46
  a, you know, a contest called the Peak Stock Car Dream
• 0:48
  Challenge that got my foot in the door.
• 0:49
  It ran a couple K&N races back then and won a race out at
• 0:52
  Irwindale and never gave up on the dream.
• 0:55
  It's been like a long, winding journey to to get back to a
• 0:58
  national series and I'm super excited to be able to do that
• 1:01
  this year with Big Machine Racing and the Siphobi
• 1:04
  Chevrolet. So do you still practice at all
• 1:08
  in terms of eye surgery or is that on the back burner for now?
• 1:13
  Just for now, temporarily, yeah, I'm taking a sabbatical this
• 1:16
  year. I moved to North Carolina
• 1:19
  literally like a month ago at this point, right before the
• 1:22
  season started. And I'm here through, through
• 1:24
  Homestead and I plan to get back to practice, you know, the
• 1:27
  second-half of November and, and work the offseason and hopefully
• 1:31
  repeat again next year and, and be full time.
• 1:33
  It's always, you know, been the goal to to do both of these
• 1:37
  things. And and I'm fortunate I've had
• 1:39
  supportive groups on both sides that have allowed me to to live
• 1:41
  out both of my dreams. So Patrick, you have to have a
• 1:44
  pretty good grasp on your schedule and your time, right?
• 1:48
  Because I don't think people understand, first of all, what
• 1:51
  it takes to be an accomplished stock car driver.
• 1:53
  It's just not easy. But also to get your medical
• 1:57
  degree at the same time of doing both these things, did you have
• 2:00
  to do a lot of time juggling and did it really occupied?
• 2:03
  I'd imagine it filled up your schedule.
• 2:06
  It occupies every waking moment. Like you said, you have to, you
• 2:10
  know, eat, sleep, live and breathe both of these things to
• 2:13
  be successful about them, to be passionate about doing them.
• 2:16
  Obviously while I was in training, residency, fellowship,
• 2:19
  you basically live at the hospital.
• 2:21
  So that took up a large chunk of the last decade of my life.
• 2:25
  And when I could, I would still, you know, race on the side
• 2:28
  usually like four or five late model shows a year, have my own
• 2:32
  late model and me and my dad work on together.
• 2:34
  And that's been, you know, the primary racing Ave. since since
• 2:37
  I ran those races, you know, back almost a decade ago.
• 2:40
  And then, you know, last year had the opportunity to run a
• 2:42
  combination of O'Reilly series races, truck and ARCA.
• 2:46
  And I think that, you know, given the the limited, limited
• 2:50
  starts, limited attempts, we made each one of those races
• 2:52
  count and it kind of led to the full time opportunity this year.
• 2:55
  So it is a a huge exercise in in time management and again I
• 3:01
  wouldn't be able to do it on my own.
• 3:02
  It's been a lot of people helping making it happen.
• 3:04
  So your boss now is one of the coolest guys I know, a great
• 3:08
  friend Scott Borchetta and Big Machine Racing.
• 3:11
  Another guy who has a pretty big sideline to racing, but he's a
• 3:17
  pass champion in racing. He's very serious about his
• 3:20
  racing. So how did you 2 get together?
• 3:23
  Yeah, so we got, you know, connected.
• 3:25
  I guess it's been within the last couple months now talking
• 3:27
  to each other. You know, Scott, like you said,
• 3:30
  has very unique and interesting background like me, has a lot of
• 3:34
  passions in life. And I'd like to think he's been
• 3:37
  very successful at picking, you know, artists and race car
• 3:40
  drivers who've been successful in their path.
• 3:42
  So, you know, definitely was the opportunity of a lifetime, you
• 3:46
  know, to have my paths crossed with him and to have this
• 3:48
  opportunity, you know, to come drive for him this year.
• 3:51
  He's been great. Patrick Donahue, everybody on
• 3:53
  this team has been, you know, really welcoming, helping me get
• 3:56
  up to speed. I know it's a, it's a big
• 3:57
  learning curve, you know, going full time in the O'Reilly auto
• 4:00
  parts series. But we're doing everything we
• 4:02
  can to have me as prepared as possible for these races.
