Brownstown Speedway
Focused, fast Heckenast eyeing national return
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Frank Heckenast Jr. (99jr) churns up the bottom lane at Brownstown. (heathlawsonphotos.com)
BROWNSTOWN, Ind. (Sept. 26) — Frank Heckenast Jr. has quietly gone about his business this season, trying to determine whether he and his No. 99jr team are ready for a national touring run in 2027.
After several seasons in which he felt his program lacked direction, the Frankfort, Ill., driver set out to travel more, face stiffer competition and tackle racetracks he'd encounter on a national series. Saturday's Jackson 100 at Brownstown Speedway, where he ran among the top three for 94 laps before fading to sixth, was precisely the kind of performance he’d been working toward.
“This moves the needle, for sure,” the 38-year-old Heckenast said.
It was another encouraging sign for a driver who, just two weeks earlier at Eldora Speedway's World 100, said his team needed to prove it had the speed to compete nationally before committing to a full-time touring schedule. Qualifying for his first World 100 since 2021 marked another step forward, until a carburetor malfunction sparked an engine-compartment fire that ended his race on lap 26.
“We’ve been trying to build towards something like that," Heckenast said at Eldora of his national touring aspirations, which he hasn’t pursued since competing on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series from 2014-17. “My rule was we had to show speed this year before we did that. I feel like we’ve shown speed.
“We should’ve had five, six, seven wins, and we only have three. And a lot of them were stupid failures like (the fire at the World 100). We have to get that cleaned up before we get on the road. If we do, maybe we can.”
Whatever Heckenast decides, Saturday offered further evidence of the progress he's made toward becoming a national touring contender again. While his three victories this season fall short of expectations, he’s one triumph shy of matching his combined win total from the previous four years.
He hasn’t enjoyed this much success since 2021, when he won four times, including a World of Outlaws Late Model Series triumph at I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls, Minn. His three victories this year have all come on the DIRTcar Summer Nationals, marking his first wins on the tour since 2020.
And that’s despite a monthlong absence after dislocating two fingers in an accident at home. Heckenast didn’t race from May 10 through June 8, costing him valuable seat time.
“I was chasing my kid, and I fell really bad,” he said. “I just couldn’t hold on to the steering wheel, so we took four weeks off there. That didn’t really kill our program. It’s just those four to six weeks, we could’ve maybe got another win, you know?
“We had some DNFs after we had three wins in the Summer Nationals, where I think we could’ve had four or five. … The last three years have been an absolute goddamn struggle. It just feels good to show these guys we can still do it. I’m not too old, or my kids or business haven’t slowed us down.”
For a stretch of Saturday's 100-lapper at Brownstown, Heckenast had a shot at victory.
He ran second for 43 laps, erasing eventual winner Brian Shirley’s four-second advantage on lap 52 by lap 70. But an aggressive late-race battle with Josh Rice took him off the bottom groove, overheated his softer tires and allowed Rice, Max Blair, Ricky Thornton Jr. and Devin Moran to slip past as he faded to sixth.
“I had two choices. I could either try to take the left side off my car, try to get to the bottom here and run third, or it’s a $50,000-to-win. We suck at Brownstown. Our worst track. Let’s go for it,” Heckenast said. “So I went for it. Looked cool for a minute, got back by Rice for second, and then I just got my stuff too hot.”
But the missed opportunity didn’t diminish the progress Heckenast and his team made, particularly after a disappointing Friday in which he pulled off after 21 laps and finished 25th.
“One thing I’m super proud of, of myself and my team, is I literally stayed right here for two days. I didn’t go in a single trailer but mine,” Heckenast said. “I’ve got a lot of business stuff going on, which actually helps me a lot to focus on my racing. People think it’s the opposite, but it’s not.
“You just overthink it every day. At least I do. And we stayed right here. We stayed humble, and we stayed very, very disciplined with our setup.”
Heckenast believes one more adjustment might have made the difference.
“One little adjustment, we maybe win the race. I don’t want to say win, but we had a better chance,” he said. “(Friday) night we just missed it. And then today, we did everything right. Hot laps, qualifying, heat race. I made all the right adjustments. We did. I did. It was nice, for once.
