The 2020 race season started as well as the Jacks brothers could have imagined.
When The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway opened the season on March 7, the elder Jacks brother, Sam, won the NASCAR modifieds race, his first time racing a modified at the NASCAR sanctioned 0.375-mile asphalt oval track he‘s called home for nearly a decade.
Younger brother Kyle Jacks picked up two victories of his own in the track‘s NASCAR Bombers and Super Stocks races. It was his first time racing two different cars on the same night.
Both Jacks brothers now hope that early season momentum carries over, whenever the next race may be.
The Bullring shut down the season through the end of April, at least, due to coronavirus concerns. While they would of course love to be racing, Sam said the break has at least been a bit helpful for him as the Jacks family works to get his car ready for 2020. Sam drove another owners car in the season opener.
“This is giving us a lot of time to get our new car straightened out and make sure we‘re not having to rush it and get it put together,” The 20-year-old Sam said. “We had a lot of time to get everything ironed out and kind of get it back where we want to get it all cleaned up.
“It‘s a rough time for everybody, nobody is really happy about it, but there‘s a silver lining in everything.”
Sam is coming off of a 2019 track championship in the super stocks division at The Bullring. He likely would have stayed in that car had a family friend, Bill Paddock of Battle Born Racing, not called him up a few days after Christmas and offered to let Sam drive his modified. The elder Jacks said driving another modified a couple of times went off without a hitch, which is why he‘s excited to get into his own once the season starts back.
“It‘s been a really, really cool opportunity to get to race this year with Bill,” Sam said. “He really stepped up this year. He‘s always been at the track. He‘s known our family a long time but he‘s been there making sure we were ready to go.”
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Kyle, who just turned 19 a few weeks ago, has also been spending the extra time fine tuning both of his cars. He‘ll need both to be in top shape after night one‘s success helped him make the decision to try to run both for a championship this year for the first time.
“I was waiting to see how the first race went but it appeared to have gone pretty well so I‘m going to definitely try for both this year,” he said. “They‘re two different animals, I‘ll say that. It‘s twice the racing I normally do so it definitely kicked me in the butt after that night.
“I was pretty tired, but it was definitely worth the input of energy.”
The Jacks brothers began racing at virtually the same time about 10 years ago. Their grandfather, Wayne Jacks, raced in the former NASCAR Winston West Series, and their dad, Ronald Jacks, ran late models and street stocks. When the two youngest Jacks brothers were about 10 and 11 Wayne took them to a street stocks race at LVMS, and told them if they wanted to give it a try the family could make that happen.
“We were like, ‘Yea, that‘d be awesome,‘” Sam said. “So it was right after that we went and picked up the first two cars and started working on them.”
“I‘ve always been a fan since I was a little kid,” Kyle said. “Between my dad and my grandpa — I kind of wanted to follow in their footsteps. I thought it was something really cool, something I wanted to go after.”
Since then, the two have worked together with their dad and grandfather and turned racing into a family event. The brothers have never really raced against one another, which helps build the camaraderie.
“It‘s definitely a big part of our family,” Kyle said. “It wouldn‘t be the same if my family wasn‘t there. They‘re the ones that make it so good for me.”
For as long as the Jacks brothers have been racing, they‘ve been racing at The Bullring, and both have found a ton of success there. Sam has won three season championships total, and holds track records for best lap time and best speed in both Super Stocks and 602 Modifieds.
Kyle holds track records for both lap time and best speed in the Bombers division, and won the season title in the Bandoleros Outlaws in 2015. He has 19 career wins.
Both brothers are hoping to add to their Bullring accolades this season. Sam currently has 26 career wins at the track, tied for 10th all-time. Who is he tied with? Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch.
“He (Busch) came out and ran the super late model open comp the first of the season when NASCAR came to town and he bumped himself up one above me on the wins list so it‘s my goal to get back above him or at least tied with him,” Sam said. “For him, he probably doesn‘t care, but that‘s just something for me personally, something I want to do.”
Beyond picking up wins and climbing the all-time victories list at The Bullring, Sam is just hoping to remain competitive and near the top of the standings in his first season in a modified.
Kyle, of course, is hoping himself to finish 2020 with two titles.
“I think that‘d be really, really neat,” he said. “It‘s definitely something else feeling like you‘re on top. There isn‘t a better feeling I don‘t think so to do it twice, that would be unreal for me.”
No matter what happens on the track, the Jacks brother will be there for each other for all of it.
“He always gives me advice,” Kyle said of his brother. “He gives me some help and I try to give him help when I can. We definitely try to feed stuff off of each other all the time.”
“It‘s always made it better because half the fun of going out to the speedway and racing the cars is being around people you like to be around,” Sam said. “If you can have fun while you‘re working on stuff and be around people you like it makes things way better.”
