Josh Wise is a name that NASCAR fans don’t get to hear as often anymore. That is because he decided to retire from the sport and move into training younger drivers. Although he made it big by becoming a championship winner in the dirt sprint car series, NASCAR did not work well for him. After being a part-time driver in NASCAR for a decade, he decided that his passion lay elsewhere, leading him to quit The Motorsports Group after a difficult season.

Wise started his career as Toyota’s first development driver before taking on racing in NASCAR itself. Today he has changed teams as he is now working closely with Chevrolet as a driver performance manager. Although this is a position of great respect, many fans are starting to wonder how he ended up there. Among those fans was Wise’s former team owner, Dale Jr., who called the performance manager on his podcast to uncover this mystery, along with others.

How Josh Wise found his true calling beyond racing

When Josh Wise decided to shift from racing in NASCAR to becoming a coach, he started working with drivers like Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray. This was before his big break with Chevrolet, as he started his own organization called Wise Optimization. That slowly transitioned to him landing the gig with Chevy, and when he was invited to the Dale Jr. Download, the host asked him more about his story.

After a long conversation in which Jost Wise reveals many stories from his life around motorsports, Dale Jr. jumps in and asks him, “When does Chevrolet come to you and say, ‘We want to make this sort of initiative for all of our drivers under the Chevy banner’? When does that relationship start?”

It almost felt like Wise knew that this question was coming as he replied, “It happened gradually, I think. It started after a few years. Alex Bowman asked, ‘Hey, can I be in the program?’ Then, Junior Motorsports with Noah. I think Tyler had come over here and kept talking about how he needed help, but then he ended up helping Noah after Tyler had left.”

Josh Wise became in demand after he first coached a few drivers. He was eventually noticed and picked up by Chevrolet as their driver performance manager. He concluded by saying, “It just kind of happened gradually—guys wanting the help, and us just trying to continually solve those problems. For me, it was about finding the right people to solve the problems.”

The former NASCAR driver is doing quite well today, as he still gets behind the wheel from time to time. But his achievements are not limited to being a driver performance manager.

Josh Wise wins the 2014 NASCAR All-Star Race fan vote

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Ten years ago, a surprising twist in the NASCAR All-Star Race fan vote unfolded, thanks to the efforts of a 16-year-old fan, a determined driver, and a passionate online community. Josh Wise, who drove for the underfunded Phil Parsons Racing team, unexpectedly won the 2014 fan vote to advance to the All-Star Race, beating out big names like Danica Patrick.

The story began when a fan named Denis Pavel watched Wise’s gutsy performance at Bristol, where Wise, driving a black No. 98 car with no sponsor, managed to hold his own against Kyle Busch. Impressed, Pavel reached out to the Dogecoin community on Reddit, rallying support to sponsor Wise’s car.

Wise was surprised by the surge of enthusiasm online, saying, “I end up going on, and there is this big surge of momentum of people just really excited for myself, Phil, and the team and what we were doing.” The Reddit group raised over $50,000, enough to sponsor Wise’s car at Talladega, and then set their sights on getting him into the All-Star Race through the fan vote.

Looking back on the moment, Wise said, “It’s kind of brilliant when you think about it—a group of fans being able to figure out an ingenious way to help a driver that they supported.”