He may have finished second, but to Jason Deal (25) it must have felt like a win. More than seven months ago he nearly died in a work accident.
“It was a real good feeling to sit in the driver’s seat again,” Deal, of Copperhill, Tennessee, said. “I never drove that car before, and I made some mistakes. Maybe I would have won if I didn’t make those errors, but to finish second was really good.”
Friend Jacob Hamby fielded the 604 late model that Deal drove at North Georgia Speedway in Chatsworth, Georgia, last Saturday.
“It was a spur of the moment offer,” said Deal. “Me and Jacob have been friends forever. I just got clearance from the doctors to try racing again. Jacob called and asked if I would like to drive his car.”
Last year, it was not certain if Deal would even live after his work accident.
On August 1, 2023, Deal was putting a tailgate on a dump truck at his construction business. He was inside the dump body, and a trackhoe was lifting the tailgate with a bucket. The trackhoe malfunctioned, pinning Deal between the bucket and the dump truck’s bed.
“It literally squished my guts out — my liver, pancreas, kidneys — were all damaged,” Deal said. “The Lord spared my life that day — that’s the truth.”
After a length recovery, Deal’s back to work and back to racing.
“So many people welcomed me back,” Deal said. “They came to my trailer all night just to see me and ask how I was doing. I want to thank all the fans, friends, racers for all their prayers and words of encouragement during my ordeal.”
Despite being out of racing for several months, Deal did well his first night back.
“I was just badly out of shape,” said Deal. “I was a little tired when I finished the race, but nothing hurt me. It helped that the track was smooth, slick, and slow.”
Jason Deal intends to race next in Hamby’s car at the American All-Star Series season opener. That takes place April 6 at Sugar Creek Raceway in Blue Ridge, Georgia. Meanwhile, he’s gone to work on preparing his own dirt late model for the season.
“I’m going to race close to home at first — then go from there,” Deal said “I have so much work to do. I’ll try to commit to two nights of racing at my local tracks — North Georgia Speedway and Sugar Creek Raceway. I’m going to work in a few Topless Outlaw [Series] races. All I can say is it is good to be back, for sure.”
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.
