In 2018, Dewease became the third member of his team to be inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, joining Brown and Kreitz.
“Experience,” Dewease said about the biggest key to the team’s success. “Donnie and Davey are very smart on these race cars. Donald probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves. He’s really smart. They worry about the race car and nothing else. They don’t worry about the outside stuff.”
Dewease’s favorite part has been working with and winning with Brown.
“He’s amazing,” Dewease said. “He’s 85 and still does what he does. The drive he has to still do it is the amazing part to me. I just hope to be able to walk when I’m 85. He’s very competitive. When the car’s not right, he’s not happy. He’s here and works on it and gets down on his knees. He works like he did 30 or 40 years ago.
“Being with Davey in victory lane and seeing somebody his age with his drive enjoying it when we’re in victory lane, that means everything to me,” Dewease added.
Dewease has been a staple in central Pennsylvania sprint car pit areas since the mid-1980s when he started out in his own car, winning at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway where he grew up playing in the stones near the flag stand.
He has driven for some of the circuit’s greatest car owners, including Walter Dyer, Joe Harz, Al Hamilton, Pete Postupak and Donny Owens.
What is his favorite part of being involved in sprint car racing all of these years?
“The people I’ve met,” he said. “I was a shy kid when I started this deal. I just wanted to race. I just wanted to race sprint cars. Never worried about anything else. I’ve been very fortunate to do it for a living for a long time and I’ve met a lot of great people along the way. Even the people you don’t think are great are still really good people. Everybody has their moments amongst us drivers and teams and all. The people involved are great and there’s not too many teams, drivers or crew members that wouldn’t help somebody else out. It’s one big racing family and that’s what’s so neat about it.”
Dewease spent 2013 driving Mike Heffner’s No. 27 entry before moving to the Dietz car, but his career got a shot of adrenaline when he teamed with Kreitz and Brown.
“Down years for me, yes,” he said. “When I was in the 14 car, we won Outlaws shows. In Heffner’s car, we were really competitive, but we just didn’t have the wins we wanted. We were really fast, especially at the end of the year at all the big shows. Things don’t go your way sometimes. Lots of times, you can have the best race car around and not win a race, especially nowadays. Just like last night (at Williams Grove), we had a really good race car all night last night and ended up second.
Circumstances and starting spot dictates a lot of stuff.”
The 2020 season will be Dewease’s 35th behind the wheel.
“We’ve thought about it a little bit because of some things we’re going to do with shirts and stuff,” he said. “As far as I know, we’re continuing unless they tell me something different between now and whenever.”
Dewease, who turned 54 on Oct. 6, is the youngest member of the No. 69k team other than one crew member and Kreitz’s daughter, Kassidy, who races 305 sprint cars.
“Everybody else that works on this thing is in their 60s and 70s,” Dewease said.
When he’s not driving sprint cars, Dewease builds shocks for various teams and enjoys an occasional round of golf.
“I just enjoy golfing and I’m getting better and better at it,” he said. “I want to see how good I can get at it. I’ve got some goals that I want to try and do down the road here. Right now, I just have fun doing it. My old car owner, Donny Owens, is a pretty good golfer and we go play a lot of tournaments and try to compete as much as we can.
“It’s the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. It’s way harder than driving a race car. It’s kind of like racing a little bit because you can think you have it figured out and all of a sudden, you’re no good for a while. It’s just like it. You can take the highs and lows with it. It’s a passion I have and it’s nice that I can do both of them right now.”
Dewease has won 347 sprint car features, with 112 of those coming at Port Royal Speedway where he has won six track championships. Dewease also has 98 wins and six track titles at Williams Grove Speedway.
He’s won 15 World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series features and 37 races with the Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions.