Brad Perez is hunting for “80-percenter” opportunities to get ahead in racing

A few years ago, Brad Perez was valeting cars. Now, he drives in NASCAR.

Perez, 27, calls himself a “working-class racer” because he’s built a different, wildly interesting version of a race career — one that takes a special kind of hustle. When he’s not running a race in the Xfinity Series with Alpha Prime, he spends much of his time supporting other drivers in NASCAR’s top levels. When he’s not at one of those races, he’s a driving instructor for organizations like the BMW Performance Center and Ford Performance Driving School. And he’s making up for lost time. 

Perez began racing go-karts at 17, whereas most top-level NASCAR drivers started at a decade sooner. As he explains in his episode of “Behind the Visor,” Perez just needs to remind himself that when he’s racing against drivers who have hundreds more starts than him, he very much deserves to be there. 

Watch NASCAR Xfinity on The CW, starting September 20th

“I try to not get super wound up in the whole chase of, like, ‘I’m behind on what I could have possibly learned.’ …At the end of the day, you’re in a car, they’re in a car, and you’re racing on track.”

And while he’s there, he’s doing math.

“I’ve tried to pride myself on [being] somebody who tries to take what we like to call ‘80-percenters,’” Perez told Motorsport.com. “You approach a situation during a race, and you’re like: ‘If there’s an 80-percent chance that this will be a successful move, I will do it. If it’s anything below that, I might rethink it.’ 

“At the higher levels—once you get to the top-10, top-5, winning range—you’re going to have to take those 50-50 shots. Very rarely have I been able to take those 50-50 shots, and I think that’s what definitely separates the top of the field from the bottom of the field.“

Perez’s next race is in the Xfinity Series at Kansas Speedway on September 28th with Alpha Prime. It’ll be yet more proof of how far he’s come. 

“Your boy was valeting cars two years ago, and here I am doing an interview for Motorsport.com with Alanis King.”

Watch the full interview above or on the Motorsport.com YouTube channel.