SPORTS: ONE ON ONE WITH MATT TIFFT

BY CASEY CHARLES

MATT TIFFT: ONE OF NASCAR’S MOST DRIVEN ATHLETES

It isn’t every day that you’re able to sit down with a remarkable athlete from your state and have a conversation with him/her. This month, I had the honor of sitting down with Highland alum, Matt Tifft. Tifft grew up in Hinckley, where he started racing at a young age. By the time he was able to vote, he was a rising star in NASCAR racing. He moved up the ranks of the sport, racing for one of the most famous team owners in history, Joe Gibbs. At 20 years old, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and in June of 2016, had life-saving surgery to remove it. Soon after recovery he was racing again in the Xfinity Series, competing for wins on a weekly basis. In 2019, he was promoted to the Cup Series, where he would race against the top drivers from around the world. Following a seizure before one of the final races of his rookie season, he was sidelined from the sport in 2020. Now, at 24, he’s making a name for himself in the sport once again, as this February, he becomes the youngest Cup Series owner in NASCAR history. Tifft is a force in the NASCAR scene.

Looking at most professional drivers today, many started racing at a fairly young age. “My first go-kart I raced, I was eleven years old. That was over at the Barberton Speedway not too far from Hinckley and North Royalton there,” said Tifft when talking about his first years racing. Racing took up a majority of Tifft’s time as he continued climbing through the ranks. He attended Highland High School, although racing created obstacles in his schedule practically every weekend.

“To be honest, in high school I was mainly racing on the weekends. I felt like if I wasn’t racing, I was doing homework or catching up on homework,” described Tifft. “It was hard for me to do too much extracurricular stuff, but at the same time, I was also really diligent about grades and trying to get into a good school.”

Although Tifft found his drive at a young age, he recognizes that not everyone has found their passion. “You may not know what you’re passionate about in high school. It’s okay not to know. It’s okay to know completely what you know, but then you get to college and you know nothing. It’s very, very normal.” He also recognized that we only have four years of our life to live high school. “If I could go back and relive high school years, I would just try to enjoy the time. I think it’s just trying to enjoy everything, even if it’s not the greatest situations, just making the best out of it.”

But now, several years out from his beginnings just down the road from North Royalton High School, Tifft is able to reflect upon his rookie season at only 18 years old. “You kind of realize how, I guess it’s like high school football, or basketball, or baseball, whatever, you might be the best one that sticks out of everybody. Then you go from the Truck to the Xfinity Series and then you find out, these guys are really good. Then you might get really good.” After the Truck series, Tifft drove multiple years in the Xfinity Series, driving for legends like Richard Childress and NFL Hall of Fame Redskins Coach, Joe Gibbs.

Tifft admits there were challenges in the Cup Series, the highest-level racing series in NASCAR. “The Cup Series was just another level, because these guys have also done all these good things for fifteen years. Coming in as a rookie was so challenging because they are really so great at what they do, that everything you try to do well at, they’ve been doing for decades.”

Every driver has a preference on what tracks they like to race at, whether it’s purely due to results, the scenery around the track, or the history that is entrenched in the race. “My all-time favorite was Road America, partly because I did very well there, but also it’s just such a cool track. I think my average Xfinity Series finish there was 2.5, so just a track that naturally fit well for me, and it’s just beautiful up there too.” Other tracks where Tifft experienced repeated success during his racing career include Richmond, Phoenix, and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, located just over an hour away in Mansfield.

Now a Cup Series owner, Matt Tifft is making history in a different way. This month marked the beginning of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, where new teams led by Michael Jordan, Matt Tifft, and Pitbull will make their first ever appearances on track. But even before any car makes a lap around Daytona, Tifft is already breaking records, becoming the youngest Cup Series owner in NASCAR history at 24 years old. “Being the youngest owner, obviously I’m inexperienced, but my partner, B.J. McLeod, he is experienced in it. So it’s not like I’m going into it blind,” Tifft added. “This was a pipe dream less than a year ago, and here we are today.” He also took the time to mention the recent sponsorship deals he made for the team’s first ever race. “Coming out like we announced the other day, having Xbox and NASCAR Heat 5 and Motorsport Games, having a company that really resonates with their younger crowd is a cool thing too, because we are the youngest owners in NASCAR.”

Tifft’s journey hasn’t always been easy, as he battled with his health, having to deal with a brain tumor and multiple seizures in his fairly short lifetime. “You know, recently I came out and said I was diagnosed with epilepsy, which was actually diagnosed in January of 2020,” explained Tifft. “I think the biggest thing from the brain tumor side was that I was able to get so much outreach and pouring of support when I had the surgery. It really made me realize that mine wasn’t so bad.”

He went on to talk about the epilepsy he has experienced. “The epilepsy thing has been way harder, because it’s a silent disease. It’s a feeling that comes on, but I can’t tell when it comes on. I haven’t been able to drive a street car since 2019.” For Matt, one of the hardest parts about managing the disease was accepting the limitations that it brought. “I didn’t talk about it for a long time. I wasn’t comfortable in my own mind to accept it. I finally accepted it myself and had learned that this is what I’m going to have to deal with, and maybe someday it goes away, maybe my treatment makes it to where I can gain some independence back, but I needed to own up to it.”

It was truly incredible to listen to such a significant underdog story from an all-around great person, straight from Hinckley Township. The adversity that Matt Tifft has fought and continues to fight through should serve as a model to all of us. We have the potential to make history, conquer our fears, and withstand the obstacles that life may present. I can not thank Matt enough for the interview he gave me, and I wish him the best of luck throughout the entire NASCAR season.