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Justin Massie Keeps Digging

When Justin Massie exited his car on May 27th he exhaled loudly. It had been a trying
time. Six weeks previously he had loaded the car onto the trailer with a sick feeling in the pit of
his stomach. He knew he had done severe damage to his engine. “I broke a lifter,” he says, “and
all the debris got sent through the motor.” It was easy to be deceived. He had just gone out and
captured his heat race but did not realize there was a hole in the oil pan. There was a lot of work
ahead of him.
A total rebuild was needed, and that was going to take time and money. He kept busy. He
headed to the track and helped fellow super stock competitor Wade Goodale, his friend Skyler
Wilson, and his uncle Scott Carrington who mixes it up in the modified ranks. Reflecting on this
interlude in the season he says, “I like helping people, and I was enjoying it, but I got tired of
Wade racking up those wins.”
Most fans who arrive at the racetrack spend little time pondering just how hard it is for
teams to simply make it to the pits every week. Like many of his peers Massie must juggle the
demands of a job and family. He works on semi-trailers for Fleet Motor Services during the
week, and then tries to squeeze out some time to devote to his avocation. In Justin’s case there
are additional challenges. “Sometimes it is a real struggle for us,” he says, “I know some people
get frustrated with me because I don’t have the best maintenance program or come to the
racetrack with my car still dirty. But it is so hard. We live in a double. I don’t have a garage, so
we work out of our trailer.”
When Massie speaks of “we” it includes his fiancé, Bethanie Agnew. “I will back the car
out of the trailer,” he says, “and do the maintenance and then load it back every night.” That part
is difficult but tolerable. Massie admits that one task he detests is washing the car. That led to a
new plan. “Last year we really got on the program,” he says, “she would wash the car while I
was doing tire stuff or cleaning the trailer. She says she likes doing this.”
Justin has been at this for ten years, and for role models he can look to his grandfather
and father who also raced. They also did everything they could to get by. Now that he is in the
thick of it, he genuinely appreciates what his father had to do to stay in the game. “He raced for
about three years from about 1997 to 2000,” he says, “and his highest finish was a second. Dad
made it work. He built his racecar from scratch and got parts and a motor out of a junkyard. It is
cool what he did with what he had. Things were different then. It is hard to compete that way
now.” Justin would have loved to have begun his career at an early age, but it just was not
feasible. “My dad tried to get me into it,” he says, “but financially it was too much of a burden
on my mom and dad. But I told myself that when I turned eighteen, I was going to save money
and buy a racecar. I put back $3000 from my first paychecks from my first real job and bought a
racecar.”
When you race with a stout group getting to victory lane is not easy. In Massie’s case his
ship came in at the Gary Rickett’s Memorial race in 2021. It was special for several reasons. “It ?
was great because Gary Ricketts was one of the few guys who would help me at the racetrack if I
had questions,” he recalls, “Guys like him, Kenny Carmichael Sr., Josh Boller, and Wes McClara
were the guys I grew up watching. I wanted to earn their respect. That race I was able to hold off
Wes (McClara) which was cool because he was the National champion that year.”
Barring misfortune the plan from here is to race twice a week. He realizes that a track
championship is out of the question, but with the UMP title based on your best twenty races he
still thinks there is a shot to grab some glory. Given that Massie has finished in the top five in
UMP Sportsman points the past two seasons, his goal is not beyond reach. He also knows he
must be careful and not forget that the idea is to have fun. “We have lost sight of that in the last
couple of years points racing,” he admits, “and it turned into a job. We had multiple
conversations about selling and getting out of it, but we concluded this is our life. This is what
we do. We are a racing family. So, we decided to live around it.”
A part of becoming a family also includes his upcoming wedding. It will take place at
Lincoln Park Speedway in October. There is a reason for this. While the couple split for a time,
their first date came at the track when they were in the eighth or ninth grade. Thus, in his words
“That place means something to us.” Massie knows with marriage life might even become more
hectic. There is the matter of finding a new house, and his stepdaughter Kenslie is active in
softball. “She is getting to the age where she might be in travel sports,” he says, “So, we will see
how that impacts racing, but right now we are going full steam.”
Justin Massie may face challenges every week that impede his opportunity to do what he
loves more than anything, but the years of hard work have also paid off. Naturally, when he
needed it most, the words of wisdom and encouragement came from his mother. “I used to think
oh no, Zach Sasser and Josh Boller are here,” he recalls, “and my mom said do not worry about
that. You are one of those guys now. You are not a field filler anymore. You are not battling for
tenth, you are fighting for a win every weekend.” As always, mom does know best.

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