Andrew Deal Seizing Dream Opportunity in Debut Season on National Tour - Speedway Digest

When Caney, KS native Andrew Deal signed up to chase the 2024 American Sprint Car Series National championship, he knew he was in a now-or-never situation.

“I’m just kind of at that point in life where, if I was going to do it, I need to do it now.” Deal said. “I’ve got two little girls, and they’re younger, so as they get older, life’s going to become more about them.”

When he isn’t racing Sprint Cars, Deal operates DFR Discount Tire in Dewey, OK – a business he started to help fund his racing dreams – and credited a newfound degree of flexibility with his day job as another reason behind his decision to go full-time.

“My shop’s finally to a point where I don’t have to be here 24/7,” Deal said. “Got everything together, and after the end of last year, it was like ‘well, might as well.’”

While Deal will be visiting many tracks on the 2024 schedule for the first time, he has plenty of Sprint Car knowledge to lean on. His brother-in-law is Wayne Priddy – a longtime crew chief in the 410 ranks.

“He helps me a lot with everything,” Deal said. “That’s what’s been my edge. A lot of these tracks I’ve never been to, but he’s been to. So, he’s helped me a lot with being prepared and what to expect at each track, and how to prepare for each track.”

Tackling a national schedule for the first time is a daunting task for any race team, but especially for a two-man operation like the No. 15D team.

“I don’t have a crew, I don’t have guys, it’s just me and Dad,” Deal said. “I think the biggest thing is just going to be not wearing out, racing multiple days in a row without just being exhausted. It just takes so much time to do everything right. Just being prepared is going to be the biggest thing for us.”

Deal wasted no time in making his presence known in the first two races of the season, collecting a Heat Race win and a second-place Feature finish in the season opener at Super Bee Speedway.

He followed that up with a seventh-place run at Red Dirt Raceway, placing him second in the standings entering a pair of races in his home state at Rush County Speedway (Friday, May 31) and Dodge City Raceway Park (Saturday, June 1).

A weekend close to home can sometimes plays to a driver’s advantage, but that won’t exactly be the case next weekend.

“I have never even seen Rush County,” Deal said. “I’ve been to Dodge City a couple times, we’ve ran a Non-Wing some, back when I was really young. I might have even ran a Midget there at one point in my life.

“I think I’ll be pretty comfortable on all the 1/4-mile bullring stuff. On the bigger stuff, it may take me a second to get back in the groove. For years, I’ve just run Creek (County Speedway), Caney (Valley Speedway) and Humboldt (Speedway). I haven’t went out of my little area here, just with the business and kids and stuff.”

Deal will do more traveling than ever before in 2024 and has a few dates in particular circled on his calendar.

“I actually haven’t ran Knoxville, so I’m looking forward to Knoxville (for the 360 Knoxville Nationals in August),” Deal said. “Paducah, it looks pretty cool, never been there. Excited to go out to Montana, I’ve never been out there and raced.”

While Deal has aspirations of clinching the championship and Rookie of the Year award at season’s end, the success of his inaugural year on tour won’t be defined entirely by the box score.

“My Dad’s getting older, and life doesn’t last forever,” Deal said. “I wanted to basically go have some fun with my Dad and see some new tracks, travel a little bit, enjoy myself.

“I’m going to keep racing and keep having fun, and we’ll see where that goes.”

You can watch Deal and the rest of the ASCS National Tour stars when the season continues in Kansas at Rush County Speedway, on Friday, May 31, and Dodge City Raceway Park, on Saturday, June 1. For more information, CLICK HERE.

If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch every lap live on DIRTVision.

ASCS PR