CARBON HILL, Ala. — Jennifer Byrd could taste victory when she rounded turn four at Magnolia Motor Speedway on July 10.
After three laps of battling back and forth with her husband, Jason Byrd, in the Factory Stock feature race, she thought she had enough of a run off the final turn to earn her first head-to-head win against him. But Jason, who’d been racing the high-line of the track, edged her at the line by 0.16 seconds.
The moment has done nothing but stoke the competitive fire between the only married couple that races in the same division at the two tracks in the Golden Triangle.
“I was disappointed,” Jennifer said, “but I couldn’t give it any more gas. It was a fun race. Probably the most fun we’ve had against each other.”
Jennifer has one Factory Stock win this season, while Jason has won each of the past five races. Jason’s dominance hasn’t slowed Jennifer’s smack talk, Jason said.
“I missed the first five races because I didn’t have a car,” Jason said. “I enjoyed watching her race. It was a lot of fun. She’s done real well. She missed two features, or else she’d be leading the points. Those are the reasons I got a car. We aggravate each other throughout the week about who is gonna win. We have a lot of fun.”
Jennifer and Jason will return to Magnolia this weekend when the track plays host to a $1,000-to-win, Highway 45 Crate Late Model Throw Down plus TheRockAuto.Com Super Late Models, Street Stocks, Limited Late Models, and Factory Stocks.
The couple might not have gotten into dirt track racing if it wasn’t for a friend who raced mini stocks. One night at Moulton, Alabama, their friend urged Jason to race his mini-stock car after he had grown dissatisfied with the performance of the car. Jason had never driven a mini-stock car or driven on a dirt track prior to that night. But he accepted and turned his first laps. They bought the Ford Mustang 2 a week later.
“He was around the bottom of the track, just trying to get around,” Jennifer said. “We’d never been to a dirt track before that. But he bought the car, and he raced at Winfield. They had a powder puff race, and I barely beat the girl who wins every year. That’s when I knew I had to do it.”
Jason soon turned over the keys to the car to Jennifer, who ran the car full time while he helped with repairs and supported her at the track. But Jennifer broke her arm in a race in 2008. Shaken up by the wreck, she stayed away from the dirt track and returned to the drag strip, while Jason raced the mini-stock car. She returned to the dirt track a year later.
The drag strip holds a special place in the couple’s heart and history — it’s where their romance and courtship began. Jennifer had met Jason two years prior at a service shop, but their relationship didn’t grow until they crossed paths at the strip. Still, Jennifer wasn’t initially impressed with Jason, whose quiet demeanor clashed with Jennifer’s outgoing personality.
“She called me a smart-butt and would never talk to me,” Jason said.
Jennifer said it took a while to get to know fun side of Jason. Now they have been married for 10 years.
“I’m a talker … I can have a conversation with anybody,” Jennifer said. “Jason stays to himself, but he’s nice and friendly, so yeah, I straight up called him that. Now I wouldn’t trade him for nothing.”
The competitive nature between the two can sometimes compromise advice Jason gives Jennifer, they said. Jennifer points to a race three weeks ago in which she ignored a tip from Jason, pushed her car a bit too much, and spun out.
“I won the heat race and started outside,” she said. “I thought, ‘This will be interesting.’ I had in my head, ‘I’m gonna beat him.’ They said I pulled him by three cars when we started. Three laps in, he was on the high side, I thought, ‘I’m gonna block him.’ I spun out, had contact with another car, and I was back in the trailer.
“He said, ‘I told you where to run, but you had to get my line and block me.’ ”
Said Jason, “She thought I was trying to steer her wrong.”
Said Jennifer, “I’ll get him before the year’s out.”
Jason and Jennifer are part of a burgeoning Factory Stock class at Magnolia, which has averaged between six and nine car entries each race night. Factory Stock replaced Mini Stocks this year after several drivers expressed a desire to create a cheaper, entry-level division. The Byrds have spent portions of each of the past six years racing in Mini Stocks at tracks in Alabama and Mississippi. Jennifer said she anticipates car counts in the 20s next season.
“It’s getting bigger each race,” Jason said. “We know some friends of ours who’ve gotten a car, one who’ll be there this Saturday, and one next Saturday. We’ve talked to some other people who’ve built cars and will run next year. It doesn’t take much money.”
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