Chris Hacker, who suffered a brachial plexus injury at birth, spoke about his improbable journey to NASCAR, how he has pushed through the disability, and his partnership with Morgan & Morgan.
After competing in select races throughout the 2021 and 2022 NASCAR Truck Series seasons for a number of teams, Chris Hacker recently announced a five-race deal to drive the No. 30 Toyota for On Point Motorsports in 2023.
The 23-year-old Noblesville, Indiana native is set for his third season in the series as he continues to push through adversity caused by the brachial plexus injury he suffered a birth.
Itâs an injury that affects everyday activities and very well could have hindered Hackerâs racing career, but he has found a way to push forward. The injury often occurs during birth and can result in full to partial paralysis of one or both arms. In Hackerâs case, the injury affects his left arm, causing him to rely on his right.
Chris Hacker is the first individual to have suffered from this condition and still made it to NASCAR, and he continues to strive for greater things.
Ahead of the 2023 season, Hacker is working with law firm Morgan & Morgan to raise awareness of the impact of this injury. As a part of this partnership, he is sharing his own personal story of how he has overcome the condition to strive for and achieve his goals.
âActually about a year ago today is when I met part of the Morgan & Morgan family,â Hacker told Beyond the Flag. âJack and Alex came out to the Daytona race weekend. Last year I was working on the cars and this year Iâm racing them, so thatâs pretty sick. As far the partnership and everything, Morgan & Morgan is one of the largest law firm companies that handles birth injury problems, stuff like that.
âWith me having brachial plexus injury, itâs a great formation together because theyâre helping kids have a better life in the future if they have these injuries and disabilities. If it werenât for people like them, I probably wouldnâtâ be in this seat right now because I myself was able to get a settlement at birth.
âMy parents were funding me for the first part of my racing career, and then at some point they finally ran out of funding. I kind of sat down with my parents and we were like, letâs throw all of this money into racing again. And so we did that, and it took me so far and we started having to get partners again once I got in NASCAR.
âThankfully we met Morgan & Morgan and all of them, and so far theyâve just been such a great help in getting me to the track and stuff like that.â
Hacker has long supported others who suffer from brachial plexus injuries and advocated for the nonprofit organization United Brachial Plexus Network (UBPN), which hosts a camp for people with this condition and their families every two years. As a teenager, he raised enough money to send 24 kids to Camp UBPN.
âAs far as the UBPN side, back when I was like 13, I started doing a fundraiser for them called 24 Kids to Camp,â he said. âMy race car number back then was 24, and what we did is we raised enough money to send the kids who couldnât afford it to this camp, which honestly is like a great opportunity.â
While brachial plexus injuries affect more children than Down syndrome and muscular dystrophy, awareness is lacking and information on the disability is challenging to find. People with these injures often suffer from severe and chronic pain and struggle to find support and adequate medical care.
âThis injury is really common, but not common enough for anybody in your school to really have it,â Hacker continued. âBut I went to this camp, I learned that other kids are having the same problems I do through their daily lives, such as how they apply their deodorant, or needing help tying shoes at a later age and stuff.
âFor [Morgan & Morgan] to come on board and support me and kids with the same disability as me, itâs amazing. Honestly, at the end of the day, I couldnât be more thankful for them.â
Hacker knew that getting into racing after having suffered a brachial plexus injury would be a challenge, but he credits his parents for giving him the mentality that nobody was ever going to stop him and that his injury was not going to define him.
âI donât really work on the cars anymore; Iâm more focused on the driving side,â he admitted. âBut a year ago when I was working on the cars, Iâd find myself struggling in the shop. If I was like laying on the ground working underneath the car and Iâd hold a bolt with one hand and tighten a nut with the other, it was really a struggle to hold my left arm up in the air by itself.
âThere are a lot of small things that add up quite a bit, like mentally. Small physical hindrances add up to affect you mentally. But thankfully my parents kind of gave me the mindset where nothing is going to hold me back, and they never tried to hold me back themselves. Having them as a great support system growing up has allowed me to figure out my own way of doing things, if that makes sense.â
He knows that he might not be looked at the same way as other drivers, and he even shared a story from last yearâs race at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park to back it up.
âAs far as nowadays, Iâm sure some of the garage looks at me differently, or thinks of me differently,â he said. âI know when I raced at Lucas Oil last year, some of the teams were calling the team owner and were like, âAlright, thereâs no way that kid was wheeling that with what he has. âŚÂ yâall are lying, thereâs somebody else in it.â
âBut I was still able to do it. After so many years of being behind the steering wheel Iâve kind of adapted and figured out what I need to do in certain situations to make it work for me.â
Because of how the injury affects what he can and canât do behind the wheel, Hacker spoke about the fact that NASCAR doesnât allow modifications to aid him in the car. While discussions have been had about changing that, he is fine doing it the same way everybody else is doing it.
