Cumberland, Md. – There’s no denying that attending Frosty’s Hot Rod Show will treat you to as many varieties of hot rods as you can imagine. Walk up and down the rows and you’ll see just about anything imaginable. Walking down one row, where a few dirt track cars were parked, there was a different kind of sight. An obviously young man was immersed in the task of signing hero cards. It was time to meet Easton Dom and see what he was about.

Unlike a lot of folks his age, Easton was more anxious to share details of his car more than himself. “This is a UMP modified, It’s got an 850 horsepower 410 Ford Motor in it. It’s on a 12-inch wheels. The owner of it’s Ron Fink and I’m the driver.” This is when you sit up and take notice because Easton is all of 15 years old. He says he’s wanted to drive one of these cars “since I first started racing in 2019.” It makes him sound like a grizzled veteran of the sport when it’s said like that, and in truth, Easton carries himself much like a veteran and not some wide-eyed kid. He started out racing go karts and is still racing them this year in addition to the modified. He proudly stated that he’s won $4000 in racing the go kart this year, which is pretty impressive.

Obviously, young Easton doesn’t have a wealth of modified history behind him, and the previous night was actually the first time he had driven this car. It was with a balanced mixture of excitement, pride, and humility that he told just how he did in that race. “Last night was my first race. I went [from] eighth to third out of 10 cars. I was passing for second in the heat racing, we had a little malfunction, but we got it all fixed came out for the feature and drove through the field.”

It sounds like there’s some serious talent to Easton’s driving and he does have some goals in sight, goals which he seems to have the desire to reach. “I want to do modified late model. I want to hopefully, by like 18, get out to Lucas Oil, maybe even NASCAR, if it’s achievable.” As he shared more about his “little malfunction” as he called it, it becomes more apparent the sky may be the limit for this young man. “I came out of the corner on the last lap and then I lost all steering. The steering wheel was jiggling back and forth! I made it through the backstretch and through the corners and made it to the checkered without wrecking without [having] steering!” With a little mishap like that, I asked him if he ever got scared, and he gave yet another answer that’s a testimony to his ability as a driver. “[It’s] not necessarily being scared, but everything takes over, more the adrenaline, like, it’s hard to explain, but when you get in that seat just the feeling of driving it is just something you’ve never felt before.”

Of course, he did have some racing heroes and we touched on the possibility of his becoming someone’s hero himself. “I did like Scott Bloomquist and Kyle Busch.That’s like, when people compare me to other people, I’m like ‘I’m not, I’m not that one.’ I’m going to achieve my own iron goals.”

With Easton charging forward to success at such an early name, it was interesting to hear where it all started. “A few years ago, when I was like 4 or 5, I ran the power wheels and then my parents decided they were going to get me in it and ever since then it’s just taken off.”

One of racing’s more satisfying things is to see a young person carrying the sport forward, especially one as talented as Easton Dom. If you get a chance to see him do his thing, get out there and root him on to victory! When he becomes a huge star, you can say you saw him starting out.