The news shocked the world, especially driver Matt Swanson. Championship-winning car owner and chassis builder Jeff Ulrich was dead. After attending the 2025 East Coast Indoor Dirt Nationals, Ulrich was struck by a vehicle and killed crossing a street in nearby Bordentown, New Jersey. He was 49 years old.
“The morning I woke up with the shocking phone call about Jeff passing was one of the worst days of my life,” Swanson, of Acton, Massachusetts, said. “We had spent so much time together just a couple of weeks prior.”
The PK Racing Chassis crew set out to win the Allentown Indoor Race in Ulrich’s memory. His family, including his daughter Colleen, watched from the stands. The team fielded three cars welded by Ulrich at Rick Kluth’s shop. D.J. Shaw drove Ulrich’s first car, PK001. Swanson steered PK003 and Tanner VanDoren competed in PK004. (PK002 was destroyed last year.)
After blowing two engines, VanDoren’s weekend ended early. That upped the pressure on Shaw, who finished seventh on Friday, and Swanson, who finished ninth.
“I’m not a big believer in things are meant to happen,” Swanson said. “I knew all weekend that we had a shot to win. Indoor racing has so many variables that affect performance. You can have a good night, and then a bad night, mainly because the cars get so much abuse. Luck has to be on your side.”
Sometimes you make your own luck. When the crews checked the nuts and bolts on the cars, they found a brake hose coming apart on Swanson’s ride. They proceeded to change the same hose on Shaw’s too. Both cars qualified. Swanson started third after the redraw.
“I took the beginning of the race to see what everyone was doing,” Swanson said. “Then, I was lucky to be behind Ryan Flores’ car. I studied what his car was doing and what my car was doing and I saved that in my memory bank for later in the race.”
What Swanson learned came useful during a late-race restart.
“I stayed alongside Ryan going into turn one,” Swanson said. “On lap 36, I took the lead. I’m not one to get too emotional, but I couldn’t control myself when the checkered flag flew. I got choked up as I took the victory lap, and even going through the scales.”
Matt Swanson first raced indoors in 2022 at Syracuse. He’s been seeking a win ever since then and finally it came on Saturday.
“I just wish Jeff was there to see the win,” Swanson said. “He used to tell me to keep my nose to the grindstone and keep on trucking. I’ve won races before, but none like this. Not one person was disappointed that a car Ulrich built had won. It was a great night, a feel-good victory, and a great win for Jeff.”
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.
