ASHLAND — Jonathan Shafer’s stock is on the rise, even if the Ashland County native won’t compete in this week’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 150 at Mid-Ohio.
The 18-year-old Shafer is the part-time driver of the On Point Motorsports No. 30 Toyota Tundra on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The truck series will visit Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this weekend.
“We were planning to run Mid-Ohio, but our sponsorship came up a little short,” said Shafer, the son of former truck series and stock car driver Todd Shafer. “My next (truck series) race will be at Kansas Speedway in September.”
Shafer made his Craftsman Truck Series debut in mid-April, finishing 29th in the Long John Silver’s 200 at Martinsville Speedway. He finished 24th in the Rackley Roofing 200 at the Nashville Superspeedway in late-June.
“I’m not running full-time because I’m not old enough to run the full series. I’m getting approved this year,” said Shafer, who started racing quarter-midgets when he was 4 years old. “I’ll step up to bigger tracks. Kansas will be my next one and then I’ll be approved to run full-time next year starting at Daytona in February.”
Shafer shares the On Point Motorsports No. 30 with Ryan Vargas. Vargas is scheduled to compete in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 150 at Mid-Ohio on Saturday.
“We have a very friendly relationship,” Shafer said. “We’re always trying to help each other and the team.”
Shafer has quickly worked his way through the ranks of stock car racing. He was competing in the Champion Racing Association by the time he was 12 and graduated to sprint cars and late models when he was 14. He joined the Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Late Model Stock Tour in 2020 and ran in the ARCA Menards Series last year before finding a part-time ride in the Craftsman Truck Series, one of NASCAR’s three national touring series.
“He’s way ahead of where I was when I was his age,” said Todd Shafer, who competed in what was then called the Busch Series and the Camping World Truck Series in the 2000s and 2010s. “He started when he was 4 years old in the midget. I started racing go-karts when I was 8.
“He’s run everything from quarter-midgets to micro-sprint cars to outlaw cars, but his love is NASCAR.”
In addition to his part-time ride in the truck series, Shafer is competing in the World of Outlaws dirt sprint car series and the CARS Pro Late Model Series. He’s at a different race track every weekend, along with his father, mother, Angie, and 12-year-old brother Jackson.
“It’s amazing. Not every 18-year-old gets to travel across the country and race,” Shafer said. “It’s also great family bonding time. It’s like a mini-vacation, but at the same time I’m racing almost every weekend.
“We travel from track to track in the motor home. I couldn’t ask for anything else.”
Todd Shafer’s experience in the stock car racing world has served his son well.
“He’s been through the racing world and has all this knowledge,” Jonathan Shafer said. “He has guided me through my racing career.”
The auto sports landscape doesn’t look like the one the elder Shafer encountered when he first began his racing career.
“When I was racing, you got hired by talent. Now it’s not that way,” Todd Shafer said. “Teams used to have their own sponsors. Now they rely on the drivers to bring their own sponsors.”
A strong showing through the second half of the season could open some doors for the younger Shafer.
“Next year I’m looking to run full-time in the NASCAR truck series,” Jonathan said. “I hope to have an opportunity to keep progressing.”
