NASCAR: David Stremme and His Lethal Dreams

On a rainy day at Golden Isles Speedway a plain white hauler sits closed up at the Super Bowl On Dirt. Similar haulers fully wrapped parked on either side are adorned with “Lethal” on the rear gate. Seems like an odd place to find the 2003 Busch Series Rookie of the year, but the once promising Sprint Cup driver has found a new vision for his future.

David Stremme has come a long way since being forced out of his first stock car ride when it was discovered he was only 15. He has had tenures with some of the biggest teams in racing, Ganassi Racing and Penske Racing. His first race in the then Busch Series was at the Nashville Superspeedway starting 15th and finishing 7th. Finishing no worse than 31st that season and posting several top 10’s, he won rookie of the year even though he only raced in 18 of the 32 events.

He went on to drive in the Sprint Cup Series for Chip Ganassi Racing with mixed results, ultimately replaced by former Indy 500 champion Dario Franchitti. He then signed to replace Ryan Newman with Penske racing just as Verizon bought Alltel costing Stremme his primary sponsor. 2009 was the only season David had with Penske as they made the move to sign up and coming Brad Keselowski and as is said, the rest is history. He bounced around a bit with smaller teams, doing some start and park work but was unable to catch on with another well funded team.

In the winter of 2010 was the first time I ran into David Stremme. A cold January day at Lanier Speedway in Gainesville Georgia, driving a late model car in the Lanier Speedfest against the likes of Kyle Busch, Chase Elliot, Bubba Pollard and Ryan Blaney. In the pit area he was very nice, taking time to speak to fans while working on his own car. Something he has done his entire racing career. Skills that would turn out to shape his future after driving in NASCAR series.

Whenever you ask a famous driver why they tried dirt track racing two names normally pop up, Ken Schrader and Kenny Wallace. With David Stremme it was Kenny Wallace that invited him to a charity race in Kenny’s home state of Missouri and the dye was cast. Having purchased a car and several frustrated efforts obtaining parts, he decided he could do better.

With some help from Kevin Rumley at Longhorn Chassis, he assembled his first car. After seeing what he had done, several friends said they wanted one and on October 24th 2014 Lethal Chassis was born. In their first full year of production Lethal Chassis produced 31 cars. Stremme says that might have been too many, wanting to produce 25 in 2016 for his customers. The reason for the reduction is David is proud of the relationship he has with his customers, referring to them as family. He keeps in contact with his network of customers driving Lethal Chassis all over the country. All his customers exchange information like a large team, helping each other improve.

"“Our cars are for sale not on sale, and we say quality not quantity, its hard to balance that…Some companies have to build a certain number of cars to make a number, we’re fortunate we don’t have to do that”Lethal Chassis Shop"

Last season throughout the country Lethal Chassis had 21 cars with 19 different winners. Derrick Ramey driving his Lethal Chassis in 2015 won the Renegade of Dirt and Southern points champions. Drivers like Michael Turner winning the Paducah Track Championship, Jordan Taylor winning the track championship at Fayetteville Motor Speedway, Tyler Evans at Ohio Valley Speedway among others is the kind of advertising that Stremme uses.

When the he gets a chance David loads his #35 into his hauler and gets out to drive himself. His first feature win in his own car came late 2014 at County Line Speedway and another at Fayetteville in 2015. That proud fatherly look while talking about his customers changes to a competitive twinkle in his eye when he talks about driving. The competitive fire still flows through his veins. He does not race in any specific series, he just goes to have fun and learn about the cars to see what he can improve. I asked how many events he had on his 2016 schedule and he said “I am going to race here then not until after march”. He just goes when he can and wants to, no schedule laid out. Asked how long he sees himself driving, with a chuckle he said “I like Kenny Schrader, he drives for the beer and the friendships”.

How far has David Stremme come? Kenny Wallace, the man that got David on dirt, is now driving a Lethal Chassis. Freshly moved into their new larger shop David, his wife Ashlee and their three employees are building some of the best dirt modified cars in the country. If you go to a dirt track and see Lethal on the quarter panel, you can bet it will be running up front.

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