NASCAR driver at 16 years old? Kinda, as Carson Brown races into ARCA

• Carson Brown, a 16-year-old racing prodigy, is set to make his ARCA East Series debut at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola.
• Brown has already competed in Super Late Models, the Trans Am Series and won the Allen Turner Pro Late Model championship at Five Flags in 2024.

You probably have a Sunoco cap older than Carson Brown.

Certainly an Earnhardt T-shirt.

At just 16, when most kids are getting that long-awaited driver’s license, Carson Brown is already motoring through the fast lanes. Next up: He goes under the NASCAR umbrella and debuts in the ARCA East Series, which begins its season Saturday at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola.

It’ll be Brown’s third new circuit in 2025. Earlier, he made his first Super Late Model starts and won a pair of races in February’s World Series of Asphalt Racing at New Smyrna Speedway. The following week, he finished eighth (of 39) in the Trans Am Series’ TA2 division on the road course at Sebring.

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He’ll drive the No. 4 Chevy for Hettinger Racing at Five Flags, where last year he won the track’s Allen Turner Pro Late Model championship last year. Five Flags is a paved half-mile oval. Brown is a California native but has spent much of his life in New London, N.C., his current home.

“We tested last week and it went really well, and I feel confident in what we’ve got for Saturday at Five Flags,” Brown said. “It’s a track where I’ve spent a lot of time and have had a good amount of success, and being able to take this next step with Hettinger Racing makes it even better.”

Along with stocks and late-models on asphalt, Brown has a short but successful history on dirt, both in winged and non-winged sprint cars, as well as racing last season in the AMSOIL off-road truck series. 

“He’s fast in anything he drives,” Chris Hettinger said. “That kind of experience is really going to help him as he takes this next step, and we’re proud that it’s going to be with Hettinger Racing.”

ARCA’s top series runs a national schedule, often as part of race weekends with its parent NASCAR organization. ARCA also operates two feeder circuits — ARCA West, which has run two races this season, and ARCA East, which starts its season Saturday in Pensacola.