NASCAR driver Ryan Ellis on books, reading, and the importance of connecting kids with the hobby

NASCAR driver Ryan Ellis is on a mission, and this one is not about winning on the track. He is steering kids toward a lifelong love of reading.

He spoke with Scripps News about his own memories of childhood reading, and what it means to him to help kids connect with the hobby.

"I was a huge Harry Potter fan," Ellis says of his childhood. "So I remember camping out with my mom to get a few of those books and I don't know how I read them in a 24 hour period. But somehow I managed to. I don't think have the capacity to still do that to this day."

His own 4-year-old daughter doesn't have a single favorite book, he says.

"It is whatever the longest book she can possibly reach, so that takes little bit longer to get through it. Pretty much anything Disney related will be a big hit. Maybe it's just the 8 o'clock hour, but it feels like she does pick the longest she possibly can to keep me or my wife in her room to hang out. I probably read more books in the last 3 to 4 years, just reading to her, than I have the 10 years prior."