Gifts for NASCAR Fans
Armani Williams’ racing journey started with Hot Wheels cars on the living room floor and has taken the native of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, all the way to a handful of starts in NASCAR’s upper divisions.
Despite being diagnosed with autism at age 2, Williams parlayed a passion for cars into a racing career. He started in go-karts when he was 8 and advanced through Bandoleros and other grassroots divisions before making limited starts in the ARCA Menards Series, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
He is one of two autistic drivers currently active in NASCAR’s national series, along with Cody Ware.
What got you interested in NASCAR?
I remember this one time where it was either for my birthday or Christmas that I got a die-cast car, which happened to resemble a NASCAR stock car. That’s when I started discovering and learning about NASCAR. … So I wanted to try and check it out more, and one time I decided that I’m going to try and watch a NASCAR race on TV one weekend, and as soon as the race was all over, my interest just blew me away. It went from me loving cars to now I started loving racing.
What are some challenges you’ve faced as an athlete on the autism spectrum?
There can be some uncertainty when it comes to autism, right? Because not a lot of people know exactly what autism is and what people with autism go through on a daily basis. I’ve had to overcome challenges with communication, understanding social situations and sensory environments, like the loud and crowded environments, things we’re uncomfortable with as kids.
How have you overcome those challenges?
I’ve been very thankful to have a great support system where my family has believed in me and has been able to help me in every way they can. Along with them, just finding the right people who have helped lift me up to where I had the tools to overcome those challenges, and a little bit of initiative on my own. Understanding that I needed to try and overcome those challenges, and now to this day, they don’t bother me anymore.
On what style of race tracks are you most comfortable?
Obviously, you like to run all styles of race tracks, whether that’s superspeedways, intermediates, short tracks or road courses. You want to like all of them. But, if I had to pick a favorite, I would say it’s probably the intermediates, because for me, I just have that need for speed. I just love to go fast all the time. And I think with the intermediates, you get that, because you have the opportunity to run 180, 190, sometimes even 200 mph, pretty much almost every single lap, and I just love to live on that edge.
