Max Cookson chatted with ATYL Media’s Taylor Kitchen following his win of the Kulwicki Driver Development Program (KDDP) championship. The 20-year-old from Maine had an impressive career of racing from the Oxford Plains Speedway championship to the National Super Late Model championship, he joins this episode to talk about it all:
Taylor Kitchen: Before we go into the KDDP Championship, I want to take it back to your weekend at Five Flags Speedway, unfortunate weather you all had there, but I think this was your first time in the Snowflake, and your first time racing at the track. Is that correct?
Max Cookson: Yeah, so we went down and tested the week before. So that was the first time I’d ever even been there in person. So it was a, you know, everything was new. The racetrack was new. I of course, drove one of Donnie Wilson’s cars, which are which are different to the cars that I run back home. So new race car, new team, new race track. So there was a lot of a lot of news and a lot of things to figure out and get adjusted to for sure.
Taylor Kitchen: But, you came home with an eighth place finish despite all of that new! So talk about that process, like with what I think like less practice time and even to racing for Donnie in one of his cars.
Max Cookson: So I felt like the test went, went good. I felt like we did better than we should have throughout the test, not as good as we wanted, but probably overachieved a little bit as far as getting adapted to it, which we did a little bit more. And then obviously, the unfortunate with the weather, losing kind of most some of that day of practice, and then lost the practice that was Saturday morning. So I felt like that would have benefited me more than others. Just not having the experience in the laps there. But you know, as far as the race goes, I feel like the biggest difference was back home, we heat race. So everyone draws a pill, and we run 12 or 15 lap heat races. So kind of, my style of racing, back home is all really going out race tracks. And, you know, you don’t really ever bully the car. I’ll call it and run it 110% trying to turn a fast lap because even in a 15 lap heat race or something, you can still wear out the tires. To get a full true heat cycle, cooling down the whole time. So really never had to do that. So the biggest difference was having a time trial and it got rained out on on Saturday, so we weren’t in the race car for a full two days, and then no practice Monday morning, and just went in time trial. So definitely feel like the race car was capable of qualifying a lot better than we did. But once we got into the race we passed 19 cars and came home eighth, which is a good, respectable day. But you know, the reality of it is if we qualified better, we would have ran better. So I was happy with the day. I left there feeling like we got to go there and learn the race track and the whole weekend’s just different. So left there with a ton of knowledge. You know what to do, but you know what not to do down there. So I feel like we left with a with a ton of knowledge and experience. Wish the results were little better, but still left with a respectable day.
Taylor Kitchen: I think the whole purpose of when you’re going through the ranks is to learn experience new things, and [you] definitely had that new experience at Five Flags. You mentioned, the difference between what you do back home in Maine and racing up in the northeast, which is you usually do heats, and then you go into this experience doing qualifying laps instead of the heats… do you like the heat racing a lot better? Do you feel like it’s a lot more, I don’t want to say more engaging, but do you just like that style of qualifying better than what we had at Five Flags?
Max Cookson: Well, I feel like if we time trial at Oxford [Plains Speedway], like a time trial top-five, I’d really like it. But I do like I do like time trials better, just because you know, if you draw last in a in a good heat race. Let’s call it where you know, everyone in your heat race have good cars. You draw last minute, you’re you’re sure of luck. So the the time child things, you know, it’s way better. It’s how it should be everywhere, in my opinion. But it’s just I’m not accustomed to doing that. We don’t ever do it back home. So I feel like I just gave up. A little bit a 10th would have put me 15 spots better. So gave up a little bit there. But I think, really it’s just one of those things that we don’t do it back home and it’s hard to get adjusted to just go, be mean to the race car, let’s call it for two laps. So definitely feel like that was the biggest negative of the weekend, was me not not qualifying, or I should have.
Taylor Kitchen: I know you have a great history with iRacing. That’s kind of what helped you kind of launch your career. Did you practice at Five Flags on iRacing? Or did that help you kind of translate what the track would be from the sim to the real thing, or did you just kind of go in cold turkey into your test?
