A descendant of Wisconsin stock car royalty, Josh Carlson is taking his own path in racing

ELKHART LAKE – Josh Carlson’s branch of the family tree took a twist from the others.

His grandfather on his mother’s side and great-uncles on his dad’s are Wisconsin short-track royalty. One uncle is a NASCAR crew chief.

The only path he’s known, though, has led the 19-year-old Carlson here, to 4-mile Road America and to the venerable Trans Am Series, where he is trying to make his way in motorsports.

“Karting was road course, then it’s like the opportunities came up to stay road course,” Carlson said Sunday before competing in the 100-mile Trans Am main event.

“I never really got a chance to try any short track. But I’d be open to any opportunity if it ever came up. I’ve just gotten really comfortable with this road course stuff and might have a chance to make a career out of it.”

One subtle clue to Carlson’s pedigree is the No. 36 behind the doors on his neon-and-black Ford Mustang.

It’s a number his grandfather Joe Shear carried to hundreds of victories racing around the likes of Dick Trickle, Jim Sauter and Butch Miller, before he died in 1998. From that same family, Joe Shear Jr., a champion crew chief with a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, is an uncle.

Then there are the Carlsons. Josh’s grandfather, Tim, is one of three stock car racing brothers from the La Crosse area, along with Steve, a many-time ARTGO/Midwest Tour champion, and Tom, who is still winning short-track races.

“We’re an oval track family,” said Nick Carlson, Josh’s dad, who admits he was a little surprised by the direction Josh moved in the sport, even if it made the most sense.

“He got started in go-karts, which is road course stuff and just progressed from there. That’s what he wanted to do was go left and right, so that’s just kind of what we continued with.”

The younger Carlson started in karts at age 8 and then moved into cars in SCCA club racing at 15.

“We did GT1 cars the first two years we did it before building a GT2 car instead,” he said. “We had some more success with that. Then we’re running our GT2 car in Trans Am in the SGT class as well.”

SGT is a small class that races with the main Trans Am race. Carlson moved into it parttime last year and then he, Nick and Tim committed to trying to run the series fulltime this year. They work under an awning alongside a small trailer that seems a throwback to short track pits of a couple of generations earlier.

“It’s been difficult,” said Carlson, who fell out of the race early Sunday. Entering the day he had finished third in the four races he’s run among four or five cars running in the class.

“Starting with a lower budget than a lot of the rest of the competitors, it’s been tough to get where we are. But we work with what we’ve got and we can be pretty competitive.”

The team has some sponsorship, but there’s always room for more. Carlson, who has grown up in Iowa, is studying business marketing at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids.

“The goal is to make it in pro racing,” Carlson said. “Make my way up to IMSA. Running in the Michelin Pilot Series in the GT4 class is the goal right now. The way it’s going right now, we’ve been having pretty good success in Trans Am, so we might just run Trans Am for a few more years. If the opportunity comes to move up to the GT4s, we’ll definitely take it.”

Paul Menard, the former NASCAR driver from Eau Claire, crossed the finish line first Sunday but hours later was penalized for avoidable conduct with Chris Dyson and dropped to second behind Brent Crews.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: A descendant of Wisconsin stock car royalty, Josh Carlson is taking his own path in racing