Fueled by a competitive spirit, Kayla Surles wants more after her 'breakout season' at Dominion Raceway

Growing up, Kayla Surles was always the type of athlete who wanted to prove her abilities on the field.

A swimmer, track runner and lacrosse player through middle and high school, Surles and her brother would go head-to-head in lacrosse, challenging the other to see who could score the most goals and do the most trick shots.

“We just wanted to prove that we are as good as other people say we are, we are as good as we say we are,” Surles said recently.

So, when the opportunity to potentially test an ARCA Menards Series car at Daytona International Speedway came about, Surles didn‘t want to just be handed the ride. She wanted to prove she deserved it.

Surles, a 21-year-old from Fredericksburg, Virginia, works at Bugsy‘s Repair, which is owned by Willie and Dinah Mullins. The Mullins’ also own an ARCA team, Mullins Racing, and were looking for a driver for the annual pre-race practice at Daytona.

“When Willie and Dinah were trying to decide if they wanted to put me in the first test, I told them, ‘Don‘t put me in because of just me helping work on your cars. I want to be able to earn that,‘” she said. “So I had the breakout season and they were like, ‘Well, you earned it.‘”

Surles more than earned the chance thanks to her season last year at Dominion Raceway, a NASCAR-sanctioned 4/10-mile asphalt oval track in Thornburg, Virginia. She finished the 2022 season with six victories and was second in the track‘s Modified division standings.

It‘s no surprise Surles has found success behind the wheel, given her competitive nature. Ten years ago, she and her dad went to watch one of her friends race, and she instantly wanted to give the sport a try.

“I‘m a super competitive kid and my friend started racing, and my dad said, ‘We‘re going to go watch them race,‘” she said. “And I wanted to beat my friends.

“My dad knew what he was getting into when he went to the race. He was prepared.”

Surles started racing in a dirt go-kart, and made the move to Modifieds about four years ago.

“One of my dad‘s buddies bought an asphalt Modified and said, ‘You know what? Let‘s put Kayla in it,‘” she said. “That‘s just sort of where the door opened up and that‘s where we had people built up around us supporting the Modified, and it‘s kind of where we‘ve been put now.”

Surles races Modifieds for Ferry Farm Racing, a four-car team that also includes her younger brother, P.J., who drives a Bandolero.

She‘s enjoyed helping be a coach to her brother and other young racers, both on her team and at Dominion.

“There‘s a little girl named Addy at the race track. She calls me her mentor because about the time she started racing Bandoleros is about the time we were trying to get my brother in a Bandolero,” Surles said. “At first I just kind of took her underneath my wing because she got on the track first and we got her up to speed really quick. Now it‘s time to focus on P.J. and all that.

“Racing is all about trying to get new fans in the stands, trying to get young drivers back in it, and it‘s a huge family aspect of it,” she said.

She‘s perfecting the Modified, but Surles wants to be the type of driver who can race anything. She‘s learning from her driver coach Davey Callihan, a former Modified and Limited Late Model driver who now competes in Dominion‘s Late Model Stock Car division.

Getting more confident at the track and better at qualifying had a lot to do with Surles‘ breakout season.

“I used to not be able to qualify at all,” she said. “So I definitely learned how to qualify, so we‘ll be taking that into next season.

“Just kind of, like, being able to weave through the traffic a little bit quicker is what I learned last year because I used to be too patient or too antsy, and it would cause problems. But I definitely got that down last year, the perfect go-time and how to be patient, so I‘m looking forward to taking that into this season.”

Being an all-around racer is why Surles is adding Limited Late Models to her slate this summer at Dominion, and why she was so excited to get a chance to get on the track at Daytona.

Testing at Daytona was “awesome,” she said, especially because she spent a short time living about 20 minutes north of the track when she was younger.

The day did have a scary moment, though.

“I had a bit of a scare when drafting because someone accidentally hit the kill switch,” she said.

“I don‘t know how fast I was going, but it was going to be a heck of a lap. It was the most RPMs we had really seen from that car all day because I had a huge run coming down the backstretch, so I was still able to put up a 50 second lap time with me having to slam on the brakes and avoid disaster.

“I saw my boss‘s face flash before my eyes,” she added. “I was like, ‘Oh no!‘”

Surles will open her Modified season this weekend at Dominion.

She plans to run for the full season and go for a Modified championship at Dominion while also competing in the track‘s Limited Late Model division part-time.

Surles will also compete in the Busch Light and Women in Motorsports North America racing program that provides contingency funds for women who accumulate points throughout the 2023 season.

Coming off of her season last year, Surles is feeling confident that she can hopefully expand on her success and go for track championship.

Racing returns to Dominion Raceway this Saturday night at 7 p.m. ET.