Daniel Dye is on a mission.
Sure, he wants to one day race in the NASCAR Cup Series, but the Xfinity Series driver has another motivational aspect near and dear to his heart: to advocate to combat suicide and offer consolation to friends and families of suicide victims.
At 21, Dye is one of the youngest full-time drivers in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, but he’s a veteran racer, having started in late models when he was 14 years old.
Around that same time, Daniel and his father, Randy Dye, wanting to use their racing efforts as a platform to also do good and impact people’s lives in a positive fashion, became involved in an advocacy that eventually morphed into the Race to Stop Suicide.
That advocacy is especially important as May is Mental Health Awareness Month.
MORE: Daniel Dye driver page | Kaulig Racing team page
“Mental health wasn’t talked a lot about in the past, it was just suck it up and there wasn’t a whole lot of good talk about it for a while,” Daniel Dye said. “Now it’s recognized at this level and that it’s a real thing. Mental health is just as important as physical health.”
While Dye talks about suicide to people of all ages, he’s particularly intent on reaching young people who have contemplated suicide, as well as trying to help individuals who’ve lost family members or friends to suicide.
“Nobody really cares much about talking about suicide until it’s too late,” Dye said. “What sparks the conversation is usually only when somebody kills themselves.
“So we’re just trying to get ahead of it, use our platform for good and obviously the NASCAR platform. We try to be as helpful as possible and do as much in our community as we can.
“It’s a good opportunity to be good people, have an open heart, start a conversation and try to spread this like wildfire. We want to get people comfortable to reach out and just be willing to listen to anybody that might need to be listened to.”
Sadly, suicide has hit close to home for Dye. His cousin, Luke Dye, committed suicide in 2022 at the age of 23.
“There was no (warning) sign,” Daniel said. “You hear everybody say that, and it makes it so hard, but you never know. You don’t see it coming and then it’s just like boom. It’s so crazy that it could happen so quick.
“His death was devastating, especially since we had already started Race to Stop Suicide at that point. It was all over our race cars and we were talking about it, all these things, and then one of our own does it. We never saw it coming. It just shows how important it really is because it can be so invisible at times.
“That was the first time that somebody has done it that I’ve been close to. We come across a lot of people in the racing world and have heard a lot of stories about family members and friends of people in racing, fans, who’ve committed suicide. Now our platform has grown more than ever. I’ve been introduced to a lot of people that have a bunch of unique stories.”
According to Dye, NASCAR has been a strong supporter of him and the Race to Stop Suicide initiative.
“NASCAR has embraced it well,” Dye said. “It’s still a hard conversation to have. We’re not vulnerable people, we try and stick our chests out and be as cool as can be, cool, calm and collected, and the whole thing about racing and going as fast as we can.
“But it is being talked about more. I’ve talked to some drivers about situations they’ve been in with family and friends. Every team I’ve ever raced for has been all-in on and really cares about it, which has been super cool. I’ve talked to some officials about it who’ve come to me, as well.”
The Race to Stop Suicide initiative has been part of Dye’s racing efforts since his late model days. Every team he’s ever raced for, be it late models, trucks or in the Xfinity Series, has been very supportive of Dye and his father’s advocacy.
Since Dye joined Kaulig Racing, the organization has picked up the mantle from Dye’s previous teams and is a major supporter of Race to Stop Suicide, which is featured prominently on Dye’s No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet.
“(Conversations with family or friends who’ve lost someone to suicide) always seems to start out with ‘thank you’ and then whatever their situation was, my aunt or my stepdad or my father (committed suicide), things like that,” Dye said. “And then the conversation begins, ‘We had no idea. I wish I would have known and done anything to change it,’ things like that.
“Nobody cares until it’s too late, and then once they do care, then they’re all-in, they do everything they can. I recently met a lady whose nephew had committed suicide two years ago and she was talking about him to me. They had bracelets made about her nephew and who he was and to keep you reminded that there are people out there who care about you and how you feel and want to be there if you need something.
“The people who have been impacted by it do seem to care a whole lot and do what they can to start the conversation with people.”
A native of DeLand, Florida, only about 25 miles from Daytona International Speedway, Dye is in his first full season in the Xfinity Series, currently ranked 13th in the standings after the season’s first 12 races.
RELATED: Xfinity Series schedule | Xfinity Series standings
While he has yet to earn his first win in the Xfinity Series, it has been a good season for him thus far with five top-10 finishes (including a season-best finish of seventh at both Atlanta and Martinsville). Except for a crash on Lap 5 of the season-opening race at Daytona, Dye has completed all but two laps in the 11 subsequent races. His next race is May 24 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Before this season, he drove full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2023 (finished 18th) and 2024 (finished 10th).
In addition to support from NASCAR, Dye is also thankful for the reception he’s received from fans.
“The fans have been a huge part of it,” he said. “They’ll stop me in the garage or on the way to driver intros or autograph sessions, whatever it may be.
“They’ve all taken it well. Nobody has said you’re doing a bad thing. That always makes you feel good. We’ve had some people reach out to us and say, ‘This actually made a difference in my life personally,’ and that makes you feel good.
“You never want anyone to go through something like that, but it does make you feel good that you’ve maybe changed somebody’s life.”