Son of a former NASCAR driver, Billy Amick has been first and not last in early going for the Cedar Rapids Kernels

CEDAR RAPIDS - Hey, Lyndon Amick.

If you’re out there reading this, your son wants to chirp you for a minute. Chirp you again for a minute.

“Hopefully he can hear this,” Billy Amick said Tueday night after the Cedar Rapids Kernels beat Beloit, 3-2, in the 2025 home opener at Veterans Memorial Stadium. “I say it in every interview, I beat him in go karts back in the day. He also had 100 pounds on me, but I still beat him. My claim to fame.”

He flies small aircraft now for a company in Augusta, Ga., but in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Lyndon Amick was a NASCAR driver. He was the Goody’s Dash series champion in 1996, raced 93 times over seven years in what is now known as the Xfinity Series.

Famous tracks like Daytona, Talladega, Darlington, Bristol: Lyndon Amick drove at them all.

“He hates that stuff now,” Billy Amick said. “Doesn’t even watch it anymore. You wouldn’t even know (he raced) if you met him.”

None of Lyndon and Melanie Amick’s four children (three sons and a daughter) got into car racing. The boys gravitated toward baseball.

Billy Amick was a big part of Tennessee’s national championship team last season, got taken in the second round of the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft by the Minnesota Twins and seems to be an emerging prospect. The 22-year-old right-handed hitting corner infielder went 1-for-2 with three RBIs Tuesday night.

He’s 6-for-15 with four doubles, a triple and four RBIs in C.R.’s first four games this Midwest League season. The Kernels and Beloit play against Wednesday night and through Sunday.

“The bat’s real,” said Kernels Manager Brian Meyer. “He gets in there every time with a plan, and he’s ready to do damage. The thing about Billy is that he’s going to compete early in the count and he’s really going to battle with two strikes ... When he gets his pitch in the zone and he gets his swing off, there’s some real pop.”

Amick’s bat always has been his calling card. He hit 23 home runs last season for Tennessee, has bat speed and strength.

Defense has been the question. He was a first baseman/designated hitter his first two years at Clemson before settling into third base at Tennessee.

He has and will get time at first and third this season for the Kernels.

“The team, we’ve done really well, and it’s just fun to be a part of. I’m just a guy that’s in that (cleanup) spot, the lucky one to do it in that spot,” Amick said. “I don’t really set individual goals. I just want to try and have fun with baseball. You get to do it every day, all day, every year. You can’t do that if you don’t have fun. So with that, I’d say my goal is to have as much fun as I can.”

The Kernels have had fun in the very early going, winning three of their first four games. They won two of three this past weekend at Wisconsin, dropping the finale, 7-6.

“I feel like if you look at the first four games as a whole, we’re playing the game the right way,” Meyer said. “We’re running the bases, we’re putting together really competitive at-bats up and down the lineup. Our pitchers are attacking the zone, really forcing them to swing the bat. And our defense has been really solid so far. So really proud of the effort through four games.”

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