Reba McEntire's 20-year-old son, Shelby Blackstock, has become a professional race car driver. Reba, who was in the pits at his recent race, blogs, "Shelby raced in his first professional race at Daytona International Speedway in the Grand Am Series with the Rousch Racing Team. Shelby was the first driver for his team and drove for one and a half hours. Shelby took the car from 25th place to 1st place at the end of his turn. Very impressive!"
Blackstock's team ended up in eighteenth place, and you can see the entire race on the Speed Channel on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 3PM ET. Reba gushes about her son, saying, "Watching Shelby on the track racing at 170MPH was the biggest rush I’ve ever had! Congrats to Shelby on his first professional race! We’re very proud and very thankful to God for keeping him safe."
Blackstock only started racing five months ago and now, less than a half a year into it, he's driven in one of racing's biggest events. "It's like a kid in a candy store," he tells the Daytona Beach News-Journal. "You get to drive the car you've been wanting to drive forever."
He attended the University of Arizona last year, but left to pursue racing, and has earned the nickname "Shelbilly" on the racing circuit because he's from Tennessee.
Does he have his parents blessing for his new profession? Blackstock says, "Little by little, I want to make this into a career. [My parents are] supportive and they understand this is what I want to do."
His mom steps in to say, "I'm very happy that he's racing because that's his passion. I'm from a rodeo family. The scare tactics and everything are very similar in rodeo. The adrenaline does flow very fast, but I'm used to that."
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