MACON, Ill. — After several years of trying, Jason Feger is finally a Herald & Review 100 winner.
The veteran racer from Bloomington, Ill., grabbed the lead after a lap-30 restart and never looked back, leading the rest of the distance for the $5,000 check and his 23rd career DIRTcar Summer Nationals feature win Thursday night at Macon Speedway.
“This race, to me, means as much as it always has,” Feger said. “I’ve been coming here for a long time. I think I won a couple of these when I was helping Billy Drake back in the day. I’ve just always wanted to get this one bad for some reason.”
Through victories at the national tour level, his 2010 Hell Tour championship, and his DIRTcar Late Model national points title in 2009, Feger has enjoyed a great deal of success in his career. While the wins and accomplishments have accumulated over the years, one trophy was missing from his cabinet. One to show he had conquered one of Illinois’ most prestigious dirt track racing events.
Now, he finally has it. But it was no easy road, coming from eighth on the starting grid and having to battle just to stay inside the top-four in the first 30 laps.
After a restart on lap 30, it looked as though Feger flipped a switch, making the move on Fast Qualifier Myles Moos for third on lap 34, passing Jake Little for second on lap 36, and then Rusty Schlenk for the lead on lap 39.
Though the Macon top side was working as it so often does with super late models, Feger decided to go to the bottom for all these passes, and it paid off.
“[The track] was still pretty fast when we started the Feature, so I was just biding my time and letting them guys go,” Feger said. “They were going hard, and I was just kinda trying to roll around there in the middle groove, just keep working it and saving my stuff.
“I just felt like we kept getting better and better. When it was there, I had to be aggressive, but I was just biding my time and waiting for the opportunities.”
Now armed with the race lead and the competition behind him, Feger set it on cruise control and began clicking-off laps. Several caution flags (and one red) arose from that point forward, testing Feger’s ability to be smart on restarts.
“When you get all those yellows, you can always just leave yourself open for a mistake or for somebody to throw a slide job or easing into the corner and somebody runs into the back of you or something,” Feger said. “Them guys kept racing me clean.”
Rusty Griffaw crossed the line second – his best career finish in the event. Jayme Zider completed the podium, while Myles Moos and Jake Little rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (100 laps): 1. 25-Jason Feger[8]; 2. 16-Rusty Griffaw[9]; 3. 9Z-Jayme Zider[6]; 4. 84-Myles Moos[5]; 5. 38J-Jake Little[1]; 6. 25T-Tucker Finch[7]; 7. 27-Greg Kimmons[22]; 8. 38-Thomas Hunziker[10]; 9. 35-Claude Walker[13]; 10. 91-Rusty Schlenk[2]; 11. 33H- Roben Huffman[16]; 12. 11M-Ryan Miller[12]; 13. 22-Chris Dick[18]; 14. B15-Bob Sidener[20]; 15. 4D-Doug Tye[23]; 16. 24-Ryan Unzicker[4]; 17. 10-Blake Damery[21]; 18. 23-Andrew Barnes[17]; 19. 28M-Jake Miller[11]; 20. 31AUS-Paul Stubber[14]; 21. 22J-Dan Jacober[15]; 22. 18-Shannon Babb[3]; 23. 64-Donnie Kohler[19]