GREENBRIER, Ark. — Perspective is a good word to describe the 2025 racing season for Jordon Mallett, who stepped away from his winged sprint car in the summer to shift priorities.
“We came out well and won a race and were doing our normal thing,” he said. “By late summer we had some family stuff going on and I decided to take a step back to be present with the family. That’s something I probably haven’t done a great job with over my career. After as many years as I’ve spent on the road, it was okay to take some time off to be with family. It was a shift in mindset.
“We had speed and everything lined up like we wanted. I wasn’t quite where I needed to be mentally and I needed to take a step back to spend family time. It was tough because I wanted to be in the race car because that’s what I know, but it was well worth it because it helped my mind. Life has changed now that I have my daughter and it’s made me appreciate my family time more. I enjoy racing, but it was a time I needed to stop and be present with her.”
Prior to his sabbatical from the seat, Mallett recorded one win and nine top 10s in 10 starts while missing out on nearly as many opportunities to race because of rainouts.
“I felt we were really solid and we had speed,” he said. “As the season progressed, it was really tough because we didn’t get an opportunity to run a lot of races because it seemed it rained every other week in the spring and summer. We had good speed, but could have been faster.”
Mallett’s triumph was his 39th career sprint car victory and it gave him a winning season during 12 of the last 14 years.
“That weekend was crazy,” he said. “We had raced with the ASCS National Tour in Kentucky in May. I went to our engine builder’s in North Carolina and went over some stuff. We decided to go to Milton, Fla., to race and it was mostly testing. On the Friday night we were hitting on all cylinders and everything went as it should have and we won. We changed a bunch of stuff up and our engine package for Saturday. We hit on all cylinders that night as well and felt we had the car to win. Some officiating got in the way and we left with a second-place finish, but it was a really solid weekend.”
Mallett has a fresh outlook for the 2026 racing season.
“My mind is focused on next year,” he said. “We left it in the summer as I was taking a little bit of time off. We’re going to get back to racing next year and are currently working on our plan.
“I want to thank our partners not only for their support of our race team, but of me as a person. They have always been behind me and were behind me this year when I needed to take some time off from racing. I feel blessed to have so many great people supporting me.”
