As a sailor and driver, Iwuji has served as an ambassador for both the military and NASCAR communities. In addition to supporting military philanthropic groups, he is also involved in various NASCAR events supporting the armed forces and veterans.
Early life and military career
Iwuji attended Hebron High School, where he was a letterman twice in football and three times in track.[2] On the football team, he was a two-star recruit.[3] During his junior year of high school, Iwuji was contacted by the Naval Academy and was offered a scholarship to the school.[4][1] In addition to continuing his football career at Hebron (where he was named first-team all-district in his senior year),[2] he attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School before heading to the Naval Academy.[1] He formally enrolled at the Academy on June 30, 2005.[3][5]
Iwuji graduated in 2010 as a Bachelor of Science and became a surface warfare officer.[4] After working as a football coach at the Naval Academy Preparatory School, he entered active service.[8] Iwuji worked in mine countermeasures with Mine Countermeasures Crew Exultant and was deployed to Bahrain in 2012.[1] He was later deployed on the USS Comstock, a ship whose name would later appear on a NASCAR Xfinity Series car when it was featured on Darrell Wallace Jr.'s No. 6 Ford Mustang in 2016.[9] In May 2017, he moved to the Navy Reserve.[10][11] He is currently stationed in Ventura, California.[12][5]
Racing career
Early career
While attending the Naval Academy, Iwuji first expressed interest in motorsports when the Midshipmen visited the Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina before the 2006 Meineke Car Care Bowl, during which the players rode around the track.[13] During his senior year, he started drag racing at Capitol Speedway in Crofton, Maryland, driving a Chrysler 300.[8] After his graduation, he raced a Dodge Challenger.[1] Four years later, he participated in the Mojave Mile speed trial; for the event, he upgraded his Challenger's engine to a horsepower of 1,100. With the new engine, Iwuji ran at a speed of 200.9 miles per hour (323.3 km/h), becoming the fifth modern Mopar driver to accomplish the feat at the Mojave Mile.[14] Afterwards, he joined the Naval Postgraduate School staff in southern California,[8] where he was involved in road racing – driving a Chevrolet Corvette – before making the transition to stock cars.[15]
NASCAR and ARCA
Iwuji standing beside his No. 36 car before the West Series race at Sonoma in 2017Iwuji (No. 36) racing Nicole Behar (No. 33) and Derek Kraus (No. 19) at Sonoma in 2017Iwuji's No. 40 car at Sonoma in 2018
Iwuji started competing full-time in the K&N Pro Series West in 2016, driving the No. 36 for Patriot Motorsports Group.[16] That year, he was named to the "Mighty 25: Veterans poised for impact in 2016" list by military website We Are The Mighty.[19] He recorded a best finish of tenth at Orange Show Speedway.[20] At the Utah Motorsports Campus race, he earned the Move of the Race Award,[21] which is given to the driver who gains the most positions in a race.[22] During the year, he also competed in the NAPA Big 5 Late Model Series at Meridian Speedway.[18] Iwuji battled with Todd Gilliland and Salvatore Iovino for the K&N Pro Series West's 2016 Most Popular Driver Award, but lost to Iovino.[23] He finished the season tenth in the final point standings and sixth the rookie standings.[11] In February 2017, Iwuji was awarded the NASCAR Diverse Driver Award, which is given to a minority/female driver who "exemplifies outstanding performance both on and off the race track in encouraging awareness and interaction with NASCAR and motorsports".[24]
Prior to the 2017 season, Iwuji became Patriot Motorsports Group's primary owner, while former National Football League linebacker Shawne Merriman partnered with the team to serve as owner of the No. 36 car. The two met during a fashion show in Los Angeles promoting Merriman's new clothing line; Merriman, a longtime motorsports fan, agreed to join PMG.[10] Over the course of the season, Iwuji continued to race Outlaw Karts to develop his racing ability on both dirt and asphalt.[25] In February, he ran his first NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race in the season opener at New Smyrna Speedway,[26] in which he finished 21st.[27]
Jesse Iwuji, driving the #74 Gap 'Em Chevrolet for Mike Harmon Racing.
Iwuji returned to RBR in 2021 for his fourth part-time season with the team. Driving the No. 34, he attempted to qualify for the season-opener at Daytona for the first time but failed to make the race. He then drove the No. 33 at Las Vegas. Iwuji would manage to get a one-off Xfinity start driving the #74 car from Mike Harmon Racing , after the driver for the #74, Bayley Currey, had to be replaced unexpectedly. Mike Harmon Racing would put out a statement on social media, saying "This decision was made as a TEAM in which Bayley FULLY supports. He is still the primary driver for the 74, we have no intentions of change that, he is a huge part of this team." With sponsorship from racing app Gap 'Em, Iwuji would be able to wheel the car into a 31st place finish.
In August 2021, Iwuji announced that he was partnering with Pro Football Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith to start an Xfinity Series team for the 2022 season, Jesse Iwuji Motorsports.[32]
Personal life
Iwuji is of Igbo descent, an ethnic group of people in Nigeria.[6] His parents, Sebastian and Enderline, immigrated to the United States in the 1980s.[33] Enderline was a track runner in Nigeria, while daughter Emenderlyn ran track for Arkansas State. Like Iwuji, younger brothers Justin and Bryan played football, though at Texas State as a safety and linebacker, respectively; Justin had also been recruited to play quarterback for the Naval Academy Preparatory School before electing to attend Texas State. While Iwuji and his siblings are born in the United States, they hold Nigerian citizenship.[34] As of 2017, Iwuji is one of three African-American drivers actively competing in a NASCAR series along with Wallace and Pro Series East driver Jay Beasley.[35]
He is involved in various philanthropic and military-related activities. Iwuji is the racing ambassador for the Phoenix Patriot Foundation, a group formed after the September 11 attacks to support wounded soldiers.[36] "We dedicate each race weekend to a wounded veteran and his family," Iwuji stated. "The effort has been widely supported by race officials and others. It's an opportunity for everyone to give back to the people who've made a sacrifice on their behalf."[8] In March 2016, he drove Darrian Nordstrom, a four-year-old boy with terminal cancer, in a two-seat stock car.[37] In May, he served as a host for a veteran's family prior to the Coca-Cola 600;[38] as part of the NASCAR Salutes program, which honors United States military personnel, he was a guest co-host of NASCAR.com's GarageCam series.[39]
Motorsports career results
NASCAR
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
^Franceschini, Brooke (April 26, 2016). "K&N Pro East News & Notes: VIR". NASCAR Home Tracks. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved January 27, 2017. Four different drivers have collected the Coca-Cola Move of the Race Award for advancing the most positions.