Natural Bridge Speedway
Earnhardt prodigy to run Crate at Natural Bridge
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt.com staff reporter
Wyatt Earnhardt Miller will pilot a Crate Late Model. (Jack Reitz)
An Earnhardt is back behind the wheel of a Dirt Late Model.
Wyatt Earnhardt Miller, the grandson of seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Dale Earnhardt Sr. and great-grandson of Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame driver Ralph Earnhardt, is making his division debut Saturday at Natural Bridge (Va.) Speedway with the track’s weekly 604 Crate Late Model competition.
The accomplished 13-year-old of Statesville, N.C., is partnering with Whittier Motorsports, the Tony Whittier-owned team that spearheads the Longhorn Factory Crate Program.
Whittier, a Longhorn employee, has Ethan Wilson, younger brother of Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series campaigner Daulton Wilson, as his full-time driver. The deal was facilitated by Longhorn co-owner Steve Arpin, who personally knows the Earnhardt family because he once raced part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The young Miller tested a Crate car for the first time Feb. 26 at Ultimate Motorsports Park in Elkin, N.C., where he got up to speed impressively.
“We tested to see if this was something Wyatt wanted to do,” Arpin started, “and by the third time out, the kid was running lap times that’s probably capable of winning races there. The car control was unbelievable. He came in and (the Longhorn crew) was like, ‘What’s the next step?’
“Wyatt just looked up and said, ‘Let’s go racing,’ ” Arpin said. “And here we are today.”
The son of Kelley Earnhardt Miller, Dale Sr.’s daughter, and L.W. Miller — a pavement modified standout who’s won two NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified titles — has quite the resume being only two months into his teenaged years.
At age 11 last January, he bested nearly 200 drivers to win the Tulsa Shootout’s Restricted A-Class inside SageNet Center in Tulsa, Okla. In his first three pavement Late Model starts all at historic Hickory Motor Speedway in Newton, N.C., with Dale Earnhardt Jr’s JR Motorsports program, he has two wins and a runner-up finish.
“People are going to say, ‘Oh, he’s in a great race car.’ And yeah, he is, no question,” Earnhardt Jr. told FloRacing last weekend. “But I am just real surprised by how he’s adapted to it so quickly. Just by himself, I was not shaping corners as well as he is at his age. I was missing the bottom, I was overdriving it. I didn’t have any real understanding of how to make a corner and get in a groove. At his age, it’s just impressive. He’s doing awesome.”
The Dirt Late Model this weekend marks the seventh discipline Miller competes in since the start of last year with winged micro sprints, non-winged micro sprints, outlaw karts, pavement legend cars, off-road trucks and pavement Late Models.
The young Miller told FloRacing last month that the “micro and the off-road truck are probably tied for my favorite” because “the speed just made it a lot of fun,” but the Dirt Late Model is certainly piquing more of his interest.
“It’s definitely a lot different,” Miller said. “The left-rear gets up and then you’re kind of sitting the nose down, and you’ve got to set the car way harder than a micro. It was definitely slower to react.”
Earnhardt Jr., who fielded an Xfinity Series car for Arpin for seven races in 2010 and maintains contact with the chassis owner, commends his brother-in-law, L.W., for getting his nephew the array of experience in all kinds of race cars.
“L.W.’s done a good job putting hm where he needs to be in his racing career, doing certain things to really improve his race craft and knowledge, and understanding,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Impressive. Fun to see.”
Earnhardt Jr. has expressed he’s “going to keep our Late Model Stock program going because we want (Wyatt) in it one day, in the CARS Tour,” the premier pavement Late Model tour in the Southeast streamed by FloRacing.
So while Miller’s trajectory likely targets NASCAR Cup competition, Dirt Late Models have certainly intrigued him. The idea for the young Miller to enter the Dirt Late Model ranks spawned last September when Arpin reconnected with the Earnhardts at Martin Truex Jr.’s Catwalk for a Cause, a fashion gala where NASCAR drivers and celebrities walk the runway with children battling cancer.
“Dale and Kelley and I all ran into each other, and we were all drinking and having a good ol' time,” said Arpin, who then couldn’t help but express gratitude toward the Earnhardts for giving him his shot in the second-tier NASCAR series in 2010 because “they put me on a stage that’s really contributed to every path I’ve went down since then.”
“It legitimized me in the racing world and the North Carolina racing circle,” Arpin said.
As Miller’s fledgling career has taken flight the last few years — he has 76 total victories in 221 starts via MyRacePass since 2022 — the least Arpin could do was offer a Dirt Late Model ride to the up-and-coming driver.
“What (the Earnhardts) did for me when they took a chance on me, they hired me with no money or anything, they gave me the incredible opportunity when they could’ve put someone who could write a check for their car,” Arpin said. “It’s always been one of those things for me, how do you pay it forward to somebody who already has everything? Who has been so good and successful?
“There’s nothing I can buy or do anything that’s ever going to make a difference in Dale and Kelley’s life and show my appreciation.”
Arpin went so far with his offer that he “almost had Dale convinced of putting him in a (Dirt) Late Model.”
“Whether that’d be a Late Model or modified, I was like, ‘Let’s do it,’ ” Arpin said. “We left it at ‘let’s talk about it.’ As things went, Wyatt just grew up so fast. And Kelley was obviously a huge part of everything.
“Dale is the face of JR Motorsports, but what a lot of people don’t know is Kelley behind the scenes. Kelley is a boss. She’s legit and so much of what happens there, so much of what happened with me was because of her.
“For us to have the opportunity, and I was talking with L.W. about this, we’re probably not going to get Dale Jr. in a car anytime soon, so why don’t we put Wyatt in the car and have some fun?”
Arpin says the young Miller has some of the finest instincts and natural race-craft ability he’s ever seen. That was evident to the Longhorn owner within 45 minutes of Feb. 26’s test session at Ultimate Motorsports Park in Elkin, N.C.
“We went from me talking to him on the radio on figuring out how to get the car on and off from high gear and into the pits, to running, like, race-pace, top-three lap times in a matter of 45 minutes,” Arpin said. “You can’t teach that. That’s just natural talent. You either have that or you don’t. Kids can take a month or two months to understand that.
“I was simulating sliders with him over the radio and telling him to hit certain spots, and everything I told him to do on the radio, he did perfectly. His racing instincts, his car control, everything about how he understood, was out of natural talent. It’s going to be cool.”
A weekly program at Natural Bridge’s 3/8-mile oval fits Miller well because “its out of the spotlight,” and that’ll “let him have fun, and hopefully go win the race.”
“If he doesn’t win the race, it’s not a big deal, right?” Arpin said. “We also wanted to take him to a racetrack that wasn’t one lane, run around the bottom, or something like that. We wanted to take him somewhere we he can move around and race, give him the opportunity to get in traffic and see what these race cars are like.”
This Saturday’s 604 Crate event at Natural Bridge is the lone Late Model race on Miller’s ultra-busy schedule, but Arpin expects the fourth-generation racer to add more races with his Longhorn team this season.
“I don’t think they would take time out of their busy schedule to start a one-off or has no path, or an impact, for his future,” Arpin said. “Obviously things can change because it’s motorsports, things can change in an instant. As far as more opportunities, the opportunities are endless.”
Just like the Earnhardts propelled Arpin’s destiny in auto racing, Arpin’s hoping he can serve the young Miller well, too.
“Seeing the natural talent this boy has, and to be a small, small part of the start of his career,” Arpin said. “It’s going to be cool to see where he’s at and to be involved in the early parts of his career. And hopefully be involved at bigger parts of his career as he evolves and as he gets older.”
