“Dr. Peters wanted to be there for the discussion with NASCAR,” Reed said. “She wanted to be heavily involved in explaining how we were going do things that would enable me to continue racing. And to their credit, NASCAR was unbelievable. After we walked through the system we had in place, they cleared me all the way through Sprint Cup racing.”

“For me as a diabetes advocate, I don’t want NASCAR or IndyCar or any organization to refuse drivers on insulin, but I don’t want them to be cavalier about it either,” Peters said. “It was important for me to help set the precedent for what safe driving is … it was important that the organizations get the right information, for both the safety of the driver and the racing community.”

Already proving his chops on the race track before his diagnosis, in 2009 Reed became Legends Division Track Champion at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale (Calif.), backing up his Championship the following year by becoming 2010 Rookie-of-the-Year in the Super Late Model Division. He scored one win in the 2010 season, becoming the youngest winner at Toyota Speedway in the Super Late Model Divison.

At a Late Model event at Martinsville Speedway in 2011, Billy Venturini was on hand scouting Reed.

“We are always looking for good, young talent,” said Venturini, General Manager & Competition Director for Venturini Motorsports. “It’s pretty easy to keep track of the talent in the Southeast, but when it comes to West Coast drivers, and especially guys racing in the Northwest, it’s a little harder, so we like to go to the events that draw these guys east.

“(At Martinsville) he qualified excellent … he was the only name I didn’t recognize in the top 10,” Venturini added. “So, we started doing our homework and he checked out pretty well.”

“I was up front with them right away,” Reed said. “I told them about my Type 1 diabetes and the system we had in place to deal with it … there was no reason not to.”

“It was not a deterrent to the deal at all,” Venturini explained. “He seemed to have a good hold on it. It was a chance for us to educate ourselves a little about T1D and we haven’t seen it be detrimental to his performance. He is professional at his job and that’s all we can ask for.”

Never hiding his condition from the start, instead Reed has embraced the opportunity -- using his diagnosis to raise awareness of Type 1 diabetes, serving as a National Celebrity Advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the largest charitable supporter of T1D research, and flying the JDRF colors on his race car throughout the season. The paint scheme was designed by Sam Bass, NASCAR’s first licensed artist, and himself a Type1 diabetic.

Reed also started “Ryan’s Mission,” a non-profit organization aimed at building awareness of T1D and positively touching the lives of those already afflicted with the condition.

He also is finding a balance as both a T1D role model and race car driver.

Running out of gas while running second for Venturini Motorsports at Daytona, Reed struggled early to find the right team chemistry needed to succeed on the race track before settling in with current crew chief Teddy Brown.

“There was instant chemistry with Teddy,” Reed explained. “And it has played out on the race track. I wish we had more than one more race this season, because I think we are ready to start collecting some wins.”

This time, thirst is a good thing.

For more information on Ryan, please visit www.ryanreedracing.com, and for more information on Type 1 diabetes, please visit www.jdrf.org. Ryan’s final ARCA Racing Series event of the year will be the Kansas ARCA 150 at Kansas Speedway on Oct. 19. Growing in popularity, especially with younger audiences, this season, the ARCA Racing Series households ratings are up 24% on SPEED, 47% with Men 18-49. Excluding Daytona editions, this is the most-watched season of the ARCA Racing Series on SPEED since 2003 (through eight races).