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Lake Speed

Lake Speed
Born (1948-01-17) January 17, 1948 (age 69)
Jackson, Mississippi
Awards

6-time United States Karting champion

1978 World Karting champion
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career
402 races run over 19 years
Best finish 10th (1985)
First race 1980 Winston Western 500 (Riverside)
Last race 1998 Jiffy Lube 300 (New Hampshire)
First win 1988 TranSouth 500 (Darlington)
Wins Top tens Poles
1 75 0
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
6 races run over 2 years
First race 1983 Miller Time 300 (Charlotte)
Last race 1984 Miller Time 300 (Charlotte)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 3 0

6-time United States Karting champion

Lake Chambers Speed (born on January 17, 1948) is an American racing driver. Now retired, he formerly competed in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, scoring one career win in 402 starts.

Lake was named after the best friend of his father, Bob Lake. Lake's father, Leland L. Speed, took office as the Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, in 1948, the same year that he was born. He started his racing career at the age of thirteen racing karts, much to the displeasure of his family. Over the years, Speed won the International Karting Federation (IKF) National Championship six times and in 1978 he won the prestigious Karting World Championship over, among others, future three-time Formula One champion Ayrton Senna. Speed had been the only American to win the World Karting Championship until 2015 when 14 year-old Logan Sargent of Florida won the KFJ World Karting Championship on September 27th, 2015.

In 1980 after considering racing in other series such as Formula One, CART, and IMSA, and getting advice from current Lowe's Motor Speedway promoter, Humpy Wheeler, Speed chose to go NASCAR racing. According to Speed, "It was the highest mountain to climb." Speed's relative unfamiliarity with the NASCAR scene led him to buy his first car from someone in Chicago. Speed started 19 races in his rookie year scoring an eighth at Darlington Speedway in his third career start. Speed also scored finishes of seventh at the spring Talladega Superspeedway race, eighth at Talladega's fall event, seventh at Charlotte's fall event and eighth at the season ending race at Ontario Motor Speedway. Speed finished 22nd in overall points and second to Jody Ridley in the rookie of the year standings.


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Wikipedia

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