Driver Profile: Davey Heskin
Friday, May 1, 2015
(Eric Arnold) Davey Heskin is one of the brightest young drivers in the Midwest. The 26 year old from St. Michael, Minnesota makes the five-hour trip to Knoxville Raceway to compete weekly. He has four Knoxville 410 feature wins to his credit and one win with the Interstate Racing Association (IRA) series.
Heskin is a graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead and has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. At home, the family business is airplanes, specifically airplane propellers. In addition to racing sprint cars, Heskin is also a pilot and flies planes himself, and of course as a Minnesota native, he played hockey through high school.
Starting his racing career in go-karts at age eight, Heskin moved up to sprint cars when he was 16. Racing is a family affair for the Heskin’s: following in the footsteps of his father DJ and grandfather Dave, Heskin is a third generation sprint car driver. His other grandfather, Butch Maxwell, is his car owner. His younger brother Danny has also raced occasionally.
After three seasons competing in the 360 ranks, Heskin moved into the 410 class in 2007 and finished 12th in Knoxville points in his rookie season. In his second season, he won his first 360 feature on Marion County Fair night. Heskin was voted most improved driver that season, and finished eighth in points. He also finished sixth in the 2008 360 Nationals.
In 2009, Heskin fell to 10th place in 410 points, and to 11th in 2010, but made the Knoxville Nationals A-Main. The success of qualifying for 2010 Nationals, getting all 50 laps and an eighth place finish propelled Davey into 2011 – the team ran fourth in points at Knoxville mid-season before they ran into engine problems and had to miss one week. After that bad luck was out of the way, Heskin made it into the A-Main of the 2011 360 Nationals for the fourth year in a row and ended with a solid fifth place finish.
In the 2011 Knoxville Nationals, Heskin timed 15th, finished third in his heat, and started on the front row of his qualifying night feature. Heskin drove away from the field and lead laps 1-17 before a restart gave Sammy Swindell the opportunity to make the pass for the win. Heskin held on for an impressive second place finish that night and an 18th place finish in the big show on Saturday night. Not just anyone makes the A-Main for two consecutive years at the age of 22 and 23.
In 2012, Heskin finished runner-up in the Lucas Oil Knoxville Championship Cup Series, losing a close battle with Terry McCarl. In 2013, he finished fourth in points, and fifth in 2014. After three consecutive top five point finishes, Heskin is knocking on the door to his first championship. Will 2015 be his year?
Heskin has a playful ‘awe shucks’ demeanor that race fans are attracted to. He is great with kids after the races and always has a smile no matter what the night was like for his team. He knows how lucky he is to be in the position he is and is grateful for the hard work his entire family puts into the racing operation. The team has the support of Deluxe Crates, Gruebel Farms, Ti22 Performance and Maxim as sponsors, but the family still ends up footing the bill for the majority of the race team. They all work on the car and put their fair share of sweat into it. But they have fun doing it as a family.
The red #56 has become a familiar and comforting sight for race fans in recent years, and this year the Maxwell Motorsports team is going to compete with the National Sprint League along with trying to win their first Knoxville championship. Good luck this year to Davey Heskin!
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