By T.J. Buffenbarger
(August 16, 2025) — One of the busiest weekends on the Michigan sprint car calendar is in the books and with weather bearing down on Butler Motor Speedway on Saturday both the winged 410 and GLSS sprint car features are in the books.
Here are my takeaways from the event.
• Great storylines were abundant following the GLSS event at Butler Motor Speedway starting with feature winner Jett Mann.
After a grinding crash on June 21st at I-96 Speedway it appeared like Mann’s 2025 season would be over. After Mann’s grandfather agreed to help him close out the 2025 campaign, Mann was able to find victory lane in just his second race back from that incident.
Mann was apologetic in victory lane for the contact while Dustin Daggett while racing for the lead that ended up spinning Daggett while Mann was able to maintain power and keep the lead. While considered an aggressive move by Michigan sprint car standards, it wouldn’t even make the top five more egregious things I’ve seen during a sprint car race over the past month and a half outside of the state.
The incident continued what has been a frustrating season for Daggett where he has been held winless in GLSS competition this season. It appeared Daggett was going to break that winless streak on Saturday in what he would openly admit is not his favorite racetrack. Daggett’s season is reminiscent of Jared Horstman’s last year that I wrote about in the takeaways from I-96 Speedway.
I don’t expect this to spill over into other races throughout the season, but I also don’t expect Daggett to cut Mann many breaks, if at all, on track the rest of the year.
• Boston Mead continued to show why I feel he is the most under rated of the younger drivers on the Michigan sprint car scene with a solid third place finish on Saturday with the Great Lakes Super Sprints.
After sitting out the entire 2024 season due to not having an engine available, Mead has only made four starts in 2025. Three of those four races Mead has contested his year he ran a 360 cubic inch sprint car engine against the 410’s at Butler.
Mead’s car was the best in dirty air of the trio racing for the lead on Saturday during the GLSS feature event. Had the contact not occurred between Daggett and Mann and they had continued to race through traffic I believe Mead was in prime position to win the main event.
Years ago when other young drivers were getting a lot of mainstream media attention for their performances, Mead was often outperforming those drivers with lesser equipment.
Doing more with less, Mead plans on doing some more local Butler shows and the GLSS program Sunday of Labor Day weekend at Crystal Motor Speedway.
With not a single sponsor with signage on Mead’s family owned 42 car, hopefully someone can support that effort or hire him to drive a car to realize his full potential.
• Only 13 cars turning out for the sprint car program at Butler Motor Speedway when Fremont Speedway was off on Saturday was surprising. There were other winged 410 sprint car races taking place in the region at Sharon Speedway and Paragon Speedway, but I’m afraid this is trend we’re going to see at the end of the year at more places than just Butler.
I’ve heard more local and regional teams discuss putting their equipment away early or putting it up for sale due to some of the rising costs over the past year.
The number one cost in all these cases I hear cited is the increase in tire costs over the past year. So far this year tires have received a mid-season bump in price. Combine that with the slighter increases in other components and the ROI and/or fun factor for some of these local teams is reaching the breaking point.
• BONUS TAKE: I mentioned the Great Lakes Super Sprints program at Crystal Motor Speedway on Sunday of Labor Day weekend earlier. Indications are that we may see one of the strongest fields for a GLSS event in Michigan during that program.
I’m already hearing teams from Ohsweken Speedway along with teams like Mead who have not done a lot of GLSS racing this year eyeing that show as on their radar.
Growing up sprint cars on Sunday of Labor Day weekend at Crystal was a staple of growing up. Eventually the calendar was shifted to where the sprint car race was on Saturday. I feel the Sunday date has potential to draw a few outsiders to shake up the program a bit.