Racing Time

Catching Up with McKenna Hasse, "Mother Teresa in a Race Car"

One of my favorite projects I’ve worked on in my career so far was the 2019 short film This Racing Life for Fox Sports. I got to go into the world of small-town Iowa dirt racing and meet McKenna Hasse, a local star with an inspiring story.

After suffering a bad crash that put her out of racing for a time, rather than sulk or feel sorry for herself, she decided to start a youth racing team. McKenna rebuilt a used car and gave a kid named Gage a chance to live his dream. In the process, she reconnected him with his estranged father, who had been addicted to drugs and ended up in jail. I’ve often referred to her as “Mother Teresa in a race car.” You can watch the whole 17-minute short here if you want.

Recently, I was curious what was up with her now, five years later. I didn’t know what to expect when we caught up over the phone, but it turns out it was once again quite the poignant experience.

McKenna is now 27 and engaged to be married to her fiancé, Zavier Scott. That’s amazing, of course. What has been challenging recently for both of them are their careers.

Since the film, in addition to being a contestant on two seasons of American Ninja Warrior, McKenna has continued to race, and moved to Indianapolis to break through into higher levels of the sport. But she recently had another bad crash and, as she put it: “Because of this, I’ve had a lot of people awkwardly insinuating that I should quit racing.”

At the same time, Zavier has been trying to make it in the NFL.

He spent last season on the Colts practice squad, but then in training camp this summer, he failed to make the 53 man roster, and was out of a job. Safe to say, not the best of times for the couple.

In the days that followed, they waited for the phone to ring, hoping another team would pick him up. McKenna explained:

“We go to the Cincinnati Zoo, and let me tell you, I’ll never forget that day because it started out fine, but as the hours ticked by, it’s kind of like... as you leave in the afternoon and his phone hasn’t rung, you’re like, ‘my gosh, what do we do if we both just don’t have jobs?’ And you’re not a football player anymore, and I’m not a race car driver.”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve certainly found myself wrestling with similar existential dilemmas in my life. First, it was in high school when I realized I wasn’t making either the NFL or MLB to play ball professionally myself. I’m not sure why it took me until senior year to realize this, but that’s another story... Then there was learning to find a healthy distance between my career as a filmmaker and as just Jeff, the person, husband and father. That has taken some work over the years, for sure!

It seems our brains, and the world, really want us to self-identify with our careers or whatever dream we are pursuing. It’s not just sports or artistic fields either. I know my dad really identified with his role as a psychologist, which he did for work for over 40 years. Most people tend to do this, and this is what makes the idea of potentially facing down retirement difficult—whether it be in your late 60s as a white-collar worker, or in your 20s as a race car driver or football player.

The situation can upend your vision of hope for the future and make it hard to find an important quality in life: enthusiasm. As McKenna pointed out, looking back at herself in the film from five years ago:

“I never realized how much of a gift certain things are in life that you don’t even realize at the time. For example, passion—just having such a deeply rooted passion and love for something that drives you. I look back and can’t believe how motivated I was at a young age to do so much of the stuff I did, whether it was racing myself or taking the kids racing. And now, it’s like, with where I’m at, I feel like I’m trying to find what opportunities are best for me.”

If you’re curious, she still runs a program helping disadvantaged kids race. But, she notes, “It’s funny how it’s hard to find people to help, as weird as that sounds. You’d think there would be hundreds of families to pick from, but honestly, it’s actually pretty tough.”

What’s also tough is trying to figure the next steps in a dream. As McKenna put it, “You wish it was like Zavier wins the Super Bowl, just after I win a big race, and the credits are going to roll. But that’s not how life works, is it? Life doesn’t have a Hollywood ending.”

Ironically, after the release of the short film we did, McKenna was approached by Disney about a scripted feature film based on her story. It went as far as a full script, but like many Hollywood tales, the momentum fizzled out, and McKenna herself honestly felt like she didn’t want her life story wrapped up in a nice little bow.

That’s the problem with Hollywood endings. Sure, they make us feel warm and fuzzy, but it isn’t real life. In fact, real life isn’t about any ending at all—it’s about continuing to show up, to persevere, and to keep racing, even after the credits roll. The stories we’re fed by Hollywood don’t always prepare us for that reality. And that’s a disservice.

Just because the path seems to be leading to a dead end, or the wins don’t come when we want, doesn’t mean the story’s over. Far from it. And McKenna understands that.

“Sometimes I think, like, right when you think it’s over, that’s when something big happens, you know?”

And, in fact, something big has happened since we spoke.

Zavier was signed by the Minnesota Vikings, and she is planning to move up there as well to be with him. So, he’s not done, and neither is she. Despite the whispers circling for her to hang up her racing suit, she’s firm that she has more races to run.

And if you ask me, they’ve already won more than they realize. They’re getting married for goodness’ sake!!

Let’s not forget that detail in this story. They have each found someone they want to spend the rest of their lives with. That’s certainly something. In fact, it may be everything.

I hope you’ll join me in sending them some positive vibes as they keep racing forward in their journey together. I’m betting they’ve both still got a few big wins left in them.

**PS** For those who watched the film, Gage is now a senior in high school, and still races with his dad, who is still clean and sober. So maybe a little bit of a Hollywood ending there, thanks to Mother Teresa in a race car all those year ago!