The Dome at America's Center
Feger savors season, but falls shy at Dome
By Kevin Kovac
DirtonDirt senior writer
Jason Feger (25) duels Ricky Thornton Jr. (20rt). (photosbyboyd.smugmug.com)
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (Dec. 6) — When Jason Feger bolted from the seventh starting spot to second place by the fifth lap of Saturday’s 40-lap Kubota Gateway Dirt Nationals finale inside The Dome at America’s Center, he couldn’t prevent himself from wondering if his time to bask in the event’s ample spotlight was finally coming. | RaceWire
One of 13 drivers who has entered the Dirt Late Model portion of every Gateway weekend since its genesis in 2016, the 47-year-old veteran from Bloomington, Ill., has never recorded a top-five finish in his four previous appearances in the big-money headliner but his fortunes seemed to be changing as he moved forward and only polesitter Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., remained ahead of him.
“Yeah, I mean, The Dome’s a lot of luck, right?” Feger said later, noting that all the breaks were falling his way at the start of the race. “I felt like I was stuck really good early, kind of right in the middle (of the fifth-mile oval). Of course, there was a little bit of moisture and stuff, but I thought once I got into a second there and passed Ricky (Thornton Jr.), I thought, Man, we might have a chance.”
Alas, Feger’s Dome moment would have to wait at least another year. He ceded second to Chandler, Ariz.’s Thornton shortly before the race’s halfway point after he slapped the turn-two wall and ripped up his Longhorn Chassis’s deck and spoiler, and with three circuits remaining another slip allowed Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., to get by and relegated Feger to a fourth-place finish.
The fourth-place run, worth $6,000, was a career-best at The Dome for Feger, but he emerged from his battered car afterward feeling like an opportunity had gone through his fingers — even though he knew the 29-year-old Pierce, who led from flag-to-flag for the event-record $70,000 winner’s prize, would have been difficult to beat.
“Let’s face it, Bobby doesn’t make very mistakes. He’s the best in the business for a reason,” said Feger, scheduled to start seventh but inheriting the fifth spot after Mark Whitener lost power steering. “But the car was really good. I mean, I had a little bit of a break with Mark breaking there at the beginning and giving me a couple spots, but I was hooked up really good for quite a while.”
Driving a sharp green-and-white car that was styled as a throwback to the early-‘90s Kodiak-sponsored NASCAR Cup Series car piloted by Midwest legend Ken Schrader, Feger took a quite confidence into the finale that only grew stronger with his early surge.
“I was really happy after Thursday,” Feger said. “I felt like Thursday night’s (preliminary) group was really tough, and you know, we had two yellows (in the 25-lap feature), but it wasn’t like nobody broke in front of me or anything like that, so we came from 12th to (finish) seventh against that group.
“Then tonight, I won that first qualifier and I felt like Brian (Shirley) had a good car all week too and we kind of drove away from him, so I was really happy with the car. I feel like we got a pretty good handle on it and made some decisions.”
But Feger’s hopes were effectively dashed when his encounter with the turn-two Jersey barriers left the spoiler and bodywork on the back end of his No. 25 flopping around the rest of the way.
“We got to lapped traffic and I just got pretty aggressive there and kind of took the spoiler off in one and two,” Feger said. “People who don’t think (the spoiler) matters (on the small Dome layout), it matters. I definitely lost a lot of right-rear grip down the straightways. Maybe if I would have just tightened up a lot more or been a little lower on the right-rear, I thought it might have been OK. But once I did that (damage), it just felt like I put 10 turns in the right-rear and I was just up on top of track a little bit too much. And honestly, the moisture went away a little bit, too.
“I kind of figured the best thing I could do was to live on the cushion. I kept telling myself, ‘Be smart, don’t make mistakes, because with all the debris and stuff, (Pierce) could get a flat tire, hit a hole wrong and break a J-bar.’ I just wanted to try to keep myself in the right position to have a chance if a circumstance arose.”
Feger spent several circuits in an entertaining, slider-trading battle for second with Thornton before finally relinquishing the spot to the eventual runner-up. His lost the last podium spot to Sheppard because he “just hit the hole wrong there with like three to go maybe, right in the middle of one and two.
“I got through (the hole) pretty good most times, but that one time I hit it wrong and bottomed out and it shot me to the wall and I lost a (position) there,” Feger said. “You make any little bobble when a guy like Thornton and Sheppy’s behind you, like, they’re jumping on it, right? I mean, that’s how we race right now.”
There wasn’t much despair in Feger’s voice after settling for fourth place, though. He still had a “blast” in the feature.
“It’s so fun to race on this place, especially when you’re racing with the good guys,” Feger said, specifically recalling the segment of the race in which he swapped second several times with Thornton. “We’ve seen that a lot this weekend. There’s been a lot of really good, hard racing, people like letting each other live and giving them room and crossing them back over and making really good decisions.
“And I mean, it was fast. They had the track really fast. I don’t ever remember feeling this place go around there as fast as we were. And honestly, we had some bumps, but it was probably the smoothest Saturday track I ever remember. They did a good job. They’ve been tuning on it. They might have it a little top dominant right now, but, you know, I think I’m glad they did this and maybe they got a good idea of where to go with it.”
The weekend was typically enjoyable for Feger, who is expressed astonishment over how big the event has become — it drew a record crowd estimated at more than 30,000 for Saturday’s finale — and how exciting it is to be a part of it. His huge merchandise sales for the weekend at his booth on The Dome’s concourse added another layer to the Cody Sommer-promoted event as well.
“I don't feel like we’ve had the runs here at The Dome that we should’ve in the past,” said Feger, whose four previous starts in Saturday’s finale produced finishes of 16th (2016), seventh (’19), sixth (’21) and eighth (’22). “Like, you know, you think I’m a bullring guy and I’d love it, but we just never really had the results here like we could.
“But I just can’t ever say enough about the fans at this place or how much work Cody and them and all sponsors do. This deal is really special and hope we can keep doing it for a long time.”
Feger also noted that a career-best finish at The Dome was still a wonderful way to cap off his 2025 campaign.
“We’ve had an amazing year, like the best year I’ve had my career,” said Feger, who won 16 features and captured three titles (MARS, DIRTcar Summer Nationals, DIRTcar weekly) worth more than $60,000 in points-fund cash. “So had a great weekend and just a great season and great year for us.”
