In June 2022, Zane Diamond-Odell stepped into the world of drag racing with no real plan, some training from a couple technical schools, and no idea how fast his life was about to change. A car guy since childhood, Diamond-Odell got a call from Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings star Kye Kelley offering him a position on his team. Diamond-Odell took the opportunity and has been on a whirlwind tour ever since.
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #197, the 30 Under 30 Issue, in November/December 2025.
As a military kid, Diamond-Odell grew up “everywhere.” He started working on cars when he was 14, but mostly focused on appearances and audio systems rather than turning them into high-performance race cars. He had an interest in racing, but it seemed out of reach. While living in Phoenix after graduating from a heavy-duty diesel program, he was approached by two friends from college, 2024 DI 30 Under 30 honoree Elliott Loe and Jeremy Aceituno, who were working on 2015 honoree Lizzy Musi’s NPK team after the trio studied together at NASCAR Tech in North Carolina. Elliott and Jeremy put Zane’s name in front of Kelley, who needed help immediately.
“Kye called me one day, said he needed me out at National Trail Raceway in Ohio,” he remembers. “I told him I’d put in my two weeks’ notice if he was serious. And he said, ‘No, I need you here in about two days.’ I said, ‘If you buy me a plane ticket and you’re for real, I’ll quit my job tomorrow.’ He sent me an itinerary, I quit my job, and I’ve been here ever since.”
When he arrived, Diamond-Odell had to learn quickly. The crew member who helped on-board him left the team a few months into Diamond-Odell’s time there, meaning he had to continue learning on the fly while taking on new responsibilities.
What began with the big-tire NPK car quickly expanded into small-tire racing, street racing, radial racing, and then Pro Mod. “I had to keep learning, and quickly, so I didn’t get too far behind,” he says.
Fortunately, he had some solid mentors. In addition to Kelley, Diamond-Odell learned how to service and maintain the cars with guidance from mechanical minds like 2016 30 Under 30 honoree Jeff Pierce, Billy Stocklin, and 2023 honoree Evan Salemi.
A year ago, the drag racing world got a better look at Diamond-Odell, now known by many simply as “Sunshine,” when Kelley shocked the Pro Mod world by winning the first race of the inaugural Drag Illustrated Winter Series, the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals. Driving his screw-blown “Can’t Get Right” Camaro, a steel-roof-and-quarters, factory-wheelbase car, Kelley defeated some of the best drivers, brightest tuners, and most refined Pro Mods in the sport to win the $50,000 final round over eventual Winter Series champion Ken Quartuccio.
“That was unbelievable,” Diamond-Odell says. “We had no intentions on winning that at all. Everyone was talking smack about us the whole time. All we wanted to do was go out there and qualify.”
Qualifying in the record-setting 32-car field was a victory in itself. Pierce, who Diamond-Odell describes as a “stone-cold killer,” was in an unusually chipper mood when he got to the track that Sunday morning, and when they made it through the second round, the team knew they were on to something. “Kye killed the tree every single time,” he says. “Jeff never missed a tuneup.”
Kelley’s NPK Season 6 championship, now airing on Discovery, was another defining moment, a long-awaited triumph after the team finished second the first two seasons Diamond-Odell was with Kelley. Though the Street Outlaws era has effectively come to an end, Diamond-Odell looks back fondly on the moments it made possible, including a trip to Australia and racing on a remote road in California. The NPK series is also how he met his girlfriend, fellow honoree Megan Taylor.
Currently 25, Diamond-Odell works full-time for Kelley – at the race shop, the dirt oval track Kelley recently purchased, the trailer sales business, and anywhere else he’s needed. Moving forward, he wants to continue learning the mechanical side of drag racing. He’s absorbed knowledge from other NPK crew chiefs like Daniel “Phantom” Parker, Javier Canales, and Adam Drzayich, but it’s the mentorship he’s received from Kelley, Pierce, and Stocklin that has really stuck with him and propelled him down the path he’s on.
“They didn’t just see me as some dumb-ass kid and kick me to the curb,” he says. “They taught me. Billy is good at dumbing things down. He’d ask me, ‘Will you look at this? It’s doing this, this, and this. What do you think we should do here?’ It’s nice to be able to give my input and it ends up working.“I want to become a tuner later on,” he adds. “I want to stay in drag racing and solidify myself in it. I just want to be the best I can be in this.”
