By T.J. Buffenbarger
(July 21, 2025) — A pair of young drivers from the Great Lakes region made a big impression during 43rd Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway on Saturday night. Both Darin Naida from Adrian, Michigan and Kasey Jedrzejek from Lagrange, Ohio ended up rebounding from skipping Thursday’s Joker’s Jackpot program, not making the feature on Friday during the Knight Before the Kings Royal, to both making the Kings Royal finale out of their heat race events.
Naida rebounds from crash to make the Kings Royal….
The weekend started with a lot of optimism for Naida driving a Rhino Racing entry. Wednesday, that started to unravel when mechanical issues and traffic tie ups caused the team to arrive at the track just as cars started to put heat in the engine for hot laps. That was followed by Naida taking a wild flip in turns one and two that destroyed the new Rhino entry.
After taking Thursday off the team decided to bring back their family-owned car for Friday and Saturday’s program. While this was a risk with Naida very much in contention for the 2025 All Star Circuit of Champions point title, Naida and his team wanted to compete in the biggest sprint car race in the area.
That risk paid off when Naida noticed Ryan Smith’s success running the bottom in the Kreitz Racing entry before his heat race.
“I saw the 69k just drive by everybody like they were standing still on the bottom from the third row,” said Naida about noticing how good the bottom of the track had become. “He drove by a lot of good cars, and I thought he was going to drive by (Danny) Dietrich for the win there. When I saw the bottom was that good I thought, man, it’s there if I need it. Then I rolled out there and realized how slick the track really was, all the way across and now there was almost a car width of grip I could run in there. So, I felt like, for me, it was almost a no brainer.”
That observation paid off as Naida hit his marks on the bottom every lap from the third row and even at times challenging for the second position during the heat race, despite only having a handful of starts at Eldora.
“I don’t have a lot of laps around this place up on the fence, and we haven’t really been good when it’s slick all the way across to the fence haven’t really in years past. Last year at 4-Crown I was decent when there was a thin strip of moisture on the bottom and put it in a show there, so I knew I could go down there and could hit the bottom and stay in it. If I was going to go anywhere, I felt like that’s where I was going to make my moves.”
The heat race was far from easy for Naida as he had to hold that transfer spot during a restart. Naida was less nervous about the restart and more so about who he had to race with to hold onto the transfer position.
“I think the most nerve-wracking part was racing with Donny (Schatz), Skyler Gee Tim Shaffer and Ryan Timms there. After the caution, I was kind of relieved to have a single file restart. I knew nobody would make a big move on me since I could plug the bottom so well. It was kind of a full circle moment for me under that yellow thinking about driving by Donny Schatz, he was a guy I grew up looking up to and was a huge fan of, so, yeah, I was just a lot of emotions.”
Shortly after his heat race success, Naida found himself waiting to be called across the stage at the Kings Royal with some of the best sprint car drivers on the planet.
“It was cool,” Naida said about going through the pre-race introductions. “I went up there and was talking to Ryan Smith and he said I looked good in that heat race. I thanked him and explained I just tried to do exactly what you did.”
“It was cool just being around so many guys I looked up to, and even some that aren’t that much older than me like Carson Macedo. We were talking about when he drove the #3g and Joe (Gaerte) and Tim (Norman) which was cool, because I get to work with Joe on occasion. It just kind of felt like a full circle moment.”
Unfortunately, Naida’s run came to an end with a broken radiator that was discovered during the open red flag in the feature event. Naida feels the strong Kings Royal performance will help the team leading into the final half of the All Star Circuit of Champions season.
“I felt like we got going good there before the for the big break. I’m glad to carry some good speed on through qualifying in the top five at both Fremont and for the Doty. I feel like our short track packages are stronger than our big-track package. So, I’m excited to get going here for the last half of the season.”
Jedrzejek shocks the sprint car world earning the pole position for the Kings Royal….
Over the p.a. system at Eldora Speedway on Saturday it was pointed out that Kasey Jedrzejek was not even listed in the betting odds leading into Saturday’s Kings Royal finale. Much like Naida, Jedrzejek skipped Thursday’s Joker’s Jackpot and missed the feature on Friday at Eldora Speedway. During earlier heat races on Saturday, Jedrzejek made the same observation about the bottom of the racetrack.
“I just sort of watched the heat before I seen my buddy Darin Naida roll in the bottom pretty good,” said Jedrzejek. “He was battling for second, so I knew there had to be something down there, and I knew I probably wasn’t going to be the guy to pound the top as hard as these other guys were”
“Going into it, I just sort of committed to the bottom from turn one and just never left it and had good first couple laps and didn’t really get pressure from anybody. Then I just started chipping away at Daison (Pursley) and got to him. Luckily, he never went down to the bottom, and we were able to go right by him.”
Jedrzejek eventually dropped back through the field finishing in 19th position but was able to use the feature as a learning experience.
“I learned a lot really”, said Jedrzejek about his first Kings Royal start. “I felt like before those first yellows fell sort of hurt me. I just started really getting a rhythm on the bottom and getting ready to pick off a couple guys. I sort of fell back a little bit there early, but just racing against these guys, this field, everybody’s just so stout. You make one mistake and you’re getting passed by two or three guys. I just learned a lot and focused on trying to hit my marks every lap.
With the Kings Royal behind them, Jedrzejek has a couple of races at home on the schedule before venturing to Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa for the 360 and 410 Nationals with Ed Neumeister owned entry
“I think it gives us a lot of confidence, said Jedrzejek of his performance at Eldora. Just getting more speed on a half mile. We changed a lot of things on the car this week. The track is just so finicky. You have got to have everything right to really make speed here and then. I think we learned a lot as a team, and I got a lot more comfortable. I think it just gives us some confidence going into some other half mile races.”