Most people think progress in cancer research happens in big moments. A breakthrough. A headline. A new treatment. What they don’t see is everything that happens before that. The years of work. The failed experiments. The collaboration across institutions. The early ideas that don’t yet have enough data to qualify for traditional funding. That’s where a lot of the real progress starts. And it’s where cancer research philanthropy can make a meaningful difference.

When people hear about a cancer research breakthrough, the story often sounds simple. A discovery is announced. A new therapy shows promise. A headline declares progress. But what most people don’t see behind cancer research breakthroughs is the long, demanding path that leads to that moment. Scientific progress rarely arrives in a single dramatic leap. It comes through years of incremental work, careful experimentation, and persistence from researchers who are trying to a

But what they don’t see is the grind behind the scenes. The years of effort, the research that doesn’t get funded, and the scientists struggling to keep momentum without institutional support.

Everyone agrees the healthcare system needs to change. But almost no one agrees on how to change it. And even when they do? It takes forever.

Transparency sounds like a good thing. And in many cases, it is. But in healthcare policy, I’ve seen a troubling pattern: Transparency gets weaponized. Not to inform decisions. Not to improve outcomes. But to delay progress, justify inaction, or create political cover.

There’s a myth in leadership that experience automatically makes you better. But I’ve learned, on the racetrack, in health policy, and in research funding, that experience without adaptability is just a heavier anchor. The world changes. Fast. And if you’re clinging to “what used to work,” you’re not leading. You’re coasting.

That’s what happened with a recent study the JKTG Foundation supported, one that explored how iron-based nanoparticles could help detect and treat tumors more safely. This wasn’t hype. It was smart, specific science. And it’s the kind of work we’re proud to back.

You don’t usually associate spreadsheets with survival rates. But that’s exactly the connection Dr. Paul Macklin is exploring in our latest Driving Research episode.

You get results: faster, sharper, and more aligned with what patients truly need. That was the driving force behind the 9th annual JKTG Symposium, held October 15, 2025 in Washington D.C. This year’s theme, "Improving Breast Cancer Outcomes: Revealing and Targeting Tumor–Immune Interactions," was more than a title. It was a call to action.

If a project is safe, it will get funded. If it’s bold, uncertain, or disruptive, it probably won’t. That’s the problem. High-risk cancer research is exactly where the biggest breakthroughs often happen. But in most traditional funding models, the riskiest projects get pushed aside, not because they’re wrong, but because they don’t fit the system. This is where philanthropy comes in. And this is why the JKTG Foundation exists...

We throw the word legacy around a lot. People use it to mean all kinds of things: a name on a building, a career full of accolades, a foundation that writes checks in your honor. But in my experience, real legacy isn’t about how things look. It’s about whether what you built keeps working when you’re no longer in the picture. In cancer research, that’s especially important. If your funding, your connections, or your ideas are holding everything together, then you’re not build

For years, I’ve funded cancer research behind the scenes. Now, we’re taking the conversation public, with the launch of Driving Research, the JKTG Foundation’s first-ever cancer research podcast. And we’re starting with a conversation that matters...

In racing, like in life, you’re constantly making decisions with incomplete information. That’s exactly what we faced this weekend at Mid-Ohio. The forecast was on a knife’s edge. Some said rain, some said it would hold off. The track was dry, but the skies weren’t exactly confident about staying that way. So we made a call. Two different ones, actually...