Both my parents worked at the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, with my dad eventually being hired by another company called Summit Laboratories that made chemical hair straighteners.
My dad was very successful running midgets in Texas. Then, his two drivers ran into some bad luck. People started saying that Daddy had lost his touch. That it was the cars and not the drivers. I wanted to race just to prove all those people wrong.
At my house, it's an, 'If dad says it, you can say it' kind of deal, so a lot of my slang words come off very childish at this point in my career.
A lot of my success, and a lot of who I am now, is because of my dad, and the way he raised me and taught me how to have a work ethic.
I always tell my dad he was training me to be a pro before he even knew it.
When I was younger, I'd always forget stuff. I think there was probably 4-5 times where we'd drive 30 minutes to a town for the baseball tournament, and all of a sudden, I'd get to the field and look in my bag, and I didn't have my cleats. So my dad had to race all the way home to get my cleats and get back before the game started so I could play.
I think it was like, 'I don't look like you, Mom. I don't look like you, Dad. Like, what's going on here?' They just kind of told me I was adopted. I was like, 'OK, that's fine with me.'
My dad told me, 'If you're going to go out there and play baseball, or you're going to play basketball or football, work hard at it no matter what. I want you to have fun with your buddies, but you have to put in the time because this is your craft.' He didn't just want me to be good. He pushed me to that next level.
My dad played junior college basketball, and he always showed me clips of Michael Jordan.
My dad was my role model; he always did the right thing.
