Telling Fred's Story by Camden Murphy

Tonight at the Bartlett Library, part-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Camden (Cam) Murphy gave a presentation on the life and career of Fred Lorenzen, racing legend and NASCAR Hall of Famer. For Cam, this all started when the Itasca, Ill., native realized his Illinois connection to Elmhurst's "Fearless Freddie" Lorenzen. He reached out to the family and after a short time, a meeting was arranged. The meeting went so well that Fred's daughter, Amanda, asked Cam to represent Fred and tell his story.

​Fred had a short racing career; however, it was impactful, judging by the fact that he was a 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee. He was the first driver to have winnings greater than $100,000, even though he did not run all the races. Every time he showed up in his Holman and Moody #28 Lafayette Ford, he was the man to beat. There weren't many that could do that! In NASCAR, Fred ran in 158 races, had 26 wins, 84 top 10s and 32 poles. He was dominate at Martinsville, having four consecutive 500-lap wins. His records also garnered him recognition as one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers.  Cam is passionate about Fred and gave a great presentation. To see more of Fred's story, please click here.

Cam is a 19-year-old racer who came to racing late compared to some of his fellow racers. He started in 2006 in the Central States Region (CSR) Super Cup Series. Super Cup cars are sometimes called mini-Cup cars - and as Cam says, "go-karts on steroids!"  He since has driven in several Midwestern truck series races and debuted in 2014 in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Martinsville. He ran again at Martinsville in 2015.

​He is currently getting as much seat time as possible while working for Bobby Dotter and the SS Green Light Racing Team. The SS Green Light Racing Team fielded the trucks that Cam drove at Martinsville. He has an offer to drive a truck at the Iowa Speedway on June 18th. He only  needs to find a relatively small amount of funding. His goal is to run Iowa, which will then allow him to run the 1.5-mile tracks. The track they want to race at is the Chicagoland Speedway. The plan would be to run a Fred Lorenzen tribute truck at Chicagoland on September 16th in the American Ethanol E15 225.

I can understand Cam's passion for representing Fred Lorenzen since I was able to meet Fred at the September 2014 Chicagoland Speedway Chase Weekend event. Fred is a humble, great man and was a great racer. Fred, being humble, will never say it - so it's up to Cam Murphy to tell the story. Thanks Cam!