Driver's push to compete redefines winning
Price-Miller racing sprint cars between cancer treatments
WILMOT – Parker Price-Miller would rather be studying a racetrack than a medical dictionary.
Unfortunately when the doctor says, “double-hit, large B-cell diffuse non-Hodgkin lymphoma,” life changes.
An active 23-year-old who worked out and played basketball with his buddies and raced sprint cars for a living, Price-Miller was naturally blindsided by the diagnosis of what once felt like an ankle sprain.
“I was in a very low place from October to January, and I didn’t really do much those few months,” he said. “I felt sorry for myself and wasn’t in a good place, mentally and physically. Finally I was like, y’know, I’ve got to get off my (butt). I’m not going to beat it sitting here and feeling sorry for myself.”
With the understanding that cancer always carries an asterisk, that’s exactly what Price-Miller has done.
Using racing as both an incentive and a distraction, he built strength in the gym, followed his doctors’ guidance and was able to race between rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. He is off to a strong start on the racetrack and appreciating his success more than ever.
Price-Miller headed for Wisconsin this weekend with reasons to celebrate. He has finished radiation and will turn 24 Sunday, the last day of a three-race Wisconsin swing for the All Star Circuit of Champions.
“I’m just really enjoying racing,” Price-Miller said Friday at Wilmot Raceway, before the opening round got rained out.
“With everything I’ve been going through I kind of been looking at things differently. I used to get stressed out easily, bummed, kind of got stressed out about things. Now I’m just ready for the next night. I’m just in
the moment.
“And I kind of feel like that’s some of why we’ve been running good. We’re here to have fun. We want to win, for sure. But we want to have fun and enjoy it. There’s plenty of other things we could be doing other than racing, and we’re just lucky enough we get to come out here and do this for a living. Just keep on going after it every weekend.”
Price-Miller came into the weekend third in All Star points behind Tyler Courtney and Justin Peck. He arrived with top-10 finishes in all but one feature, and although he hadn’t won with the All Stars he did win a local show in South Dakota recently for his first postdiagnosis checkered flag.
The second of three combined All Stars / IRA Sprints shows was scheduled for Saturday night at the Plymouth Dirt Track on the Sheboygan County Fairgrounds, and the swing is set to finish Sunday at Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie.
“Each week I can tell I’m getting stronger and stronger,” said Price-Miller, who has been to victory lane with the All Stars, IRA and World of Outlaws.
“It’d take me three to five days after chemo to start feeling OK enough to get up and move around. As soon as I felt like that, I’d immediately go to the gym and start working out so that way I could feel as good as possible and not lose as much muscle and lose all that stamina and stuff for the race car. It helped me out in the long run.
“I would say (I’m) 80-90%, and in these things you want to be 100% all the time. I feel like even though I’m 80%, I’m still giving it my 100% effort and … I don’t think I’m holding things back.”
Price-Miller’s off-track odyssey began in February 2019, when he noticed his right ankle hurt as if he’d rolled it. But the irritation came and went, and given his athletic endeavors and the way a driver can get bounced around in a 900-horsepower sprint car, aches and pains are to be expected. He ignored it.
The problem flared up more frequently in 2020, though, and Price-Miller finally went to an orthopedist in August.
“He gave me an X-ray and immediately found a bone spur on the top of my right foot,” he said.
Surgery was straightforward and physical therapy quick and productive. The pain was gone.
“Then May of 2021 came along and the pain was coming back,” Price-Miller said. “I was like, y’know what, this is part of it, it’s gonna come back, part of aging. My mom made me go back, so I went back in August 2021.”
The orthopedist ordered an MRI that came back with “abnormal findings.” So he sent Price-Miller to an oncologist, who set up a CT scan, which led to a bone biopsy, some questions about whether he might have leukemia and finally a diagnosis with a long and scary name. The cancer was considered Stage 2, and treatment began.
“One of the days that really opened my eyes, I wasn’t feeling good, could barely get out of bed, It was a nice day in February, it was like 60 degrees, and it’s rarely like that in Indiana,” said PriceMiller, who is from Kokomo.
“I got outside and just took a walk. I was super thankful to be able to get out and walk, based on how I was feeling. Before that I wouldn’t have been thankful for that. I’d take it for granted. It’s something that I’ll never do again, like taking each race for granted. It just goes by so quick.
“I’ve learned that over the past few months. That’s something I’ve learned through this experience that I’ll be grateful for the rest of my life.”
Chemotherapy took care of a spot in Price-Miller’s neck and another in his pelvis and shrunk the large tumor in his lower right leg significantly. He’s due for another PET scan next month to see if the radiation took care of the rest.
Price-Miller has heard people find his story of working to race between treatments inspirational, and he’s happy if that’s the case but points out that his goal was just to get better.
“Racing has been something that’s helped me get through it,” Price-Miller said. “It’s something I can do to get away from it all. I really don’t think about it when I’m racing. Selfishly it’s been helping me out more than anyone.
“Before I would always race or work to try to impress and show people what I can do. Now I just kind of do it for my own enjoyment and still try put on a show for others and inspire others. Before I didn’t really enjoy my own success. Now I make it a point to try to do that.”