STANTON, Mich. — The numbers that stand out most from Myron DeYoung’s 2024 race season are two, eight, 11 and 30.
From Stanton, DeYoung motored to a second straight championship in the DeVilbiss Racing Chassis Eastern Region, along with a career eighth Michigan State crown and career 11th track title, at Lake Odessa’s I-96 Speedway.
And notably, DeYoung became the first driver to win at least one Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature in 30 consecutive seasons.
He captured seven checkers over the course of his latest campaign, matching the career total of 150 of Michigan legend Rick Stout, IMCA’s national champion in 1995, DeYoung’s rookie season.
“It took a little while to really set in,” admitted DeYoung, who got his first win of the season on May 18 at long-time home track Crystal Motor Speedway. “It made me think a lot about all the people who have helped me since I started racing. I’ve been real fortunate – we’re not rich or anything, we’re just normal people who like to race and have fun. It’s pretty cool.”
“I’ve wasn’t nervous. I knew eventually that we’d win one, and hopefully it wouldn’t be just one,” he said. “My goal every year is around 10. We fell a little bit short of that this year, but we race against a lot of good drivers.”
“There are a lot of good drivers around here, everybody is getting better and the cars are all pretty equal,” added DeYoung, seventh in the national points race. “That makes it tougher every year. Or maybe I’m just getting older, I’m not sure.”
The third-generation racer turned 52 on New Year’s Day and was again joined on the track by son Brenten, another of those talented ‘shoes filling IMCA fields in the state on Friday and Saturday nights.
DeYoung made a rare out-of-state start to his season, following Clash on the Coast in Florida before returning to more familiar venues. His history-making checkers at Crystal also proved to be the first of five wins in seven May and June starts.
“It would have been neat to get that first win against the big guys racing Clash on the Coast, but it mean a lot for us to get it at Crystal. They made a big deal of it and had a banner made, so it was pretty cool for sure,” he said. “I don’t know how exactly we got all those other wins and I was just talking to Brenten about that. I could almost see things happen three or four cars ahead of me – everything just clicked. I was just in the right spot at the right time.”
He finished with five wins at Crystal and two at I-96, and another 20 top fives in 40 starts.
And for the record, he’ll race for “hopefully a lot more than one feature win” to extend his streak to 31 seasons in 2025.
“I feel good, I really do. There are some Sunday mornings I am a little sore but for the most part I’m excited every race and still get little butterflies every now and again,” DeYoung said. “The excitement is still there. The guys who have been helping me are excited about next season, too. They’ve already been talking to me about getting stuff ready to go for next year.”