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  And I think we're off to a pretty solid start.
• 4:07
  So this is something again, Patrick, I don't think people
• 4:09
  quite understand. You just don't decide you want
• 4:12
  to be a race car driver. You have to have the talent and
• 4:14
  you obviously do. You got the ARCA W win, which I
• 4:17
  saw in your record. But also starting out this
• 4:20
  season, the O'Reilly Auto Parts series again is a high level of
• 4:25
  competition and you got finishes of 18 and 13 so far this season.
• 4:29
  That's got to feel pretty good for you as a start.
• 4:33
  Yeah, yeah, definitely a solid start.
• 4:35
  You know, I didn't know what to expect heading into, you know,
• 4:37
  Daytona and Atlanta, they're unpredictable to begin with, you
• 4:40
  know, given that their plate races and and you're packed up
• 4:42
  the entire time. And you, my previous restricted
• 4:45
  plate experience has been in the ARCA series, you know, ran
• 4:48
  Talladega last year and ran Daytona a long time ago.
• 4:52
  So definitely competing with with these guys.
• 4:54
  It's a whole nother level of intensity.
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  You know, the bump drafting is way more intense.
• 4:59
  The pack is is always together. So it's it was a, you know, a
• 5:03
  steep learning curve and our goal of these first couple races
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  was just to have a solid of a race as possible, minimize
• 5:08
  mistakes, stay out of trouble. Even though trouble found us a
• 5:11
  couple times, everyone rallied together really well, kept the
• 5:14
  car rolling and we have two solid finishes to start the year
• 5:17
  off. So you also have to gain some
• 5:20
  respect as a driver. I think this is a small circle
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  of people that get an opportunity on any given weekend
• 5:26
  often say, Patrick, there's you know, thousands of guys that get
• 5:29
  a paycheck for playing the stick and ball sports, but there's
• 5:31
  only, you know, 3638 guys that race in one of NASCAR's top
• 5:36
  three series. This is a small circle.
• 5:38
  Have you been talking to some people and reaching out and and
• 5:42
  just just hoping to gain some respect from your peers?
• 5:46
  Oh yeah, I'm talking to everybody who will listen to me.
• 5:49
  You know, I have a million questions and, you know, if you
• 5:51
  talk to, you know, 10 race car drivers, you get 10 different
• 5:54
  answers about how to go about doing something.
• 5:55
  And that's, that's what's so interesting.
• 5:57
  Everyone has their, their own style and their own experiences.
• 6:00
  And you know, fortunately, I would say for the most part,
• 6:02
  everyone's been really welcoming, you know, to, to my
• 6:05
  questions, you know, can hit people up and, and ask them
• 6:08
  anything about a particular track or how they approach
• 6:10
  something. Working with my spotter, Michael
• 6:12
  Fisher, he's been fantastic at getting me up to speed as well.
• 6:16
  So I think the, you know, the name of the game is just, you
• 6:19
  know, ask all the questions that you have, be receptive to all
• 6:21
  the feedback, good or bad. And, and I think that that helps
• 6:25
  you kind of build and and fine tune the points that you
• 6:27
  struggle with and you know, kind of develop as a race car driver.
• 6:31
  So being a Florida guy, Patrick, was it mostly the short tracks
• 6:34
  that you cut your teeth on or was there kind of a diversity of
• 6:37
  race tracks that you grew up on? Yeah, it was a lot of, you know,
• 6:41
  short track pavement Oval racing.
• 6:43
  So I started out at Hialeah Speedway in South Florida, which
• 6:47
  a lot of, you know, legendary NASCAR drivers got their start
• 6:50
  or their early days there. And unfortunately that tracks no
• 6:52
  longer in existence. But that's where I started off
• 6:54
  at, you know, last several years has been a lot of Auburndale
• 6:57
  Speedway, Citrus Speedway, 4/17, which was in Pana Gorda that
• 7:02
  unfortunately shut down, and of course, New Smyrna.
• 7:04
  So I get to all those those short tracks as much as
• 7:07
  possible. Is there a person in particular
• 7:10
  that you go to that you lean on? Well, honestly, I, I talked to
• 7:15
  my dad, you know, every single day.
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  He was, you know, race car driver before me.
• 7:19
  I grew up going to the racetrack and helping him out.
• 7:22
  He was a car mechanic for a living.
• 7:23
  So he grew up working on customer cars together and then
• 7:26
  working on his race car and heading to the track.
• 7:28
  And you know, even though he's, you know, never done anything on
• 7:32
  on the level that I'm racing at right now, I definitely knows
• 7:34
  what he's looking at. He's very experienced, you know,
• 7:37
  being able to tell what's going on with the car just by watching
• 7:39
  it. So I lean on him for a lot of
• 7:41
  advice. And then obviously just, you
• 7:44
  know, this year getting to be on the RCR campus to talk with with
• 7:47
  Austin Hill, Parker Kliggman's been a big part of big machine
• 7:50
  racing in the past. I've had a couple good
• 7:52
  conversations with him. So everyone's been been really
• 7:56
  helpful to to get me up to speed here.
• 7:58
  So Patrick, do you see a goal down the road here, maybe 5-10
• 8:02
  years about what you would like to do or the two professions
• 8:06
  that you have, do you have to kind of take them as they come?
• 8:10
  Yeah, I'd say the approach until this point has been taking them
• 8:13
  as they come. Obviously, you know, the dream
• 8:15
  is, is what I'm living right now.
• 8:17
  I couldn't be, you know, more thankful to to be competing full
• 8:20
  time and, and be on this level. It's all I've ever wanted to do
• 8:24
  since the first time I I strapped into a race car.
• 8:26
  So I am currently living the dream and, and to answer your
• 8:30
  question, you know, 5 or 10 years from now, I hope that I'm,
• 8:32
  you know, still doing the same thing.
• 8:33
  I think that I'm in a really fortunate position to to use the
• 8:37
  racing platform to raise awareness for causes that are
• 8:40
  important in medicine. And that's what we're able to do
• 8:42
  with this. I fobri Chevrolet February is
• 8:45
  Macular Degeneration Awareness month and we hope that with this
• 8:48
  car on track, we're raising awareness for that disease and
• 8:51
  letting people know that there are now treatments available.
• 8:53
  So I, I feel really fortunate to be in, in this type of position
• 8:56
  where I can kind of tie my 2 passions together.
• 8:59
  And that's what we're, we're doing week in and week out right
• 9:02
  now. So it it's been amazing.
• 9:04
  So do you talk to Scott much about his driving days?
• 9:07
  I know he's a busy man, but he's passionate about the racing and
• 9:10
  he also was pretty Dang good in his day.
• 9:14
  Yeah, you know, Scott, Scott's good.
• 9:16
  I say he's still, he's still really good.
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  You know, he's, he is passionate about, you know, racing in
• 9:20
  general and and of course, you know, his team.
• 9:23
  We, we've talked numerous times, you know, since the season
• 9:26
  started. And whether he's at the track or
• 9:28
  watching from home, you know, he's always got the radio on.
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  He knows what we're saying back and forth, how the cars
• 9:34
  handling, what adjustments we're making and, and he's had really
• 9:36
  good feedback for me. You know, even just just
• 9:39
  watching from from TV, you can tell what's going on with the
• 9:42
  car. So yeah, we've definitely
• 9:44
  chatted about his racing experiences and things that I
• 9:46
  can, you know, work on going forward and developing as a
• 9:49
  driver. So he's been a a great resource
• 9:52
  for me since I got started here. And again, just, you know, super
• 9:54
  thankful to him for the for the shot.
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  And also, you know, this team has proven that they're good,
• 10:00
  they can win. They have one before.
• 10:03
  I know there's there's pressure anytime you get behind the wheel
• 10:06
  of a race car, but it also has got to help for you.
• 10:09
  I would think Patrick, knowing that these guys have put
• 10:13
  together a victory before and that they have really great
• 10:16
  resources to get you successful on the track.
• 10:20
  Yeah, absolutely. I think the, you know, the
• 10:22
  pressure and the expectations that there's no one putting
• 10:25
  higher expectations on myself than than me.
• 10:27
  You know, I want to go out there and and succeed.
• 10:30
  And you know, any race car driver just wants to be able to
• 10:33
  be in equipment and compete for a team that that can perform at
• 10:37
  the highest level. And, and, you know, big machine
• 10:39
  racing is definitely demonstrated that they can do
• 10:41
  that. Patrick Donahue is an amazing
• 10:43
  crew chief with tons of experience.
• 10:45
  I mean, anytime you get to work with the Rainbow Warrior, it's,
• 10:48
  it's, it's a cool day. So I'm, I'm learning a lot from
• 10:51
  these guys. And you know, even with the, you
• 10:54
  know, the pressure and the expectations, that's, that's
• 10:56
  what you want. You want to be in a position to
• 10:58
  succeed. And I think I have all the tools
• 11:00
  here that I need to do that. We talked to drivers and crew
• 11:04
  chiefs all the time and I find that there's usually usually on
• 11:07
  two sides of a fence that there's a group that'll set out
• 11:11
  a numerical goal. I want to win five races, make
• 11:14
  the Chase. Or then there's the other side
• 11:16
  of the fence that says, hey man, I want to make sure we get the
• 11:18
  best out of what we got a week in and week out.
• 11:21
  Then I'll be happy. Is there are you finding this
• 11:23
  team and are they the goal setters or they just want to
• 11:26
  make sure you get the most out of every weekend?
• 11:30
  Yeah, I think, I think we're, we're goal setters.
• 11:32
  We might have the, the numbers internally in our head where we
• 11:36
  want to, to end up, but but I think, you know, the general
• 11:39
  approach and, and for me with, with my background and, you
• 11:42
  know, just, you know, learning the ropes in, in this series,
• 11:44
  the the goal has been to just execute these races and and
• 11:47
  minimize mistakes. There's so many opportunities
• 11:50
  where things can go wrong, you know, whether that's making the
• 11:52
  wrong adjustment on a pit stop, me getting on a pit Rd. bad,
• 11:55
  having a bad restart. I want to just try to to
• 11:58
  minimize those things jump in the, you know, the flow of how
• 12:02
  these guys operate here and, and kind of just be able to perform
• 12:06
  at the level that that we're expected to given the the
• 12:09
  equipment and the past performances that they've had.
• 12:11
  So I think just just being a smooth operator right now is
• 12:15
  kind of how we we started the year out and then as the year
• 12:18
  goes on, if we can start to identify some more numerical or
• 12:22
  concrete goals and that's what we're going to do.
• 12:24
  So over the years, talking to some of the guys like I love
• 12:28
  some of the talks we used to have be able to have with the
• 12:30
  King Richard Petty around the racetrack.
• 12:33
  And one thing Richard always said was was the levels of
• 12:35
  racing are not like maybe a, you know, you're single a AA AAA in
• 12:40
  baseball when you make a jump from the Truck Series to the
• 12:43
  O'Reilly Auto Parts series, that it's a huge step.
• 12:46
  And King also said the longest distance in racing is the
• 12:49
  distance between the O'Reilly garage and the Cup garage.
• 12:52
  Just how good are you Fine after 2?
• 12:54
  This is Patrick. Just how good are you finding
• 12:56
  these guys out there? Yeah, I mean, it's it's amazing,
• 13:02
  you know, especially Atlanta this past weekend, fortunate to
• 13:06
  to get close to the front and be able to watch some, of, you
• 13:09
  know, the movies be made in real time.
• 13:10
  And I think that obviously it's, you know, learning curve,
• 13:14
  learning these tracks and learning the arrow.
• 13:15
  And when you're a short track racer, a lot of this stuff is,
• 13:18
  you know, it's very new to me, but but everyone is, is so good
• 13:22
  with their moves and they're so they're so confident in how
• 13:25
  they, you know, manipulate the air and how they manipulate
• 13:27
  traffic, how they clear themselves, you know, up into a
• 13:31
  line when you don't think there's a gap there.
