Off the Field: North Carolina 2024 Softball Standout KK Herring Shines Behind the Champ Kart Wheel

We’ve come across some interesting talents, skills and hobbies for softball players to do to unwind in their down time, but we can’t remember one who’s been a competitor behind the wheel before.

Not, that is, until we heard the story of North Carolina 8^th grader Caylin Herring, who has proven to herself and others that she can succeed on the race track as well as the softball field.

Cayling, who goes by the nickname “KK,” plays third base and second base for the Carolina Elite 14U National team coached by Blue Baker and was recently honored as one of the top 150 players in the 2024 class.

Known for her strong glove as an infielder and an RBI machine for the Elite while batting over .400 this year, the 5-foot-5 multiple-sport athlete is also a two-year starter in basketball and volleyball for her school.

Softball is her passion, however, and she’s been invited to All-American Games and has been selected to USA Elite Select camps several times.

But when she’s not playing in top tournaments nationwide on the weekends, KK can often be found speeding at 60 mph-plus in Champ Kart racing across the Southeast.

KK decided she wanted to follow in the footsteps of her father, Andy Herring, and her late grandfather, Donald Herring, who passed away in November 2018.

Both had years of experience in the motorsport which features open-wheel go-karts that race on tracks that are typically around 1/8^th mile. Most races are 25 laps with two rounds of practice and a qualifying round to determine who’s in the main race.

“This is how 99.9 percent of how Nascar drivers get started,” Andy Herring explains, “and they have their kids in it too. They have tracks everywhere and every weekend they race somewhere.”

After many years away from the sport, KK’s father decided to go watch a race one weekend in October, 2017 and he took his daughter along for the ride.

“It was a night I’ll never forget,” he begins. “KK turned to me and asked if she could do it and if I could build a Champ Kart for her.”

There was only one stipulation that all agreed upon: softball came first.

After many long months and lots of late nights, her father and uncle, Jonny Herring, had a cart built for her to start racing. KK chose the number 55, as that was her grandfather’s racing number.

In February 2018, she took the track for the first time at Liberty Raceway in Liberty, North Carolina and at first it didn’t go so well.

“She hit everything and anything that she could while on the track that day,” laughs her father, “but she was determined to prove to me and her uncle that she could do this, that nobody was going to stop her.”

After a few rounds of practices, KK qualified for 4^th and, “the smile that kid had coming off the track was unbelievable,” recalls her father/coach.

She ended up finishing second that night in her final race and became hooked on the sport.

Since then KK has raced all over North Carolina and South Carolina and plans on competing in Georgia with her ultimate goal to go to the Daytona Speedway in Florida next year for the Nationals.

The softball/kart racing standout says one reason she likes kart racing is because there’s an element of danger to it.

“The best thing I like about Champ Karts is the challenge it gives you while driving. It’s hard to control and not crash because the wheels are sticking out and can touch the other karts and cause you to flip,” she explains.  “It’s also a sport where it’s independent and on you.

As far as how being a softball player and kart racer complement and compare to each other, KK says there’s one common thing that is essential to success in both.

“Hard work always pays off no matter what sport I’m in,” she says. “I compare racing to softball in that it’s like learning what works and what doesn’t, what the in’s and out’s are and, in both sports, mastering the speed it takes to win.”