Racers Unchained with Paul Tracy
Sep 21, 2026 · 44 min · 11 segments
Andy Lally has built one of the most diverse careers in American motorsports. A three-time IMSA champion and five-time winner of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, Lally has raced everything from prototypes and…
Andy LallyGuest
Paul TracyHost
Join now at offers.racer.com. Do you think now that your new position now is running the Trans Am Series, you've been doing that now about a year, because it's so difficult and you've been through the whole, been in IMSA, been in sports cars for the majority of your career, and you've seen from your own standpoint, how difficult it is to get a ride.
And factory rides are dominated by the manufacturers and their own ladder system that they have.
Is that why Trans Am and TA2 has become so popular now? Because I see a lot of young kids now going that route not only to get to sports cars but also the nascar has got a close eye on the ta2 series and you guys have 40 plus car field counts and there's a lot of young kids are coming up through trans am through ta2 now
the ta2 specifically has become very much a designated um you know well-recognized rung on the ladder of how to be a cup champion.
So most of my young drivers that are coming through don't have an eye on winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
As well as the OEMs that are recognizing this have, I don't want to say factory teams, but they assist and they place a lot of their young drivers.
four or five drivers in the series because they see and they've gotten feedback from other people that have driven those cars.
The TA2's power to grip is so... close to what a truck and an O'Reilly's car is that it's a no brainer as ARCA as well.
You've got the exact four speed, um, gearbox and transmission that, that, that they run in, in trucks and O'Reilly's.
And so it is something that you can get into as young as 13, 14 years old with our series, um, and get, um, priceless time in a car that will direct.
And those are four just very, very recent examples in the last few years of young drivers that have come through either the GM program or the Toyota program and been successful so into the next level and gone on, obviously, with Brent getting signed to Joe Gibbs and Connor getting signed to whoever he wants, but ended up with Trackhouse doing super well.
Join now at offers.racer.com. Do you think now that your new position now is running the Trans Am Series, you've been doing that now about a year, because it's so difficult and you've been through the whole, been in IMSA, been in sports cars for the majority of your career, and you've seen from your own standpoint, how difficult it is to get a ride.
And factory rides are dominated by the manufacturers and their own ladder system that they have.
Is that why Trans Am and TA2 has become so popular now? Because I see a lot of young kids now going that route not only to get to sports cars but also the nascar has got a close eye on the ta2 series and you guys have 40 plus car field counts and there's a lot of young kids are coming up through trans am through ta2 now
the ta2 specifically has become very much a designated um you know well-recognized rung on the ladder of how to be a cup champion.
So most of my young drivers that are coming through don't have an eye on winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
As well as the OEMs that are recognizing this have, I don't want to say factory teams, but they assist and they place a lot of their young drivers.
four or five drivers in the series because they see and they've gotten feedback from other people that have driven those cars.
The TA2's power to grip is so... close to what a truck and an O'Reilly's car is that it's a no brainer as ARCA as well.
You've got the exact four speed, um, gearbox and transmission that, that, that they run in, in trucks and O'Reilly's.
And so it is something that you can get into as young as 13, 14 years old with our series, um, and get, um, priceless time in a car that will direct.
And those are four just very, very recent examples in the last few years of young drivers that have come through either the GM program or the Toyota program and been successful so into the next level and gone on, obviously, with Brent getting signed to Joe Gibbs and Connor getting signed to whoever he wants, but ended up with Trackhouse doing super well.
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