Budding Lawyer Little Not an Average Driver

Wearing tortoise-shell eyeglasses and toting law books under his arm, Chad Little hardly looks the part of a blossoming stock-car driver.

In a sport dominated by drivers with southern drawls and racing cars adorned with advertisements for chewing tobacco and beer, Little is an anomaly. Little, 24, the defending Winston West champion, will graduate in December from Gonzaga University law school at Spokane, Wash.

Before he graduates, Little hopes to have completed a sponsorship deal that will allow him to run for the NASCAR Winston Cup rookie title in 1989. He plans to take the Virginia bar exam in early February, then focus solely on racing.

“It takes a lot of my time, that’s for sure,” Little said when asked about juggling law school and a racing career. “The law, I thought it would get easier as the years get on, but it doesn’t. I just keep in my mind that I’m going to be done in December and my priorities are racing. I know the law degree is going to bring a lot of credibility and it will give me something to fall back on.”

Little began racing in 1979 and was a local street stock class champion in 1981 and 1982. He continued racing in the Spokane area and graduated from Gonzaga with a B.A. in marketing in 1985.

With his racing career still being shaped, Little decided to go to graduate school as a way of keeping his summers and weekends free for racing. He won the Winston West rookie of the year title in 1986 and won the series championship last year.

This year, he has raced in three Winston Cup events, at Riverside, Calif., Michigan, and last weekend at Dover, Del., where he finished 15th in a Ford Thunderbird sponsored by Coors Extra Gold. Although few of his contemporaries in stock-car racing have his level of education, Little, who plans to enter Winston Cup races at Charlotte N.C. and Phoenix later this year, said he gets along well with the other drivers.

“I hope that they don’t think I’m cocky,” Little said. “I try real hard not to be. I doubt very much if most of them know I have a law degree. (Dale) Earnhardt’s talked to me about it, and he says that the most important thing is that I finish the law degree. (Earnhardt’s team owner) Richard Childress expressed the same feelings.”

The degree will benefit Little in his quest for the sponsorships any driver needs to be competitive. The lawyer-stock car driver angle is unique, and his education gives him the potential to be an excellent spokesman for a product.

“The way I see it is it’s becoming more and more competitive out there as a driver,” Little said. “Not only do the drivers have to be skilled at what they do as far as driving a race car, but today, with sponsorships determining racing so much, a driver has to be more of a spokesman than ever before.”

Little said he enjoys tax law, but as an attorney, he probably would specialize in corporate law. Whatever happens legally, Little is looking forward to getting on with his racing career.

“It will be very unusual,” Little said of the free time he would have after completing law school. “I look forward to the day when I’m done with my law studies. Driving in the Winston Cup races this year makes me appreciate how much work I have to do. Then again, it does build a little bit of confidence.

“I don’t look at myself as unique in that (educational) respect. Those guys (Winston Cup drivers) are the best in the world at driving stock cars. I think if they were put in my shoes they’d be doing the same things that I am, they’d have the education. The opportunity was there for me.”