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born 1977 · born and raised in South Bend
The fame: David Stremme built the other kind of NASCAR career — not the superstar's but the working professional's, and a long one: some 200 NASCAR Cup Series starts across a decade, full-time rides with Chip Ganassi Racing (the No. 40) and Penske Racing (the No. 12, in 2009), the 2003 NASCAR Busch Series Rookie of the Year award won while running part-time for several teams, and a second life after the cockpit as founder (2014) of Lethal Chassis, a dirt-modified builder — the driver as fabricator, which is what he had been from the start.
The tie, exactly: Born and raised, in a racing family of this city. David Andrew Stremme was born in South Bend on June 19, 1977, into a line of Midwestern short-track racers — a great-uncle who raced in the 1950s, his father, his mother, his brother — and his first stock-car victory came at fifteen, in the early 1990s, at New Paris Speedway in his mother's street-stock car; Penske Racing's account adds that the win was forfeited because he had no driver's license. From 1994 to 1998 he took 24 feature wins, two rookie-of-the-year titles, and two track championships on the region's short tracks, won ASA Rookie of the Year in 2002, and made his Busch Series debut at Nashville in April 2003, starting 15th and finishing 7th. The climb from the South Bend racing family to the Cup garage is documented at every step, and it is the whole of his South Bend chapter: the city produced him and the region's tracks trained him.
Sources:
- Penske Racing driver biography — the South Bend racing family, the first win at fifteen at New Paris in his mother's street stock and its forfeiture, the 24 feature wins and two championships (1994–1998), the ASA and Busch rookie awards.
- Motorsport Stats and NASCAR records — the June 19, 1977 South Bend birth, the Cup career and teams.