Myles Rowe: "I want to go to the pros and give them the fight I think they deserve"

Go-kart parts in shopping carts and dreaming of racing [0:00]

Myles: On Saturday and Sunday mornings, I'd open my dad's laptop and I'd go on this website. I would literally build my own go-kart by adding every part to this go-kart in the shopping cart. This literally added up to about $15,000 to $20,000. And it was like, "Dad, I want to do this. It's all here. Can we do this?" Every single week. I mean, every single week. I was 10 and I was very much of a dreamer and very hopeful, so it was always like, if you don't know what's going to happen... and I tried that for a year. Obviously that didn't work.

Myles Rowe's 2025 Indy NXT season [0:37]

Greg: On the racing side, so, for this season, you're fourth in the standings. It's a big step up from last year. What has the season been like for you? How are you ending it where we are right now [at the Nashville finale]?

Myles: Comparing it to last year, like fourth place looks really good, but for me personally, it's just not what I look for. I've been learning a lot to be very content with my performances, whether it's about things I'm in control of or not. And so it's just a learning game, I think. And I don't mean that in a literal sense of learning racing. Like learning how to live and be grateful for what you have, the things around you and things. So, that's been kind of my vibe this year. But I'm very happy to be up top again, I guess I have to say.

Claudia: And a race winner. I mean, pretty big deal!

Myles: Yeah, it's been a good year, for sure. I definitely want more though. Yeah. But Abel [Motorsports]–every time I come in the trailer, I feel like I'm coming home to family. So I'm happy.

Feeling conflicted after becoming Indy NXT’s first Black race winner in Iowa [1:43]

Claudia: Walk us through your win in Iowa. Did it feel like along time coming?

Myles: It was, I mean I was like really conflicted in Iowa.

Greg: [Jokingly:] You sold that well.

Myles: Yeah, it was a different array of conflict and emotions with me. For everyone, I was so happy for everyone. Abel put a lot of work into this program. So I think they're very happy to see that. My parents, my dad was there and some more of my family and it was really good to see them and hear their voices and everything.

For me though, it was kind of what I just said about life and being grateful and content. I was kind of going through a tough moment before Iowa. It was almost like the moment I was in there, was like, I can't bolster up this moment too much because I should be grateful for wherever I'm finishing. I'm grateful, but don't get overexcited. I have more work to do, sort of a thing, but it was good. It was really good. Yeah, you guys can see where I am in my life right now though. I like to be honest though, you know. And again, very grateful for it. It was so cool.

Switching from golf to Formula 1 [2:58]

Greg: In comparison to many of the drivers, you started a bit later getting into racing. What got you into it at the first point?

Myles: I didn't have any family in racing, so it was about just seeing it on TV when I was really, really young. So I wanted to be a golfer at first. I remember coming in from playing golf with my dad, watching a golf game, and then when the commercials came on he switched channels. And not purposely, but Formula One came on through one of those switches. And I told him to keep it there, because it just caught the signals in my brain. I just knew that I'm going to Formula One. That's what I'm going to do. I was about nine or 10 when I really understood that. That was the switch when it was like I needed to find a way to make a career out of this and I need to do it now.

Claudia: That's a pretty intense switch for like 10 years old! To be like, I've gotta get on this immediately.

Greg: I was like, I wanna sleep in and play video games. I was not having an existential crisis at 10!

Myles: Like I said, I can be deep!

Eventually I found my way to this indoor go-karting league in Roswell, Georgia. I won that championship my first year. And then the second year, I got a small sponsorship from Lucas Oil Products. And that enabled us to kind of pull the strings to get our own go-kart, which I tested for the first time in Mooresville, North Carolina. And that's when I met Will Power, when I was testing the go-kart for the first time. And so from that moment was kind of like the strings kind of tied to that moment there.

Meeting and racing go-karts with Will Power [4:19]

Greg: What was it like meeting Will? Were you on that path saying IndyCar's where I want to go and then you happened to meet Will?

Myles: No, it was more like–so I was still heavily hooked on Formula One, not realizing the magic of–I honestly didn't look into IndyCar that much because I was like, I'm not doing oval racing, I'm gonna do road course racing or whatever. So when I met Will, it was still really cool because I was like, that's Will Power. I technically met him on the track. Like that was when we were talking because he was starting to do all this passing and then bump drafting me and everything. And he was teaching me and we had strong communication on the track. But then after when the helmet came off and everything, I was all shy and I was acting like nothing happened or whatever. Yeah, so that was fun. But he was great, he was very open. Because I think he knew it was my first day. So I think he was impressed at the speed that I was going at for my first day in an actual go-kart. So yeah, it was really, really cool. But I was all shy, I honestly didn't talk to Will too much.

