Great Article today in the Free Press.
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Father taking back seat for Son
By JIM CRESSMAN

DELAWARE -- Kyle Delisle learned something early in his racing career -- father knows best.

"I have to listen to what he says because he's usually right most of the time," the 17-year-old from Lasalle said last night at Delaware Speedway.

"I love watching my dad race -- he's won a lot of races -- so I know he's a guy I can learn from."

Kyle is a rookie in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series late model class, following in dad's tire tracks.

Dan Delisle, 46, has raced at almost every short track going. He was a regular in the old CASCAR Super Series, American Speed Association (ASA), ALSTAR Series and Florida Association of Stock Car Racing (FASCAR).

"I always told him he never had to race and if he didn't race it would have never bothered me, but it's something he wanted to do, so here we are finding out," Dan said as he helped crew his son's car.

"I'm basically putting my racing aside to get the boy going. I hope to run the Labour Day weekend race here (Great Canadian 300), then after that I don't know about my future."

Dan said when Kyle asked him last fall about driving a late model and he said yes, "I then wondered how stupid I'd got. But he's behaved well and he's getting good seat time. He listens good."

Kyle had only driven go-karts until going to New Smyrna Beach, Fla., for Speed Week in February. Those were his first laps in a late model.

"The first night we got in a little minor wreck, but we finished in the top 15 every night the rest of the week," he said of that eight-race series. "That was a great experience."

Dan said when the decision was made that Kyle would race this season, there was no question it would be at Delaware.

"I've been to all the tracks from here to Florida and of all the tracks, it's why we picked this track. There's always a lot of cars -- very tough to pass. There can be a lot of wrecks, but it teaches how to fix cars and find out if he really wants to this.

"This is a great place to cut his teeth. A lot has already happened. I've just told him to try not to hit anything, try to miss the wrecks if you can and give everybody some room. He's done well that way."

Kyle said it's not only the track, it's the stout competition on a regular basis.

"You've got Jesse Kennedy, Ron Sheridan, (eight-time champion) Steve Robblee . . . this is the ultimate learning track. Like my dad says, if you can race here, you can race anywhere. There's not much of a high lane so it's bumper-to-bumper racing the entire race and if you can pass a guy on the high side here, you know how to race a car."

Kyle knows from experience there's a lot more to it than the Friday nights at the track.

"He said it's a lot of work, and he's right. But he said if you like working on cars it'll be worth it. If you don't like working on it, then you shouldn't be racing."

He said having a successful father can be a double-edged sword.

"It helps but there's a little bit of pressure, too. Matt Robblee (Steve's son) is in the same boat as me. His dad has won a lot of races."

Sheridan, a Delaware veteran and perennial front-runner, said it's good to see sons following fathers into the sport.

"You can knock a good five years off this learning curve, if he listens to you," Sheridan said, adding he's excited by the overall youth movement in the late model class.

"We've got quite a few more younger kids out here and surprisingly, with the economy, I thought the car count would be down this year but it's actually up a bit.

"Some weeks we've had 30 cars and the more young people we get the better because the last three years, let's face it, we haven't had too many new faces come in and we're getting older."