Signs of his decade-long tenure of relentless racing across the country pour through the sun-weathered face of Jack Sprague.

The thousands of laps he's logged, beating and banging down straightaways, has created a tough-to-crack exterior on the 43-year-old racer, who wears the shell like a badge of valor.

He wears it well.

Jack Sprague says his daughter Paige has interest in racing.

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I'm figuring it out as I go along. It's one of those things where you do the best you can, raise them the best you can and go on.

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JACK SPRAGUE

Well until Sprague's kryptonite hops into his lap and wants to take another ride on the four-wheeler.

The kryptonite comes in the form of two little girls, for the hard exterior of the tattered Craftsman Truck Series driver melts away in their presence.

Sprague sighs. "I suppose that's right, the way little girls look at their dads," he says, conceding defeat.

Once dubbed "One Whack Jack" for his aggressive driving style, Sprague is a true-grit racer, but above all, he's a father.

And the Michigan native, for the first time in his life, is learning the ropes, not only as father to his 13-year-old daughter Paige Sprague, but now as stepfather to 7-year-old Jacqueline Wilhelm.

Married last year to Amy Schellenbach, whom he met at a Cincinnati Reds game, Sprague is embracing the challenge of blending families. It's not a challenge outlined with answers in a notebook from a previous race, nor does it come with an instruction manual.

No, much like his three Truck Series championships, meeting this challenge only comes with experience.

"I'm figuring it out as I go along," Sprague says. "It's one of those things where you do the best you can, raise them the best you can and go on."

Sprague's role as a father is something he takes very seriously. He understands the responsibility of shaping young minds, the careful rearing and balance required to produce strong and confident girls.

"It's cool. I really enjoy being a dad and devote most of my time to them and I love having them at the track with me," he says.

On Father's Day, Sprague is reminded of the fortune given to him as a young child. The product of divorced parents growing up in Spring Lake, Mich., Sprague too had a stepfather. And his stepfather, Duane Sprague, gave him more than just his last name. At 12-years-old, the stand-in father afforded Sprague the opportunity to go racing.

Starting with street stocks, he later raced Late Models in the amateur divisions at Thunderbird Raceway and Winston Speedway in Muskegon, Mich., where Sprague holds championship titles at each speedway.

"Basically Duane was a race fan and he would take us kids to the local dirt tracks. He and my mom helped fund my cars as far as they could afford it," Sprague says. "Certainly, if it wasn't for Duane I wouldn't be in racing today; he's my hero."

Now that he is a stepfather himself, Sprague says he has a greater admiration for the role his stepfather filled in his life.

"I appreciate it more now. I know what it is like to be a stepfather," Sprague says. "Bottom line, they're not your kids and the bond isn't the same as the one you have with your own children. The severity is not there, but that does not mean you can't love them just as much or do the same things for them as if they were your own. I give my stepdad a lot of credit for raising three of us boys, not his own."

His stepdaughter Jacqueline, not reared in the racing scene, is expanding Sprague's depth as a father and parent.

He says she has no real interest in racing yet, so he finds himself connecting with the 7-year-old through her world.

"Between gymnastics, dance and roller skating, she keeps me busy running all over the place," Sprague says. "She loves to dance. She's a little exhibitionist. It's comical. She always has the music on. I look at her mom and say we might be in trouble."

Connecting with his daughter Paige puts Sprague more in his comfort zone.

"Paige likes anything with a motor and she has expressed an interest in racing," he says. "She actually is really good with motors. She's a speed demon whether it's on the snowmobile or four-wheeler. But she's not racing, there's no sense in it."

The daughter of a racer, she gets it honest, Sprague says.

"I think she has both of her mom and me in her, but she's a way better kid than either of us ever was," he says. "The biggest thing I see is that she doesn't like to lose. She's really into to volleyball, that's her thing. And whatever she has to do to figure out how to win she does. Paige doesn't take losing lightly."

Again, she is her father's daughter.

Both girls test Sprague's balancing abilities and keep him on his toes. Paige is laid back like her father, whereas Jacqueline is wide open.

"It's been an easy transition really except for the fact I have to be careful not to let Paige get hurt feelings," he says. "I try to show attention equally and sometimes lean more towards Paige, but you have to love them both."

Reflecting on his new responsibility as a stepfather and how it mirrors his own childhood, Sprague says he feels fortunate to parent Jacqueline who otherwise may have missed out on having a full-time father figure in her life and the benefits that brings.

"I feel exactly that way," he says. "Jacqueline doesn't live with her father, so I feel like I get to be for her what my stepfather was to me."

Sprague's role is parenting paid forward.