Max Cookson: So I haven’t done a whole lot of iRacing in the last two years, since the real life thing has started. But I still get on there and ran a couple laps, and I will say it’s probably one of the more similar tracks because there’s like Oxford’s on iRacing and a few others. So I will say it’s probably one of the more similar racetracks. But Five Flags is definitely an animal of its own. You know it’s bigger, it’s faster, it’s super worn out. But, once we got into the race and kind of settled in, I really love the place, and obviously we’re able to to make good headway forward. So I really, really do like the racetrack, and really looking forward to next year.
Taylor Kitchen: Talking to about from iRacing, I think you started in karts who kind of cultivated your love of racing and kind of helped you learn the car? Just from research learning about, you’re very hands on with the work that you do on the cars and things like that, and you’re very attuned to knowing what the car needs in the first few minutes of getting in it. Who helped you kind of get to that point in your career where you’re so knowledgeable and to where you’re so passionate about the sport that you’re in?
Max Cookson: I’ll give myself a little credit, but really, just got really fortunate with kind of getting aligned with the right people early on, because we did the karts when I was younger age. At that age, when I’m four or five, six, seven, years old, don’t have much involvement of it. And then did the iRacing thing, and then I was 16, got my big break there, and then started the modified thing off and got tied in with a really good guy in the , Ben Tinker and he helped me a lot through the early portion of my modified career. And then towards the my full year I ran full time in modifieds. Jason Ricker was my at track crew chief, I’ll call it. So never did any work in the shop but was always there a phone call away when I was working on the car in the shop. Set up wise my dad kind of took care and taught me everything you know, with the drive on. So kind of his thing was taking care of the motor and transmission and rear end and that such. And then, it was my job and responsibility to learn everything that the car needed to go fast. So got super fortunate early on with him, and then kind of ended into 2022 and this last year, my crew chief was Kevin Nobley, who was able, you know, same situation as Jason. Never, has never been to the shop and done anything there, but it comes to the races on the weekend and we talk pretty much every day about what we want to do for for that upcoming race. So really, just been fortunate and been able to absorb all the information rather quickly to be able to learn everything that needs to happen. You know, in in the race shop, you know, to prepare the car, to bring a good car.
Taylor Kitchen: What do you think is the toughest thing for you when you were growing up, or even just a young racer, for them to learn, whether it be about the car, about the industry, like, what do you think has been the trickiest learning curve for you?
Max Cookson: That’s a hard question to answer. I think I’ve just been so fortunate and so lucky the last three years that everything is just, we’ve just progressed through everything so right in our on our pipeline if you want to call it that, and our progression up through, from doing the modified thing and then our first year at Oxford, and the track championship there in the past when at the end of the year in 22 and then this year everything we did with the North and National Championships and the Oxford championships and the Kulwcki championship, everything’s just been… I haven’t, I don’t think I’ve really gotten to that point of struggling. You know, ‘what do we want to do’? Or ‘how should we do this’? You know, everything’s just kind of fallen into place. So I feel like there really hasn’t been a lot of work that’s needed to be done there as far as to this point. You know, the progression has just been okay. ‘What makes sense’? You know, ‘what are we going to go do now’? I feel like that’s what we’ve been able to do. That’s what I think led us to the success we’ve had as far as just kind of doing what we think is right.
Taylor Kitchen: Can you talk about the success? I mean, just naming off, I mean, you won the Oxford plains Speedway Super Late Model Championship, the National Super Late Model Championship, the first driver from the northeast to win the KDDP Championship as well. I mean, when I read those off to you, and I’m missing a ton of stuff that you’ve accomplished this year, but what are the emotions that go with that? Is that pride? Is it disbelief? Is it confidence? Like, what when you hear those accomplishments, do you feel?
Max Cookson: Points racing is so tough and there’s so many things that’s involved with it we won five races this year which is awesome. But you know, I think we finished second eight or nine times. And I know at least half of those races we probably could have won. But, if you force the issue, to win one, that guy remembers it for the for the next one, and then end up not getting a break from him, or he races you a little harder when you trying to get up through so much that goes in the points racing and championships are tough to win. You can make a mistake on a Wednesday night in a shop that that ruins your weekend, and not only ruins your weekend, but ruins your year. So it’s really kind of almost relief is the feeling that I get. It’s like, ‘we did it, we accomplished it’. You know, we did we we set out with a goal and we were able to do it. So it is a lot of relief. You know what I feel, and I feel like it really hasn’t all sunk in yet, just because we’ve been so busy on everything.