Greg: Do you talk to him a lot now? Are you guys much closer?

Myles: I wouldn't say a lot. Yeah, when I see him I say hey. I say hey to Liz, his wife and everything. Yeah, we'll chat it up a little bit.

Claudia: It's no longer just a wave from afar?

Myles: No, no, no, no, I'm not too shy with him anymore. But yeah, Will's been really good to me over the last couple years and everything, yeah.

Bouncing back after losing the USF2000 Championship [5:45]

Greg: So from there you went and you won the USF2000 Championship.

Myles: USF Pro.

Greg: Sorry, USF Pro.

Myles: I should have won the USF2000 Championship. That's a long story.

Greg: So you went and won the USF Pro [2000] Championship. Was that the validation you needed to keep moving forward in it?

Myles: Yeah, my USF2000 Championship did me more damage than help, even though I finished second, because it was like–I was leading the championship into the last race, and then it kind of all fell apart. So it was like, does he–it was almost like the energy around was like, can he win a championship or not?

Greg: You mean that's the way the narratives went?

Myles: Yeah, that was the way the narratives went. So yeah, after USF2000 I definitely needed to win a championship.

Greg: But when that happens, what goes through your mind? Because every driver we ever talk to, there's always some high, some low. You just have to work through it. How did you approach it?

Myles: Honestly, I just put my head down because I was going to be with the same team so that helped a lot. But their USF Pro 2000 program–if I'm not mistaken–they hadn't won a championship yet so I knew I was really going to have to just suck it up and make sure like I could do what I did again in USF2000 with a brand new car as a rookie in the series. But I'm really good at–I don't want to say it in a negative way–my girlfriend would be like, "Yeah, you can tune out a lot." I can tune out things really well. I can focus in on things really well and not worry about the noise per se.

After the USF2000 Championship, that's just all I did. I didn't really focus on, you know, like don't focus on the past sort of thing. Surely I took what I learned from it. But it was just about focusing forward on what mattered. And that, you know, that was it.

Moving up to Indy NXT and loving oval racing [7:35]

Claudia: Well, eventually you moved up to Indy NXT. How was that transition?

Myles: I had a lot of speed in the beginning. I don't think I fell under the top three. So fast forward all the way to the end of the season and like the tracks were incredible. Racing at Laguna Seca for the first time, which is now my favorite road course, was awesome. And the ovals, too, were really, really good.

Greg: So you went from I'm not going to race in ovals...

Myles: Yeah, no, literally! I skipped a huge step. I kind of fell in love with them in USF2000 when I did my first race and I realized how crazy they were. Because even in USF2000, I was starting to embrace it. I was like, I'm here now, I'm going to embrace this. But it was more so like... I still didn't know how cool they were. And yeah, it was the best thing ever. But actually, funny story. So we only raced on one oval, the Lucas Oil Raceway track. But I didn't like practicing on that track.

I actually like–that was the one time in my racing career where I actually didn't like driving on a track. I just didn't like it. It wasn't my thing. But when we raced on it, it just came alive. And I absolutely adore racing at that place. And then everywhere else though, I love. I love driving on any oval. I can drive on an oval by myself all day and I'll have a blast.

Representing the African American community in IndyCar [9:01]

Greg: What about the historic element of it? I mean, it was a big deal. Now you have this opportunity, I guess I would say, presented to you where you're representing other people and showing them the way.

Myles: Yeah, and being able to represent the African American community in IndyCar is huge. I mean, [there are] so many kids that look like me that would want to be in my position or just want to do it. So just to know that I have received that opportunity and I'm using it. I just plan on using the opportunity as well as I can, becoming a champion as many times as I can. That's what I want to do and I'm super grateful that I'm able to be that face in IndyCar so that the younger generation knows that it is possible because a lot of it was not seeing someone that looked like you. So why would you be the one that could do it? So I'm glad that I can make that ratio a little bit better.

2026 goals: Becoming IndyCar Champion and telling his story [9:56]

Greg: That's powerful. That's cool. When you look at everything you've accomplished, when you look at how far you've come, and even now getting that opportunity to represent other people and that privilege, what do you see for the future? What are you looking forward to? What's the next chapter?

Myles: The goal really is to find a way into the next racing league where I'll be a champion. I think that's IndyCar and the Indy 500. So I'd love to go to the pros and give them the fight I think they deserve. And then from there, just telling the story as well and as grand and as fantastic as can be. Because as you guys know, storytelling is something I love. And you can do a lot with racing, just the story of all the drivers and kind of what we battle each and every weekend on the track, where we come from and why we drive.

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