CONCORD, N.C. — Fifteen years after winning his first DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Model title, Jason Feger conquered the grind of the 2025 Hell Tour to earn his second.
However, there was a different motivation behind his chase for another.
Though he wanted the accolade, the Bloomington, Ill., native was determined to win a championship for his family and friends. For all of those who have stuck close to him throughout his life, he wanted to honor them with a championship celebration.
“It definitely feels good to get a second (title),” Feger said. “I mean, (as) someone who has won it before, it wasn’t on my bucket list because it’s not really fun, so that’s why they call it the Hell Tour for a reason. So, it’s probably more special for everyone else than it actually is for myself.
“It means a lot to Craig and Karen Richards from New Zealand, who we call the Kiwis. For my tire guy, David Karban, this is his third year. ‘Redbeard’ (Jason Palubicki) really wanted to get a second one because he only had one with Bobby (Pierce).
“Then, obviously, for my daughter, Wynn, to see me win, because she wasn’t here when I won my first one. I don’t know if she’ll remember this one, but she’s there and it’ll be special to have her in pictures to know she was here for it.”
Feger’s 2025 Hell Tour campaign came with a mix of highs and lows. While he started with a run of two wins toward the Week 1 title, he began to lose his grasp of the lead through Weeks 2 and 3 after finishing outside of the top-10 through four races. But he picked his momentum back up to championship-winning speed with the Week 4 title.
In the final Week of the tour, Feger had to overcome difficult heat races to keep Tyler Erb from stealing the points lead. Those nights kept him balancing with a steady command before clinching the title in the Birthday Race at Oakshade Raceway – the penultimate race of the season – with a third-place finish.
“It’s a really hard balance,” Feger said. “You can’t tear your equipment up, so that’s the one thing I definitely have learned over the years. If you get really behind early, it’s really hard to get caught back up. Then, you got the battle for the weekly points, so you’re trying to outweigh the risk vs. reward in everything you’re doing the whole time.
“That’s a little tough. I feel like I drive with a lot of patience most of the time, and very rarely do we get tore up or get direct hits. So, I feel like that fits me pretty well for this tour. I know a lot of the tracks, but we’ve been to a lot of new tracks this year and did really well at a few of them.”
Throughout the 2025 tour, the “High Side Hustler” had to battle against “Terbo” in the second consecutive year in the battle for the Summer Nationals title.
The two shared similar results in 2025, with Erb scoring more feature wins with six. However, Feger earned more top fives (14) and top 10s (22), proving to be the difference-maker in deciding the tour champion as Feger secured the title with a 93-point cushion.
“I have a ton of respect for ‘Terbo,’ and I feel like he’s as hard of a worker as anybody in the sport of racing,” Feger said. “I love his energy, how he doesn’t hold back and says what’s on his mind because I feel like our sport needs a lot more of that. He’s going to race you hard every lap, and me and him have been buddies for a long time. He definitely makes you step up your game, and I know he respects me and that we run each other really hard.
“I know he wants to beat me at my best, and I want to beat him when he’s at his best. So, I tried to stay within two to three spots every night, because I just knew if I did that, there could be no way he could beat me. The weekly stuff’s not quite as bad, but the long run overall (championship) like that is definitely stressful. You just got to focus on what you can control, going out there and trying to win or get little boosts each night.”
