Here we are presenting to you the biography of the famous American Race Car Driver, Shelby Blackstock.

Family and Relations

Shelby was born in Nashville, Tennessee on February 23, 1990. He is the son of the famous country singer Reba McEntire (Known as ‘The Queen of Country’ and has given hits such as ‘How Blue’, ‘Somebody should leave’) and her ex-husband, Narvel Blackstock. The couple got married in 1989 and got divorced in 2015. He has an older half-brother named Brandon Blackstock, and two older half-sisters, Shawna and Chassidy. Brandon Blackstock is married to Kelly Clarkson, the famous American singer and songwriter who won the inaugural season of the hit television series, American Idol.

Shelby Blackstock is currently dating a beautiful girl named Marissa Branch.

Interest towards racing

As a child, Shelby Blackstock grew up with music touring alongside his mother Reba McEntire. As a child, he used to work as a roadie. But, the son of the famous country singer Reba McEntire decided to change tracks. He wanted to become a race car driver.

Shelby Blackstock’s love for racing started ever since his childhood. He was always fascinated by cars and wanted to show his skills on the racetrack. He called up his mother and told her that he wanted to discontinue his studies during the first semester at the University of Arizona. Although Reba wasn’t supporting him initially, she asked him to finish that year in college and signed him up in the Bob Bondurant School.

Career in Racing

At the Bob Bondurant School, Blackstock didn’t have to wait for a longer time. He was there for a period of four days in which he found his calling. He decided to pursue racing and make a name for himself. He even won over a couple of teams who had sent their drivers back for a refresher course. He took up the Fast Pass program at the school and in no time, he began racing formula cars.

The Skip Barber Summer series was a turning point in his life. He competed for two years, in 2010 and 2011. His performance in the Skip Barber Summer Series was widely appreciated by people as he finished fifth in the national series. He made his professional driving debut when he started racing in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge driving a Ford Mustang.

He became a better driver after driving for Roush Racing. Roush Racing not only asked him to drive for them but asked him to work on their shop. His stint in the shop taught him what it takes to build a race-car and quickly helped him identify the mistakes with the car that he was racing on. He began understanding the tolerance of the car and thus became a better race-car driver.

At the Verizon IndyCar Series, Blackstock drove for Andretti Autosport. He considers IndyCar to be the most challenging series because it needs the drivers to be good at many avenues such as street course racing, ovals, and road courses. With the Andretti Team, Blackstock climbed the ladders of racing by finishing third in the 2013 Pro Mazda Championship and fourth in the same series in 2014.