From Outback to law school to racing at Bristol, Stephen Mallozzi's a man on a roll
It may require hard work. It may require sacrifice. But put enough effort into your dreams and they truly can become a reality.
Just ask Stephen Mallozzi.
Between work and law school, the 22-year-old New Jersey native lives a busy life.
However, as a part-time driver in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, any dreams Mallozzi misses due to a lack of sleep are made up by living them in real life. And on Thursday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, he’ll make his biggest start to date.
Mallozzi will make his fifth career Truck Series start, driving the No. 22 Ford for AM Racing. But this time he’ll be sponsored by Outback Steakhouse – his employer.
While attending class at Temple University in Philadelphia, Mallozzi serves tables at the Outback in Deptford, N.J. After going viral in April for sharing his story on X (formerly Twitter), the restaurant chain decided to sponsor their employee.
“Getting them on board for one is phenomenal and it’s a great gesture from them to show that they support their employees and I really hope they see the value in it,” Mallozzi said to AutoRacingDigest.com. “For me, my goal is to knock it out of the park for these guys and make them want to come back and do it again next year.
"That’s all I can really ask for, the fact that they’ve given me the time of day to keep doing what I’m doing. Most people in their fifth start do not have a sponsor like Outback Steakhouse on their truck. It is a pretty sweet deal, and frankly, I expect to get some good TV time out of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Fox gave me an interview out of it. I think that it will be awesome.
“At the end of the day, in all four of the other races I’ve done, I’ve worn my blank fire suit which has nothing but my name on it. I’ve never once had a fire suit in my time in NASCAR that had been branded. I have the most badass firesuit on the entire grid now. That’s not even a question. I mean, the thing is freaking sweet. It just makes me feel real.”
Unlike other NASCAR drivers, Mallozzi did not come from a racing family. Practicing law is the real family business. Instead, Mallozzi’s first introduction to NASCAR came in the form of a video game.
“I was actually talking to Kenny Wallace about this literally a couple of days ago because he had reached out to me and do something too (an interview on Wallace’s Podcast),” Mallozzi said. “I told him, ‘Kenny, something crazy about my racing story is you were always my biggest rival on NASCAR Thunder 2004 and that is basically how my love of racing started.'
“It was through a combination of diecast cars and NASCAR Thunder and Mario Kart and a bunch of those other games that are what basically spawned it for me. My dad knew nothing about racing. He’s a lawyer from just outside of Philadelphia. It was never in his purview. So, when I started having this love for racing, I just figured it out as we went and one day for my ninth birthday he was like, ‘Let’s go take you to a go-kart track’. He took me to a go-kart track and hasn’t really looked back. Things kind of went on from there.”
Mallozzi raced go-karts for roughly five years, but his budding racing had to take a back seat for awhile when his father was diagnosed with lung cancer. Fortunately, his father overcame the odds to survive, making his son feel even more energized than ever to chase his dream.
The younger Mallozzi began pursuing a career racing late models and his story caught the attention of NASCAR driver Josh Reaume, who helped him buy his late model equipment and start a team.
After competing at short tracks across the South, Mallozzi made his first Truck Series start at Mid-Ohio in 2022, finishing 22nd and on the lead lap after starting dead last.
In the meantime, Mallozzi went to school at University of Virginia, where he was a sports commentator for the student media organization as well as the ACC Network.
His first truck start of 2023 came at Martinsville, where his story caught the attention of officials in Outback's corporate office.
“One day I walked into my shift in Charlottesville and I remember talking to my boss,” Mallozzi recalled. “He said, ‘I’m trying to help you out with this. I think somebody noticed.’ He said, ‘I don’t want to get your hopes up, but there’s some conversation going on.’
"About a week later he called me and said, ‘Dude, I’m giving out your information right now. I think Outback is going to sponsor you’. That was probably in May, and I’ve been digging on this deal since. To put it all together finally and get what we need to get done has been sweet.”
After Martinsville, Mallozzi’s next start came at Gateway. Before the race, he sold his 2021 Dodge Charger (which he received in lieu of payment for a late model sponsorship) to help continue funding his racing career. Being an incredibly expensive sport, Mallozzi has had to manage a very tight budget to continue racing.
“Ever since the beginning I have worked and clawed for everything I have,” Mallozzi said. “I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t used to be that way. When I was growing up in karting my dad supported me wholeheartedly.
“He paid for everything he could afford, which was a good amount – not as much as a lot of these kids in the Truck Series had – but it was more than most people could get. But when he got sick, it stopped. I had nothing. I did it all on my own.
“Every dime that I had saved during Covid - every dime that I had saved before Covid – I spent on late model racing to try and get to the Truck Series and achieve this dream of being a national-level stock car racer.
"The fact of the matter is, I not only did it, I did it as cheaply as possible. I did it with limited experience and now we’re here talking about the Bristol night race with Outback Steakhouse. It’s just crazy. It’s nuts to me. I can’t even express how stoked I am to be doing something like this.”
With school back in session and the NASCAR season over in less than two months, Bristol will likely be Mallozzi’s last truck start this season. But make no mistake, his career is just getting started.
“I’m definitely not giving up on racing,” Mallozzi said. “There’s no chance in hell I’m quitting this dream until it's dead. As a matter of fact, it's more alive than it's ever been.
"The amount of publicity that I’ve got from having Outback Steakhouse on board has been huge. It’s been freaking awesome. It’s really going to help catapult my career. I’ve got inquiries from Barstool, I told you about Kenny Wallace, and I’ve got a bunch of people who’ve retweeted me and talked to me just about how awesome it is to see this story about a big major corporation coming on board with a kid who’s an employee just trying to live his dreams. I am super excited to have them on the truck and I think it is going to be great.
“I think for now, this season is probably over. I think this is it for me this year. I think next year I’m coming back stronger. I hope to run at Daytona or Talladega.”
Mallozzi’s last start of the season, the UNOH 200 Presented by Ohio Logistics, takes place Thursday at 6:00 p.m. ET (FS1). Fans can follow Mallozzi on X (formerly Twitter) @DriverMallozz.
And if you're in the Bristol area Thursday morning/early afternoon and want to meet Mallozzi in-person, check this out: