It’s a small, family-run operation at Terry Easum Motorsports.
There are no big-money backers. No team of hired professional crew members. No black book of secrets to racing every dirt track in the country. Just driver Terry Easum, his fiancée and crew chief Kacee Frazier, and the pit area’s favorite four-legged friend Stagger.
Together, they’ve marched through their second full-time season with the American Sprint Car Series, armed with only themselves and the support from their self-run businesses and other local sponsors. Just the way they like it.
“We run two businesses, and honestly, it’s just nice to go racing and run this deal. It’s always something I’ve wanted to do,” Easum said. “I never knew if we could do it or not, but it’s been good. It definitely is a struggle, but the times you do run well, it makes you feel good to know you beat some really good teams.”
“It’s a really good outlet for us to get away from work and just enjoy each other and racing,” Frazier said. “Since we both have the racing background, it’s something we’ve always enjoyed getting to do together.”
The future newlyweds have been at the track together for over a decade, going back to the dawning of their Sprint Car careers with the Oklahoma-based Oil Capital Racing Series (OCRS) in the late 2000s. Both raced with the regional 305 Sprint Car organization until Frazier’s retirement from driving in 2013. Easum continued his career through the rest of the 2010s, and in 2024 decided to make the jump to full-time American Sprint Car Series racing with Frazier on the wrenches.
“To me, it’s really cool,” Easum said. “She definitely puts a lot into it, trying to get the car better and get more speed out of it for Qualifying and stuff like that. It has its goods and bads; we really never turn it off. You go to dinner, and you’re still talking about all that and how to get better. So, it’s good and bad, but it really means a lot that she’s right there by my side helping do it all.”
Frazier, a native of Tulsa, OK, grew up in a motorsports-oriented family and started her own career in the early 2000s at the age of seven, racing Quads on the AMA ATVMX national circuit. Her seven-year riding career encompassed four national championships, nine regional championships and an AMA Rider of the Year nomination before leaving for the Sprint Car world in 2009.
“We’ve just seen way too many friends and family get hurt with really bad injuries,” Frazier said. “My dad had always raced Sprint Cars. My great uncle was Pete Frazier who helped alongside the guys at Factor 1 invent Micro (Sprint) racing. So, my family has always had roll cages around them too, so my dad was like, ‘Hey, let’s get in a Sprint Car and do something a little safer.’”
In her time growing up at the racetrack, Frazier forged a hard-working discipline and a thirst for mechanical knowledge that has driven her to become national 360 Sprint Car racing’s only female crew chief.
“One thing that my dad always made me do was I always had to work on my car,” Frazier said. “It wasn’t like I ever just showed up at the racetrack and it was ready to go. So, I always had a little bit of a background and knew what it took to do it.
“The last two years, I feel like I’ve learned way more about injection systems and fueling the engines and reading spark plugs, and how to get the car balanced better, especially for Terry being such a tall guy.”
Visit the No. 88 in the pit area and you’ll see — she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty. From tire prep to making setup changes, Frazier even works to provide feedback to her driver on-track.
“It’s been a big transition going from the 305s to the 360s, just because you feel so much more wing speed, it’s way more important keeping the car loaded and things like that,” Frazier said. “I really feel like the video, like DIRTVision, helps a lot. Even just me — I’ll try to stand on the mule and video the car so when Terry comes in and says, ‘I’m feeling this,’ I can say, ‘Well, this is what it looks like,’ and at that point, we can kind of dissect it and go from there.”
Off the track, Easum and Frazier are full-time business owner/operators of Finish Line Coatings and Premier Self Storage of Broken Arrow during the week, which helps to fund their racing getaways on the weekend.
“We have good customers,” Frazier said. “We have clients who understand. We have some that are racing clients that support us as well. So, they understand if we have to be gone on Fridays — that’s kind of our summer schedule, we don’t really work on Fridays. They understand that, and they’re able to work with us.”
The grind for Easum and Frazier as a locally owned and funded team has been undeniable, tackling a national circuit over the past two years. But it’s one they’re proud to do together, and they’d have it no other way.
“As a kid, I got to go race nationally, and those are some of the best memories that I’ve ever had in my lifetime,” Frazier said. “So, I thought that if we have the opportunity, we should definitely do it. Good, bad, or ugly, we know our backs are up against the wall in a way because Terry didn’t have a whole lot of ASCS experience going into it. Really, if you have the opportunity, you need to go make the memories while you can because it’s really not something everybody gets to do.”
The American Sprint Car Series is back in action, at Salt City Speedway in Hutchinson, KS next Friday–Saturday, Oct. 10–11. Tickets are on sale now; click here to purchase.
If you can’t be there to watch in person, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
