In today's episode, I have the pleasure of inviting Jesse Iwuji. Jesse, at a young age, Dallas, Texas native, and Nigerian-American, he was interested and driven in the sporting world. Being a Texan, football naturally took its course in his life during high school, where he played at Hebron High in Carrollton, TX. Through hard work and perseverance, he landed a full-ride scholarship to one of the nation's top universities, the US Naval Academy. There he played NCAA Division 1-A college football four years, graduated with a Bachelors of Science, and was commissioned as a Surface Warfare Officer in the US Navy.
He is still an officer. He has been on two Arabian Gulf deployments totaling out to 15 months of deployment time on two different Naval Warships. Outside of the Navy, Jesse has always had a passion for Motorsports. In 2015 Jesse made history by becoming the first US Naval Officer and Naval Academy graduate to compete in NASCAR. 2015 was Jesse's first official stock car racing season and began it in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series at Irwindale Speedway. He transitioned toward the end of 2015 into the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West from late-model stock cars. Jesse competed in the 2016 season with Patriot Motorsports Group; he finished Top 10 in the overall points, standing as a Rookie. Upon season-ending, he won the 2016 NASCAR Diverse Driver Award given to a driver in NASCAR's top developmental series who has done most for sports diversity. With more competition and competitors in the series in 2017, Jesse competed in the entire NASCAR K&N Pro Series West season with Patriot Motorsports Group and finished Top 15 in points for his sophomore season in his NASCAR career.
In May of 2017, Jesse transitioned from active duty service to the Naval reserves. At the end of 2017, Jesse became a 2-time winner of the NASCAR Diverse Driver award. 2018 marked the beginning of Jesse's move to larger tracks where he could get NASCAR Cup Series type track experience when he began racing the 1.5-2.66 mile Speedways & Super Speedways in the ARCA Series.
Jesse finished 13th in points in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West for 2018. On Aug 26th, 2018, Jesse made history again by being the first current serving member of the US Navy to debut in the NASCAR Truck Series where he had a Top 25 finish and, moving into 2019, had multiple Top 20 finishes even on a smaller underfunded team competing against much higher budget teams.
Jesse recently made his debut in the 2nd highest tier of NASCAR, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and looks to continue the journey eventually into the NASCAR Cup Series. Outside of racing & the Navy, Jesse has also starred in various TV & Online shows distributed nationally, owns his own drag racing events company called The Red List Group, and holds a trucking business called JBJE Transportation.
The Podcast is available on the following locations: