A.J. Young

"He's always boasting of how one day he's going to be such a great driver. Let's face it: him not being at risk of killing someone every week would be a big step forward."

- Lucas Sweeney on A.J. Young

Alexander Jonathon Young (born March 13, 1975 in Covington, Kentucky, better known as A.J. Young) is an American race car driver currently competing in the FARC Larry Lemon Super Series for his self-owned AJY Racing team. He previously competed in the FARC Lowe Dollar Series, where he was once regarded by many as one of the worst race car drivers in the nation.

Early Career
Young's late father Elden Young was the founder of EY Wheelbarrows, the largest manufacturer of wheelbarrows in North America. Elden passed away in 2000, leaving the company to A.J.'s older brother Geoffrey, but A.J. received a significant inheritance as well. A.J. used his inheritance to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a racing driver, and was hired by Michael White to drive his second car at the beginning of the 2001 ARLA season.

This proved to be disastrous, as Young had drawn several complaints for his erratic driving and tendency to ignore accidents in front of him. According to Chris Johannes, in the fives races he ran, he managed to cause thirty-two incidents with Johannes in particular being involved "about fifteen of those". White, reportedly under pressure from series officials, booted Young after just five races much to the relief of everyone in the paddock. For the next eight years, he terrorized various kart and midget racing organizations.

Return to ARLA: 2008-2012
Young never found another ride in stock car racing until 2008, where he unsuccessfully attempted to qualify for the ARLA season finale at Daytona. In 2009, he raced in the ARLA Thunder Trucks and infamously sailed over the inside retaining wall in | a massive pileup at the Salem Speedway.

Young, remaining in ARLA, moved from the Trucks to the Street Stocks for 2010, where he continued his crash-prone ways.

In 2011, now receiving formal backing from EY Wheelbarrows, Young finally made another attempt to secure an ARLA Elite Series ride. He found one with struggling team owner John Burr, who was more than happy to accept Young's cash despite his history. With the EY sponsorship, Team Burr could afford to run full races after start-and-parking in 2010.

Young's first race was the Rookie Shootout, as he was still technically eligible for the Rookie of the Year award because he did not compete in enough races in 2001 to lose that eligibility. Unsurprisingly, he got caught up in an accident during the Shootout and dropped out. However, he later dodged a wreck in the season-opening Fort Worth 500, surprising his critics.

For the rest of the year, Young ran well off the pace, but didn't crash nearly as often as he had in the past. However, in 2012, Young undid all of his improvements by crashing often.

Due to practice and qualifying being rained out at the 2012 Sarabai 300, he obtained his first career pole when the starting lineup was determined by the random draw that sets the qualifying order. However, because qualifying was not actually run, he did not receive the bonus points that go with the pole. He dropped to the back of the field before he even completed lap 1.

In the Spotlight: 2013-15
For 2013, he was surprisingly hired to drive for M&J Racing. The team would not state why they hired Young, although his sponsorship money was suspected to be a reason. M&J had just experienced a very expensive 2012 season, which was plagued with numerous crashes and mechanical failures. While Young was off the pace of his teammates, Leslie Riggs, Taylor Brillon, and Kevin Monroe, he largely stayed out of harm's way and his superior equipment improved his results. Young scored his first ARLA top ten in his 50/50 Sprint race at Karl's Superstore of Riverside, finishing 9th of the 19th starters.

Young returned to M&J in 2014, and at Riverside he again took advantage of the small fields and finished a career-best 5th in his Sprint race. However, Young immediately undid this accomplishment by crashing his car in hot laps, leaving him unable to start the Feature.

AJ departed M&J at the end of the season and joined another top FARC team, Pearson-Sweeney Motorsports, bringing the EY sponsorship with him. He only managed to qualify for 9 races, but did score another top 10 at the New York Autoring.

Team Ownership: 2016-present
In 2016, Young decided to take a big step with his racing career by operating his own team full-time in the Smash Beer/Lowe Dollar Series. While EY Wheelbarrows would no longer sponsor his #26 entry, Young's team made it to every race; AJ stepped back to competing in five races, with Kirby Krieger, Keegan Mallory, and Michael Day rounding out the schedule. When surprise Road America winner Tristan Kristoph was unable to secure a full-time ride for the FARC-Off, Young gave him a ride in the first race of the playoffs at Loudon.

For 2017 Young secured new sponsorship from Romeo's Alternators, but elected to scale back to running half the season nonetheless. Kristoph returned to the team for all of their attempts, but the veteran was unable to find more success to back up his upset victory.

Young would step back into the driver's seat and move the team to the Larry Lemon Super Series in 2018. At Berlin Raceway, he would finally achieve his greatest triumph, as a full starting lineup inversion allowed him to run in the top 10 throughout the accident-filled race, and Hamilton Porteau suffered an engine failure on the last lap, allowing Young to take his first FARC victory in shocking fashion.

TM Master Cup
Midway through the 2011 racing season, Young wished to compete in the TM Master Cup Series, so he brought some funding over to Scuderia Tutino in time for the race at Road America. However, Young repeatedly complained of his car being skittish under acceleration, and was a very dangerous obstacle for the leaders. His infinitely more capable teammate, Canadian Tyson Lautenschlager, did not have the same problems -- and even managed to score Tutino's first point in the same race.

Young then had his Master License revoked during practice at Quincy after he caused two separate accidents and got into an altercation with Tyrone Stanley. Young later remarked; "The officials won't give you a damn chance to adjust to these cars. I'm trying to learn how to drive these things, and I guess they already decided I'm a friggin' monster. They are the biggest bunch of elitists I've ever seen. They expect you to be flying right off the bat, but that's not how real life works".

Tyrone Stanley was, unsurprisingly, not very apologetic to Young and his lack of experience, only saying; "When you reach the top, there are no excuses for failure."

Young's crew chief remarked that they made the car "tighter than the President's security" so that Young wouldn't spin out at any point during the race. For the most part, the TM Master Cup Series drivers concurred with Stanley's point of view. Stuart Sandoval was hired by Tutino to run in Young's place at the last minute and despite having no practice, ran a steady race.

Personal Life
Young shrugs off the boos that he receives, particularly during his Team Burr days, often suggesting that his detractors are jealous that he has a ride, and they don't. He befriended his former Team Burr teammate Derek Dudding, citing their large number of critics as the major thing that they have in common.

Young is regarded as pompous and delusional by his fellow competitors.