“This is a place that we just can’t figure out. So then everything was good, and I was just taking a shower thinking, ‘Like, damn, just one more adjustment. Just a little bit more, and I keep Squirrel behind me.’ The only thing I would’ve done is I should’ve probably just adjusted for the bottom and stayed down there and kept Squirrel behind me. And then, who knows?"
Heckenast felt he had the speed to match Shirley. What he lacked, he figured, was the preferred line when it mattered most.
“I feel like I was the same speed as him when I was in second forever. He just beat me to it,” Heckenast said. “So, I mean, to be that close, you can’t be upset.”
Heckenast has just two race weekends remaining on his schedule — this Friday and Saturday's FALS Frenzy at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway and the Oct. 9-10 Lucas Oil doubleheader at Eldora — but he hopes Brownstown signals the start of some much-needed consistency.
At August’s North-South 100, he debuted a new Longhorn Chassis he believed was capable of a top-10 finish, only to get swept up in a massive 15-car pileup. After repairing the car, he suffered a rear-end failure at Eldora’s Baltes Classic before the World 100 fire ended another promising run.
Heckenast attempted to follow the World of Outlaws tour last year, but a crash in the Jan. 24 opener at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., derailed those plans. The accident required months of physical therapy and a visit to a Chicago neurologist who also treats Chicago Bears players.
The crash “messed me up for a while,” Heckenast said, adding that he “wasn’t really myself until probably mid-April.” By then, he felt his program had fallen behind, leaving him playing catch-up for the rest of the season.
Fast-forward to this year’s Georgia-Florida Speedweeks, when Heckenast charged from 21st to sixth against the Lucas Oil Series at All-Tech Raceway, a night after scratching from competition because of mechanical issues.
“When I got in the truck at All-Tech (that Friday) … I said to my dad, ‘Maybe I just can’t do it all anymore, you know what I mean?’” Heckenast said. “Maybe I can’t run three businesses, have two kids and a wife, and try to compete at this level. Because I am theoretically the crew chief. So I got all these damn decisions.
“Then we get it to what we’d like to have it. Then it’s alright, we can compete a little bit here.”
That All-Tech performance, coupled with his Jackson 100 showing, has Heckenast eyeing another Speedweeks trip in 2027, hoping a strong showing in Florida could lead to a full-fledged national touring effort.
Juggling that with three businesses — Storage Squares, JR Hauling and Indy U-Pull-It — might seem impractical, but Heckenast believes the structure of a national schedule could actually make life more straightforward.
“What’s very stressful for everyone is not knowing what I’m doing,” Heckenast said. “My trucking business, the busiest time for it is the last week of every month. So like (earlier this year at Ocala), it was super busy and they needed me there. I’m racing. I wasn’t supposed to do Ocala. That’s what causes fights in my life — the inconsistent schedule.
“When you don’t run a tour, everyone is like, ‘It’s great, you can go wherever you want.’ When actually, it’s just a double-edged sword. These guys that run the tour, it gives you a schedule for the whole year. You kind of know what you're doing.”
He particularly likes the Lucas Oil schedule, which he considers accommodating to his family and business commitments.
“Lucas Oil is manageable, in my opinion, for a schedule like mine, for a guy who has other commitments, you know?” he added. “The other reason I want to do it: it makes you better. I like to play golf. I play way better when I play with people way better than me. Same thing with racing.
“If this was my only income like some of these other guys, we would be a lot more consistent. … But I have a beautiful life waiting for me when I’m done with racing.”
Heckenast expects to retain 20-year-old tire specialist Logan Steinquist for a third season and veteran car chief Todd Domagalla for a second full season in 2027, giving him an experienced core to build around.
“I definitely feel like if we make the right adjustments — not today, but we make the right adjustments and keep moving this needle — it can happen to us one day,” Heckenast said of winning a national tour event. “It’s good for team morale.”
Heckenast spent much of the weekend studying Brownstown footage and reviewing notes from previous visits. It left him satisfied.
“I studied all day. I watched videos all day from Brownstown. I read every note that I have from every time I’m here, all the way from the gear, the motor, to hell, where to go on the track,” Heckenast said. “I feel like today we hit everything. Just one little thing here or there changes the outcome, but to get 90 percent of it close just feels so goddamn good.
“I wish we would’ve walked out with a top-five, but we wrote down on a piece of paper when we got here: make both races, top-10 once. And we accomplished that.”
