Jason Nation had three times the joy when he won the IMCA sport mod feature at Bakersfield Speedway in California. It was his first win at Bakersfield since the pandemic struck, and he got to savor the victory with his wife and triplets.
The four-year-old triplets — Madison, Brooklyn and Brayden — are used to seeing their father win. The first time their mother, Kayla, brought them to the track in 2017, Jason won the feature. Later that year, Jason earned the track championship. The triplets formed the core of Jason’s cheering section through 2019.
Then, the pandemic hit. With tracks in Jason’s native California canceling events in 2020, he hit the road. Jason won at far-flung places such as Fairgrounds Speedway Cortez in Colorado (see “Back in Action: Fairgrounds Speedway Cortez”). It forced the triplets to watch their father via streaming services.
“I didn’t like traveling up to 12 hours to race,” Jason, of Bakersfield, California, said. “The triplets were excited about racing last year. They kept asking when they could go to the races. Kayla had to get pay-per-view of my races, and they stayed up to 11:30 some nights to see me on TV.”
Life with triplets and racing hasn’t been easy. The triplets were born prematurely in 2016. Jason, a cabinetmaker, and Kayla, a first-grade teacher, had to visit their babies in the hospital for nearly three months.
“My brother, Corey, did everything on the race car [at the time the triplets were born],” said Jason. “He washed it, prepared it, and set it up. All I had to do was show up and drive. Winning the sport mod championship is quite an accomplishment. We won thanks to Corey.”
Nowadays, when Jason races, Kayla takes care of the children.
“People ask me, ‘How you can work, race, and raise triplets?’” Jason said. “I couldn’t do it without my wife. She has so much patience. When stuff has to get done, she makes sure it gets done.”
With Bakersfield Speedway back open, minus fans, Jason Nation once again can bring the triplets.
“We prefer them being in the stands,” said Jason. “It’s more fun for them, and there is too much going on the pits to have three four-year-olds to look after.”
Either way, some normalcy has returned to Jason’s life, and he hopes that with the triplets cheering him on, he can make a run for another championship at Bakersfield Speedway.
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
