Hot Laps with Miguel Paludo: A 3,000 mile adventure

Credit: Lisa Janine Cloud/Skirts and Scuffs

Miguel Paludo has been making some hot laps, 3000 miles worth to be exact! No, not on the race track. Miguel, wife Patricia and baby Oliver hit the road in the down time after Kentucky and went road-tripping. 

The Paludo family adventure began in North Carolina, traveling to Road America for Miguel's Nationwide Series debut, onward to Kentucky for the NCWTS race and from there back to North Carolina for more clothes and to their final destination of Disneyland.

While in Kentucky, Miguel noticed something about Oliver- one of the perks of being a new father. "Oliver changed so much," he said. "In 10 days of travel he started to stand up and move a lot and we thought we should go to Disney straight, drive the motor home to Disneyland." After making final travel plans, Miguel, Patricia and Oli were headed on a road trip of a lifetime.

"Because of the 4th of July, I wanted to show him (Oliver) the fireworks and everything," Miguel said.

Oli on daddy's shoulder while the fireworks go off.
Photo from Patricia Paludo

"It was a lot of fun, especially the water parks for him," Paludo said of their magical memories only Disney can make. "He enjoyed the water parks a lot, it was just a lot of fun."

In the matter of 20 days, the Paludos drove 3,000 miles - no small feat with an 11-month old baby! A race will seem like vacation for Miguel after driving all those miles himself.

Speaking of Oliver, as we covered in the first edition of Hot Laps, he was recently diagnosed with diabetes, but Daddy is happy to say that he is doing great per doctor reports. The outpouring of support that the Paludos have received is unimaginable, Miguel told me.

"People were tweeting and sharing their stories - 'I have diabetes as well, you'll be fine,' and one thing, I do not remember who it was but told me that their little one had the same problem and he is 18 now. He is fine and they wanted to let us know that, telling us Oliver will be fine! Those kind of words are pretty cool, people you do not know and they do not know you, somebody cares about you. That is the same thing we wanted to do and create awareness for diabetes."

"We want to honestly say thank you to all those who have sent messages - Tweet, Facebook, however, it has been really important for me and Oliver as well."

Vacation is over and Paludo is back to work. The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule is finally picking up with some consistency and the Turner Motorsports stable is looking strong week in and week out.

This weekend the series heads to Chicago, a style of track that Paludo favors.

"I love mile-and-a-halves. Last year I was pretty good at Chicago. Michigan we had a shot to win and I like those kind of races. I am excited about this weekend. We are running chassis number 216 and it ran for the first time at Kentucky. We were fastest in practice there, couldn't be good for the race and we are trying to understand why but I am really looking forward to this weekend. I am focused on battling points but we need to make something happen, so I am focused on getting the best I can every week and see what happens."

And lastly, Paludo chimed in on his "fan club" the #TMSFanCrew. "It's pretty cool, they tweet Duroline (Paludo's sponsor) and they tweeted Locaweb when they were on board for my Nationwide race. The folks out there in Brazil, a week after the race said 'that's pretty cool, we have a lot of guys tweeting about us!' They are doing a great job and I am glad to have them on our side, giving us support and caring about us as drivers."

Tune into the race this Saturday on SPEED starting at 7:30 pm EDT to see how Miguel and the No. 32 team fare at Chicagoland.