• 13:33
  And, and somehow they make it work.
• 13:34
  So I think that all of the, you know, the, the precision with
• 13:37
  that comes with time, comes with reps But but it's definitely,
• 13:41
  you know, compared to, you know, the races I ran last year and
• 13:44
  being able to see how these guys in this series operate,
• 13:47
  especially as you get closer to the front.
• 13:49
  It's it's impressive and it's cool to be a part of and I can't
• 13:52
  wait to be mixing it up with them.
• 13:54
  So I think that bet you're obviously used to studying,
• 13:56
  you've done a lot of that how much studying to do of of film
• 14:00
  and your past races that that you look at how much studying to
• 14:04
  do these days and trying to get better for a weekend.
• 14:08
  Yeah, it's, it's all day, every day.
• 14:10
  I mean, I would say I take the same approach to studying for
• 14:13
  these races as I, as I would like an exam in, in medical
• 14:16
  school. I mean, there's so much data
• 14:17
  available now compared to when I first started out in racing
• 14:21
  between, you know, SMT and film and onboard cameras.
• 14:24
  And you could literally spend, you know, every second of every
• 14:27
  day reviewing stuff. And obviously you have to be
• 14:29
  efficient with that. I think that I, I, I look at a
• 14:32
  lot of film. I'm also just trying to be in
• 14:34
  the shop as much as I can. I lend a helping hand.
• 14:36
  I mean, these guys are experts, but it's cool to be around the
• 14:38
  cars and and watching, you know, the process of how they get set
• 14:41
  up. I enjoy all of that too, you
• 14:43
  know, growing up working on my own stuff, setting up my own
• 14:46
  late models. It's cool to see how it's done
• 14:48
  at a professional level with, with all the tools that they
• 14:50
  have available here. You know, I, I meet with my
• 14:53
  spotter regularly. We go over film.
• 14:55
  I've been fortunate to, you know, be able to have a place to
• 14:57
  do pit stop practice every week. So it's a, it's a combination
• 15:01
  of, you know, sitting behind the computer and then actually
• 15:03
  getting out there and, and doing as much as you can to be
• 15:05
  prepared on race weekend. So I wouldn't really imagine
• 15:08
  you'd have a ton of time for anything else other than racing
• 15:12
  or practicing medicine. But it Is there anything else
• 15:15
  that's a passion of yours, Patrick?
• 15:16
  Or does it just the two things you got going take up all your
• 15:20
  time? Sleep is a passion of mine also,
• 15:24
  so whenever I can just try to try to get some rest.
• 15:28
  But yeah, I know these these two things definitely take up a lot
• 15:30
  of time. And even though I'm not
• 15:32
  practicing on the medicine side right now, I'm still involved
• 15:34
  in, in research and some patient centered initiatives that we've
• 15:37
  been working on with, with my practice.
• 15:39
  And you know, I, I enjoy, you know, that component of it.
• 15:42
  And I hope to just, you know, keep keep using the racing like
• 15:45
  I said to, to do good on the medical side as well.
• 15:48
  The fun fact about me, I mean, I do enjoy art.
• 15:51
  I used to be really into, you know, charcoal, graphite, like
• 15:54
  drawing and still lights and stuff.
• 15:56
  And like you said, there's not much time for that anymore.
• 15:59
  But if if I ever get an open window and you want to relax,
• 16:01
  that's something that I do for fun.
• 16:04
  Well, Patrick, I tell you, you're in a great spot right
• 16:06
  now. I don't want to take anything
• 16:07
  away from the stick and ball sports, but I think nobody gives
• 16:09
  back to the community like NASCAR.
• 16:11
  It is a great forum to get across your passions and some of
• 16:14
  the things you want to do to help society.
• 16:16
  So it's just great to have you as part of this big family.
• 16:19
  I want to wish you all the best and thank you so much for the
• 16:22
  time today. It was great getting to know you
• 16:23
  here and we're going to come see you this weekend at the
• 16:26
  racetrack in person. Awesome.
• 16:28
  Thanks very much for having me. I'm looking forward to meet you
• 16:30
  in person.