Devon Rouse

A fan of NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon who hoped to emulate his career path from dirt to stock car racing, Rouse began kart racing when he was three years old.^[1] He competed in the discipline until he was 13 and won six track championships at Shimek Speedway prior to its closing; he also competed in modified cars for six years.^[2]

On his 17th birthday, Rouse received a sprint car from his parents and started racing at 34 Raceway. He finished third in the track's class standings in 2016, followed by second the following year.^[3]

While vacationing in Florida in October 2019, Rouse befriended a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series crew member who invited him to travel with the team for six weeks.^[2] In January 2020, Rouse tested a truck at Myrtle Beach Speedway.^[4] He had planned to run the Truck Series' Eldora Dirt Derby at Eldora Speedway before the race was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2]

Before the 2021 racing season, he joined Fast Track Racing for the ARCA Menards Series test at Daytona International Speedway.^[5] Running the Friday practice session, he was the 46th-fastest driver of 56 in total.^[6] He also signed with Reaume Brothers Racing to run the Truck Series' Pinty's Dirt Truck Race and Corn Belt 150 at Bristol Motor Speedway and Knoxville Raceway, respectively,^[7][8] though the former was aborted due to sponsorship issues and personal reasons.^[9]

Rouse has not competed in any stock car races since 2022.

Rouse graduated from West Burlington High School in Iowa in 2016 and was a business administration major at Southeastern Community College.^[2][3] He worked at DuPont in Fort Madison for three years before forming a detailing business.^[2]

Rouse is gay.^[4] When he participated in the ARCA test at Daytona in 2021, he became the first openly LGBT driver to compete in an ARCA-sanctioned event.^[10] His Truck debut at Knoxville later that year made him the first such driver to race in the series since Stephen Rhodes in 2003.^[11]

• List of LGBT sportspeople