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Being a racer is a grueling lifestyle and it consumes your entire life.
There is no such thing as a "9 to 5" job as a racer. You live it. You are always traveling and you are
usually working on all holidays except Thanksgiving and Christmas. There can be times when
you are not home for a month or two months at a time and sometimes even longer.

It can be less time consuming when you are at the lower junior formulas, but it is still quite
a different lifestyle than most of the people you grew up with. You do not get to spend as
much time with family and friends and they can have a hard time understanding the
lifestyle, because it is so unlike anything else that they have come across.

This is definitely a sport that you have to love because you can put in so much hard
work and spend so much time preparing and have everything right, to then have
something random take you out of a race. This can be very tough and I think that
the passion for what you do is one of the few things that can get you through
something like this.

For a long period of time, you may not make much money, if any at all, and there is no guarantee that you will ever make money.
This can be very hard to accept since you need money to live your life and support your racing career. One of the Top 5 most stressful jobs in the country is being an IndyCar driver. It is not just the fact that you are playing with concrete walls at 200mph that makes it this way.

There are a lot of responsibilities involved. You have to keep fit and treat your mechanics and engineers well. You have to talk to the media and fans, as well as take care of sponsors and do "meet and greets". You cannot miss a test because you are on vacation or want to do something else.
Uncle John is having a BBQ? So what!
Why would you go to a BBQ instead of driving a racecar anyway?

With all of that being said, it is so much fun to be a part of the racing world.

You always get to travel to really cool places. You get to see a
whole lot of the country that you would not usually have the
opportunity to see.You are always meeting interesting people
from different cultures and countries.

It can be very rewarding as well. Achieving victory, after all of the
hard work that you have put into something, is very gratifying and
a lot of the times this is what keeps people going in racing,
especially mechanics.

In the end, IF you make it to the top, then the lifestyle is awesome.
Like I said: the glamour, the women, the money and the spotlight!

And even then, this brings more stress and more responsibilities.
I suppose the most rewarding thing for me is the fact that I have the opportunity to do what I love, do it well and live my dream.

The rest of it is a bonus, or penalty, depending on how you look at things.

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