Photo Credit: Gavin Baker Photography

It’s 2016, and under a dimming sunset at Homestead-Miami Speedway, a 7-year-old Max Garcia watches the NASCAR Cup Series finale from the stands.

On a restart with 10 laps remaining, Carl Edwards moved to the inside on a restart to try to block a charging Joey Logano from making an pass. The two collided, and Edwards was out of the race and title contention.

There, Garcia learned an important lesson. Patience wins championships.

“In a race, you can have a fast car or you could have a slow car,” Garcia said. “It’s really just how you prepare yourself mentally for what happens.”

Eight years on, Garcia is applying those lessons in a championship of his own.

In his second USF2000 season, he leads the standings by 16 points over Evagoras Papasavvas through five races. Garcia has built that gap through five consecutive top-five finishes and three consecutive wins to start the season. He has started first or won every race this season.

Garcia drives for Pabst Racing. Pabst won the USF2000 title with Simon Sikes last year, a driver Garcia learned from racing as teammates. Garcia observed that even on days Sikes had issues with his car, he still found ways to finish near the front to prevent massive point swings.

Applying the lessons of patience he learned watching NASCAR at Homestead, a track his father Al is the president of, Garcia said managing risks and staying consistent are important to win the title. A race just last week demonstrated that perfectly.

“The (first) race at NOLA (Motorsports Park), I actually didn’t plan to go to the lead,” Garcia said. “I was honestly just happy there to run in third or pick up a couple more spots at the end of the race, but the opportunity presented itself and I took it.”

That opportunity came on the opening lap. Coming off of a two-race sweep to open the season on the Streets of St. Petersburg, Garcia started the first race at Louisiana’s NOLA Motorsports Park in fifth.

Garcia said his launch on the rolling start wasn’t great. He fell back at first, but then made a move to jump quickly into the outside line. The move wasn’t as reactionary as it was strategic.

In February USF2000 preseason testing was at NOLA. His Pabst team noticed a bump in turn 1 that slowed cars down that took the inside line heading in. Garcia wanted to avoid that.

By positioning his car on the outside, he had momentum and now an inside line in turns 2 and 3, giving him third place by the time he was out of turn 4. He had both Sam Corry and Joey Brienza in his sights down the backstretch, where Garcia noticed Corry was attempting an ambitious dive to the inside. Garcia saw the writing on the wall and moved to the outside.

Strategy. Patience. Anticipation.

Corry dived and Brienza had to check up, opening the door for Garcia to take the lead by the end of the first lap. He didn’t give it up.

“You just can’t get crashed,” Garcia said. “You gotta know who you are racing around.”

Garcia developed his racecraft long before he was open-wheel racing. He did that on the close confines of the karting track.

In Las Vegas, the annual SuperKarts! USA SuperNationals attracts the nation’s top karters to compete at what is widely considered the nation’s most prestigious karting championship. Despite the Vegas glamour, Garcia has experienced consistent success. In both 2021 and 2022, he finished in the top-3 of the X30 Junior class.

There, he battled in groups as large as eight karts, separated by as little as one second. 

“In karting, I had to be aware of a perfect balance between attacking and defending,” Garcia said. “Especially in the last three laps of the race in those bigger packs.”

Garcia pointed out how the close-quarters karting helps him to this day on restarts in USF2000. Garcia remembers vividly dueling with opponents as he used the entire karting track to find a way past, often inches away from the plastic barrier.

Pushing that close to a wall is something Garcia felt during the opening weekend of the USF2000 season at St. Pete. He was constantly in a dance between the perfect racing line and a concrete barrier.

“We just knew we had to protect the car in practice,” Garcia said. “We didn’t care where we were, it was just kind of figuring out how the car feels and seeing what we needed to change.”

Despite the timid nature, Garcia went fastest.

The pressure was on in other ways too. With St. Petersburg less than four hours from Garcia’s home city of Miami, a legion of aunts, uncles, cousins and other extended family showed up to support. 

The success continued into qualifying as Garcia landed on pole. As the IndyCar Series went on track after the session for their practice, Garcia had a debrief session with his Pabst Racing team. One that was two-and-a-half hours.

When speaking about Pabst Racing, Garcia praised first and foremost the professionalism of the team. He believes the way Pabst operates reminds him of IndyCar teams he has seen with all the data, analysis and care that goes into each race weekend. 

Sometimes, that materializes in long debrief sessions such where they go over adjustments before the green flag drops.

“It does feel like a while, but at the end of the day, it’s benefiting us,” Garcia said. “It’s always an evolving track, even when not on a street course, so we sit down for a long time.”

A lot of 15-year-olds might want to jump out of their seats in discomfort at a 150-minute meeting about anything, but Garcia values his maturity. He’s cultivated it. 

However, there’s also times when he wants to be a 15-year-old. He makes it work. Unlike many USF2000 drivers, Garcia attends in-person school at Miami’s Christopher Columbus High School. When he’s at home, he feels comfortable. 

“It’s really important for me because I can come home and be 15 again,” Garcia said. “And people are like, ‘What do you mean, you’re always 15?’ Well, at the track, I need to act more 21 or 22. (At home), I can act my age and have fun all the time.”

Acting mature and taking in advice from his team during the meeting, Garcia started on pole in both races. He fell behind, but once again, the Floridian used patience to retake the lead in both to win. 

Making decisions well beyond his years, Max Garcia stood alongside his family supporters in his home state as a victor.

Max Garcia and the rest of the USF2000 series will race next at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 9-11.