A monster platform

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, March 3rd. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: your dream job.

Last year a career website polled 2,000 Americans: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Not surprisingly, “professional athlete” grabbed the number one spot for men. For women? Teacher.

The poll found that sixty percent of people end up doing something very different from what they’d dreamed as a young person. Some find that very discouraging.

BROWN: But not everyone does! WORLD correspondent Whitney Williams recently caught up with someone who dreamed of being a professional drag racer —but his current line of work makes him feel more like a crash test dummy. And he gives God all of the glory for it.

AUDIO: [TOP FUEL DRAGSTER]

WHITNEY WILLIAMS, CORRESPONDENT: North Carolina native Bryce Kenny grew up in the fast lane. His late grandfather “Doc” Sipple was a chiropractor with a need for speed who spent several years traveling around the country competing in his Top Fuel dragster—you know, the long, skinny cars with the huge wing on the back? Sipple later went on to own and operate an IHRA drag strip. Kenny often traveled with his grandpa to the races. Found himself addicted to the fans—and the fumes—he worked on the crew in his teen years, lived the life, and loved it …

KENNY: And I said, I'm going to do that, because I wanted to do something that was unique and different. It looked like a fun career. But also the platform was huge.

Kenny remembers the first time he went 300 miles per hour in the Top Fuel. Grandpa was waiting at the end of the strip. He stuck his head down into the cockpit with Kenny, stuck his finger in his grandson’s chest, and with tears of pride in his eyes told him, "I am SO proud of you."

At 21, Kenny fought hard to stay in the driver’s seat, but he had a hard time finding a sponsor. The country was climbing out of a recession and not many companies were wanting to fork over a $3 million sponsorship. Kenny worked seven jobs just to fund the pursuit. After two years in survival mode, his professional drag racing dream stalled out. Kenny told his grandpa to sell the dragster and he wept after his final race.

KENNY: You know, I always like to always go back and say like, I failed at that dream. But I wasn't meant to have a platform in that maybe I will down the road. But God has always shifted my plans …

At that point, Kenny traded in his racing suit for a coat and tie and headed into the corporate world. It seemed like a downward shift, at first. But he started to love his job as an executive recruiter. And either way, Grandpa was proud.

But then Monster Jam called and invited the dragster-turned-business-man out for a test drive. Kenny had never even seen a show.

KENNY: So they said, “Well, we should probably have you go do that first”

What Kenny saw was an entirely new ballgame—wrong sports analogy, but let’s just say this: If you go backflipping through the air in a Top Fuel car, it’s a very bad day for you. At Monster Jam, flipping your truck is just another day at the office.

KENNY: You never forget the first time you see a Monster Jam truck jump in the air …

Kenny felt his heart rev. Maybe this was what God had for him…

KENNY: And so I didn't hear back though, from Monster Jam, and I thought that it was just kind of something, okay, it wasn't right.

So Kenny started settling into a life outside motorsports. He married his high school sweetheart. They had their first child. Life was good. Comfortable.

Four years into that comfortable life, Monster Jam called him back. At first Kenny competed in the shows more as a hobby. But then the company offered him the opportunity to go full-time. He felt torn...

KENNY: I had a mentor a long time ago say hey, you know, don't, never let something good keep you from something great. And, and I struggled with that because all of a sudden, it was an opportunity to do this full time and I was gonna have to leave my corporate job. And I went back and remembered that Godly counsel. And I thought man, if I stayed where I'm at, it's a safer world, it’s a safer way. [But] God never called us to safety.

Kenny felt God calling him to step out in faith.

KENNY: And so that's what I did. And to watch what he's opened up in the last six years, you know, I love it because somebody will come up to me and say, “you're a Christian, aren't you?”

Kenny was outspoken about his faith during his Top Fuel days. He’d even started a ministry. But to have this much reach?

Stadiums filled with 45,000 people or more. Thousands of those fans flocking to Kenny and his truck—The Great Clips Mohawk Warrior—at pre-show pit parties. Childrens’ hospitals inviting the mohawked monster truck driver to bring light into a family’s darkest moment …

KENNY: It's amazing to me the number of opportunities God has given me to share my faith in a way that I couldn't have created on my own.

But even when he’s not sharing his faith—whether he’s attempting a nose wheelie, flying three stories high, or breaking a world record—the dad of three knows God is with him and for him.

KENNY: A handful of years ago, there was this moment I had of sitting up in the truck. And I—truly—I looked up in the stands, there's four empty chairs, and I truly felt God say to me, “We're here, go have fun.”

Back at the pre-show pit party, Kenny speaks of “entertaining angels” as he works to show honor to each and every excited fan lined up to see him. God’s there in that line of fans. Kenny’s sure of it.

KENNY: I think he enjoys being part of the story because he gave us the talents and he opens the doors. And I think he just gets such a kick out of watching us move in faith.

Kenny believes Grandpa’s getting a kick out of it all, too, and he feels that proud finger in his chest after every successful run.

MONSTER JAM ANNOUNCER: “Let’s hear it for Bryce Kenny in Great Clips Mohawk Warrior!”

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Whitney Williams in Arlington, Texas.

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