NASCAR's David Stremme - From Boy to Superstar

David Andrew Stremme was born on June 19,1977 inhe won his first victory at Salem Speedway. He won
South Bend, Indiana to a large racing family. Stremmetwice that year and picked up the series rookie of
is the third generation driver in the Stremme familythe year's title with 13 top-fives and 15 top-10s.
who boasts of the likes of his parents, Lou andStremme amazed many when he was recorded as
Cindy, who are multi-time Track Champions at Souththe first Busch Series driver to be awarded the
Bend area tracks and his great uncle was a racer inrookie honors yet he was not racing in the full
the 1950s at South Bend Motor Speedway. Racingseason in 2003. He debuted at the Busch series with
was already evident in his blood when he begana seventh place finish. Although he finished 14th in
winning "Big Wheel" races at age 6 while his parentsthe next two starts, he finished at 6th at the
were taking on other stock cars at the tracks.Nazareth Speedway where he led 32 laps that race.
Stremme started out from the bottom andThat was a significant first in his skyrocketing career.
proceeded to the top. He started working on theHe went on to drive full-time in 2005 in the NEXTEL
race cars in his family garage which taught him toCup with 5 top-five finishes and a 13th spot in points
build appreciation for the tools and the cars hein the Busch Series. He started at 31st and ended at
worked with. He competed in the Street Stocks16th during his NEXTEL cup debut at Chicagoland
Division in 1993 in his mother's car but he was forcedspeedway. He wasn't as successful at Richmond and
to quit once officials found out he was only 15 evenMiami with a 42nd finish and a 36th one at Charlotte.
though he won the race. Once it was legally alrightIn 2006 however, he had a best finish at 11th place
for him to race, he came back with 24 victories, twoat New Hampshire International Speedway and
rookie of the years titles and two trackHomestead-Miami Speedway. At the end of that
championships all in the span of four years. He tookseason, Stremme was assured a start in the first
part in his first full NASCAR Weekly Racing Latefive races at the next season. 2007 started off with
Model Series in 1998 where he came in seventh ata bang with a 6th start and an 11th place finish during
Kalamazoo Speedway, which was where he used tothe Daytona 500. He went on to start 2nd at the
hold the victory cup with his enigmatic father.UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 and obtained his first
The next year he managed 842 out of 900 laps andcareer top-ten finish at the Samsung 500 at Texas
was the leader for the 100 laps in his first KendallMotorspeedway. He followed that up with a career
victory. Stremme took part in large variety of seriesbest finish of 8th place at the Aaron's 499 at
and never limited himself to just one. He got his firstTalladega Superspeedway. He managed to join up
break in 2001 when American Speed Associationthe Craftsman Truck Series in 2006 but he only
Series crew chief, Howard Lettow recommendedmanaged to qualify 28th and after four laps he was
Stremme to take Scott Hanson's place when thein an accident. He finished 32nd in that race.
veteran racer couldn't make the Winchester (Ind.)This young racer still has a lot of potential in him and
400. Stremme proved to be a formidable force whenit is possible that he would do amazing things in his
led several laps but had to give way to mechanicalfuture.
problems. He did , however, ride full-time in 2002 and