âAs of now, NASCAR doesnât necessarily allow modifications,â he said. âThere have been talks and stuff of certain things that could help me physically without allowing a performance advantage, and honestly at the end of the day, I donât want an advantage, because I want everybody to know that when I make it, I made it on the same playing field that everybody else did.
âI donât want people to think that I kind of got anything handed to me. But there have been conversations between me, my agency, and the teams and stuff.â
There are little things that the teams can adjust, however, and those things can make a big difference for Hacker.
âWe are allowed to have certain adjustments to the seat on an angle, where itâs positioned, and same with the steering wheel,â he explained. âThe way I personally hold the steering wheel, I keep it close to me, and then instead of like 10 and 2, I do like 11 and 5, I guess you could say, so my right hand is on the bottom of the wheel so when I go into the corners I have more range of motion, stuff like that.
âBack in the day though, when my left arm was a lot weaker than what it is right now, and when my arm would fall off the steering wheel, in case like I got spun out or something, it was really difficult to kind of get it back onto the wheel.
âMy dad actually hooked up a window net from the inside door roll cage to my seat, and so when my arm did fall off, it was within an inch of the steering wheel, so it was a lot easier to kind of swing up and grab it. But no, as far as in NASCAR, everything is pretty much on a strict playing field between all the cars.â
Given the nature of the injury, Hackerâs strength is ovals, as there are strictly left turns. While he doesnât necessarily see his right arm strength as an advantage on those tracks, he is aiming to erase any disadvantage he might have on the road courses.
âItâs hard to compare between everybody else because my injury was at birth, so thatâs kind of the norm for me,â he said when asked about the use of his right arm to steer the car. âI wouldnât really say it gives me an advantage, but driving on ovals is definitely going to be a lot easier than road courses for me I feel like. So thatâs going to be something that weâre going to have to adapt to, obviously.
âI practice road courses all the time right now on sim racing, and I hate to toot my own horn, but Iâm pretty good! But right now I use the paddle shifters on the sim, so I have to start practicing using the H-pattern.â
He does admit that there are inherent challenges that even come along with oval racing, just based on the nature of the injury.
âSo far, the only problem weâve run into in NASCAR really is shifting on restarts and stuff, especially if the front straightaways are curved,â he stated. âItâs hard to position the wheel correctly to ride the curve when I take my right hand off the wheel. When theyâre straight, I can kind of pinch my elbow onto my rib cage and just use my own body as leverage to keep my arm straight and still to hold the wheel when I shift.
âBut yeah, I wouldnât necessarily say it gives me an advantage on the oval part, but weâre going to have to play around with the road courses here soon hopefully.â
Despite the fact that the injury isnât all that well-known, Hacker has had the chance to speak to another athlete who suffers from the same condition, one who is also involved in motor racing.
âThere is a dirt bike racer, her name is Kiana Clay, and her injury was actually caused by an accident, but she has brachial plexus injury as well,â he said. âI have had one interaction with somebody else who does professional sports, and it happened to be motorsports, so that was pretty cool to kind of make that connection between us two as far as our injuries and also the industry that we work in.â
Hackerâs 2023 schedule consists of the season opener at Daytona International Speedway this Friday night, the March race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the June race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, the August race at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, and the September race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
He is most looking forward to the two superspeedway races.
âDefinitely Daytona,â he said without hesitation. âDaytona is going to be actually really sick. It hasnât fully hit me yet, but just to be able to tell myself that Iâm about to be going like 200 miles per hour, the eight-year-old inside me is jumping all over while Iâm still trying to play it cool as a 23-year-old. But the eight-year-old inside me is screaming right now.
âDaytona is definitely going to be a big one, and Atlanta is also fun. Atlanta is a mile-and-a-half, but weâre full throttle and thereâs a lot of drafting. Itâs just like a smaller Daytona. Honestly, any time Iâm in the seat, whether Iâm testing or racing, Iâm having the time of my life. Itâs a whole new world when youâre behind the wheel. Any race weâre doing this year Iâm looking forward to.â
While Hacker is happy to be competing in the Truck Series, he is striving for more. He would like to land a full-time ride at some point, and his long-term goal is to be winning NASCAR Cup Series races and competing for championships. But he knows that wonât happen overnight.
âThe goal obviously, as a driver myself, I want to be winning races on Sunday,â he said. âItâs going to take a lot of steps, a lot of preparation, and a lot of time to get there. I wouldnât say Iâm content with where Iâm at now â I do want to be full-time competing for a championship. But Iâm content with the process that it takes to get there.
âIâve been able to understand that itâs not something that happens overnight. Youâve got to find great partners like Morgan & Morgan, who are willing to do their part and get me to the track. Now it is my job to perform and show them that I have what it takes so we can be big someday.â
The 2023 NASCAR Truck Series season opener, the NextEra Energy 250, is scheduled to take place this Friday, February 17. It is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and donât miss it!