Taylor Kitchen: Next week, you’re going to get that award [KDDP Championship], I believe it’s on what would have been Alan Kulwicki’s 69th birthday. So just kind of talk about that program. What it’s been like to be a part of that? And then, of course, the feeling that goes along with winning that championship this year,
Max Cookson: It’s really been a life changing thing. I’ll start with on the race track stuff is just kind of how you represent yourself at the race track and on the racetrack not only you know just how you act in the pits and how you race, I feel like it has done wonders for me this year. And then off the racetrack, started out the year, doing a few events with the race car, taking the race car to my local elementary school where I went everything just snowballed from there.We were able to take the car to nine different events this year, and just they’re so awesome. You know, the kids just love it. It seems like every place we went to there was always one kid that was just like that would have been me when I was a kid. That would have been so cool to have whether it be Ben Rowe or John and Clark, but the race car drivers from the Northeast that I looked up to when I was a kid. So it was just so awesome to be able to do all those events, and did a lot with the Autism Society of Maine, went to an event with them, and did a charity walk for for them in the spring, and was able to raise $3,900 for them to give to them at the end of the year. And just countless fundraisers we did for jackets and school supplies and a numerous number of things. So really it started off just doing it, kind of to go and do that stuff, and then kind of just fell in love with doing it and wanting to do it. It seemed like every week we were doing something. So it was really, really humbling, really awesome to see what I could do with even my platform at the short track level.
Taylor Kitchen: I think something that gets missed sometimes, whether it’s on the national level with motorsports, even at the local level, is the community outreach. And I will say, I love what the Quickie development program does, and helping reaching out to your local communities. And even too it’s so important to to engage the young fans. So to hear that you were able to bring some of the cars to the kids at the local elementary schools. Like, that’s awesome. Did you have any of the kids? Like, were you able to, were they able to, like, go in the car? Like, sit in the car?
Max Cookson: Absolutely. Almost all the events the kids were able. There was a couple where they didn’t want the kids to but a couple of them. And one of the funny stories that I have from there is, we’re at a family retreat that they had a weekend retreat for, and brought the race car there for one of the days, and kid, probably 11 or 12 got in the car, and was able to start a race car, you got to turn the master on, and then the ignition, and then the starter, and kind of where all the switches are. And I had figured it out and started the car when I didn’t want to. And the teacher there was like, well, just take the keys out. I was like, I can’t. I ended up having to unplug the ignition box and stuff. But it was just, it was fun. And, you know, they loved it to sit inside of it, and play around the shifter and stuff. So it was super, super cool.
Taylor Kitchen: So that kids probably ready to go to a race? Put them on a track, figure out how to start a car! Oh my gosh! I think we talked about this a little bit before we started recording the episode. But, I mean, you’ve been so busy this year. I mean, I don’t really feel like you’ve had a time to kind of chill now that this racing season, I feel like it’s dying down a little bit. Do you have more time to spend with family, whether it’s like a hobby that you do? Like, do you have time to relax before you start going again in 2024 or is it all hands on deck to prepare for next year?
Max Cookson: While I was in Pensacola, my guys back here went and picked up our new race car. So now it’s all hands on deck getting that ready for the car store opener at Southern National. So, you know, we got basically eight weeks, plus Christmas week, to to get that card on. So now you start getting everything lined up and ready for that. And of course we’ve done a few banquets, the Kulwicki banquets next week. And get through all that and start prepping for ’24 so don’t think there’s going to be a whole heck of a lot of downtime between now and then, and of course, once racing starts, it’s straight ahead. We raced 34 times last year, from from April to the end of the year.
Taylor Kitchen: Last question for you, what do you want for Christmas?
Max Cookson: I’m funny now, so it’s usually just a lot of socks, but last year they got me some gloves and shoes for Christmas. So I guess you could say that that they do do some stuff like that.
Watch the full interview:
