The Videos Got Me in the Door at HPX 2026
Share
I was standing a few feet from the Hendrick Motorsports Engine Builder Showdown floor when I realized I had stopped thinking entirely. Two-man teams assembling a 358 cubic inch V8 against the clock. The smell of the shop in a convention center. Guys pushing as hard as their hands could move and looking as calm as a Sunday morning doing it. I was in a total flow state, and I want to tell you how I ended up in that room, because it was not an accident, and it was not luck.
In October 2025, my home burned down; total accident, zero insurance payout, nothing to rebuild on but instinct and faith. I will be honest: the only reason I had the strength to get up every single day after that and try to pick up the pieces was my 2 beautiful dogs that luckily survived, and God. He carried me through it, and what looked like losing everything turned out to be ground zero, the real restart I had been circling since I got out of the military and moved back from Alaska to New York, trying to make it work in a place my life had outgrown.
On a soul-searching spring break trip to North Carolina, a memory came back to me. Last May, sitting in the pit box with Keith McGee, watching Frankie Muniz race, it hit me that my dreams were no longer tied to being home; they were tied to making them become reality. So I finished out my semester of school, moved to Charlotte, and committed to the long-term goal of becoming a driver in some capacity. Then I did what I always do. I picked up the camera and documented it.
Those videos are the reason I was at HPX.
A friend named Parker Stace caught them on Facebook. We know each other through a mutual friend I roomed with at Canton back in 2018. He saw the move, saw the driver goal, and reached out. His uncle, Dr. Jamie Meyer, co-founded the High Performance Expo. Parker told me I needed to be there and pointed me to the registration page. I had my media credentials back the same day.
Read that timeline again; House fire to media credential at the industry's premier show in the heart of American motorsports, and the bridge between them was content I made about chasing the dream before anyone was watching. The camera opens the door, and the relationships walk through it. I have said that since I started Lucid Reality Xtreme Sports, and HPX has not just proved it; HPX was it, working in real time.
The show itself delivered everything it promised. I walked the floor past some of the wildest builds in the country. I stood next to the Hendrick Motorsports #24 and the 2025 Daytona 500 trophy. I sat in on the influencer panel and heard creators tell stories that sounded a lot like mine, and I caught Johnny D, The Motivational Cowboy, and walked out of that talk with my shoulders back, but the Showdown is what I will remember.
During the team introductions, the commentator mentioned that one of the guys on team red is a Marine, and from that moment, all I could see was operational accuracy on display: speed without rush, pressure without panic, every movement accounted for. That standard is not a racing thing or a military thing. It is a decision you make about how you do your work, and watching it executed at the championship level recalibrated my expectations for my own.
Here is the part I want to leave you with, because this is Lucid Reality, and we point at the real thing: That standard is not locked inside Hendrick's shop.
There are hometown teams all over this world putting in that same work right now. One of our own sponsored athletes, AJ Walters, runs Pro Stocks at tracks like Utica-Rome Speedway in New York, laying it all down on the dirt every single week. The hours he puts in between race nights, the wrenching, the prep, the sacrifice, nobody sees any of that. That is exactly why Lucid Reality Xtreme Sports exists: We are a platform for the athletes who show up when no one is watching, so that when they lay it down on the track, somebody is.
So when NASCAR comes to your town, go, and if it does not, look up your local speedway, because most of them run weekly racing, and the effort you will see there is the same effort I watched on that convention center floor.
I brought my camera to it all, and the proof is below. The full video is live on our YouTube channel now. The complete, unedited Day 2 Engine Builder Showdown, the walk through the floor, the #24, all of it.
Thank you to Parker Stace for reaching out and inviting me. Thank you to Dr. Jamie Meyer, Tina Meyer, and the entire HPX team for opening the door and giving me the room to network, learn, and document it all, and all glory to God, who got me up every morning it took to get here.
One last thing before I sign off: If this story hit you, the single best way to support this brand and what it stands for is simple. Like, comment, share, and subscribe on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, because every bit of engagement puts these athletes, events, venues, builds, and their stories in front of more people & if you want to go one step further, grab something from the shop. Use code HPX27 at checkout for 10% off through Sunday night (6/14/26).
Every order directly funds the camera gear, travel, and access that lets us show up, document the work, and keep building this platform for the people who earn it.
You wear the brand, we tell the stories.
That is the deal.
See you at HPX 2027.
Where others dream, we create reality.
Live Life Limitless, Live Life Lucid.
-Zach Nash, Chief Lucid
Mentioned in this story
High Performance Expo (HPX): thehpx.com
Hendrick Motorsports: hendrickmotorsports.com
Johnny D, The Motivational Cowboy: motivationalcowboy.com
AJ Walters, Lucid Reality sponsored athlete: Follow AJ here
Utica Rome Speedway: uticaromespeedway.com
Watch the full HPX 2026 video: youtu.be/RS7TP7bQ0aU
Lucid Reality Xtreme Sports: YouTube | Instagram | Facebook
With thanks to Parker Stace, Dr. Jamie Meyer, Tina Meyer, and the entire HPX team.