Stephen Mallozzi and his father built a strong bond on the race track

Chevy … Toyota … Ford ... At only 3 years old, Stephen John Mallozzi stood in front of his Swedesboro, N.J., home and tried to name each car that drove past. His interest in cars started early as he played with toy models and threw aside any other gifts his parents bought.

That interest only grew as he then turned to kart racing at 11 years old. His father, Stephen Anthony Mallozzi, helped make his son’s passion a reality, deepening their bond and advancing Mallozzi’s racing career.

”My dad and I had that need for speed,” Mallozzi said. “I would go to these tracks, and I’d sit there with him for hours.”

The two became invested in kart racing at the highest level. But Mallozzi’s driving career came to halt in 2016 when his father was diagnosed with Stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer. He was told he had six months to live.

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With his father still fighting today, Mallozzi, now 21, is getting back on the track, making his first NASCAR start Saturday at the Camping World Truck Series’ O’Reilly Auto Parts 150 in Lexington, Ohio.

“The fact that he’s still around fighting today, his fight against cancer encapsulates what our racing career has always been,” Mallozzi said. “I don’t say my racing career, it’s our racing career.”

Their journey together started with a video game. Mallozzi won the championship while playing NASCAR Thunder 2004. Bursting with energy, he ran to his father and told him how he planned to become one of the best drivers in real life. With a look of concern, his father responded, “That’s not how it works.”

Mallozzi would soon see how it worked in real life. On his ninth birthday, his father took him to the Mid Atlantic Grand Prix kart track in Newcastle, Del. It was the first time Mallozzi saw a track in person.

By the end of the day, all he wanted to know was when they would return. In response, the elder Mallozzi learned about mechanics and track locations to help inform his son.

“When I was 13, we decided to try and buy our own stuff,” Mallozzi said. “Buy our own equipment and start competitively karting. It was always really just a dad-son kind of thing.”

Mallozzi and his father spent hours together building their kart in the garage, where they also talked about the Eagles and any other Philly sports news. As their commitment to racing grew, the two traveled to events and competed on bigger stages.

But Mallozzi’s world was turned upside down in 2016, when he found out his racing partner was diagnosed with cancer.

“You ever had a really bad breakup and you’re like, ‘This[stinks]?’” Mallozzi said. “Then a couple of months later, you end up talking to the person, and you realize it was for the better and you don’t hate anything about them. You’re just kind of sad that it’s over. I know that’s a really weird analogy, but that’s kind of how it felt. It was like I wasn’t mad at the world anymore for spurning me of my career.”

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Dealing with the potential loss of his father, Mallozzi’s concerns about karting, school, or anything else in life were the least of his priorities. He wondered how much time he had left with him. After six months went by, his father’s scans came back improved.

“I had a realization,” Mallozzi said. “It doesn’t get better, like the alternative here isn’t he’s not going to have cancer anymore. It’s he’s going to die, so I’m living this life, miserable, moping, whatever, when I should be happier now that he’s still here.”

Mallozzi decided that he wanted to run at nationals in honor of his father. The following year, he was the runner-up in the sport’s Senior Rotax National Championship Series and went on to race for Team USA at the Rotax Grand Finals in Portugal. His father was by his side the entire time.

“That was such a significant moment for us,” Mallozzi said. “We knew it was going to be pretty close to the end of our carting career together. Being able to do that was just something else.”

When he graduated from high school and went off to the University of Virginia, Mallozzi figured nationals was his last competitive race. It wasn’t until COVID-19 hit that he complained to his father that he never had an opportunity to race in NASCAR. His father said he gave up too quickly on that dream.

Those words stuck with Mallozzi. By summer 2021, he had moved to Mooresville, N.C., to join Reaume Brothers Racing, an American professional stock car racing team.

“He knows exactly how to push my buttons,” Mallozzi said. “He chose the way he wanted to say it to me, specifically knowing that it would stick with me and that it would either get me to shut up and start working toward it.”

After completing the licensing and submitting an application to NASCAR, Mallozzi was approved to make his first start at Mid-Ohio.

Mallozzi‘s father is driving six hours to watch him compete. Although Mallozzi doesn’t know if he’ll race again after this weekend, he does know having his father there means everything.

“Growing up, a lot of people have their best friends,” Mallozzi said. “Some people don’t know their dad. Some people don’t like their dad. Some people don’t see their dad because they’re not there. I did everything with my dad.”