When Zane Oedewaldt moved from Illinois to Florida, he had to adjust to a new climate while pursuing a dream of winning at Volusia Speedway Park.
Finishing his sixth year of living in the “Sunshine State,” he’s found a southeastern family through racing around “The World’s Fastest Half Mile” aboard his No. 11Z DIRTcar UMP Modified.
Oedewaldt steadily built his Volusia Modified program from humble beginnings in 2020, picking up two top-10 finishes through the five Features he contested. Oedewaldt managed a combined 20 top-10s from 2021-2023 until he cracked into the top five for the first time in 2024 with a high of fourth-place in August.
Though Oedewaldt had formed a path to be in contention for a win at the 1/2-mile track, David Reutimann thought that he had the missing piece to get him over the finish line in first place. After placing Reutimann’s Beak Built Chassis setup in his former car, Oedewaldt earned his first Florida Feature win at Hendry County Motorsports Park on March 1.
“This has been a really good year,” Oedewaldt said. “When David was sitting in the trailer with me, he said, ‘You know, I feel like you’re missing a little something, and I think I can help you. I am not really interested in selling you anything, but I think I can help you.’ So, we put their setup in my old car and won the first night at Hendry. That’s what proceeded into buying one of their cars and winning the first night on it at Volusia.”
After they interacted at Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals, it became the start of a new friendship between the Eustis, FL driver and Beak Built. The guidance and friendship from Reutimann and Kyle Anderson convinced Oedewaldt to buy one of their cars and have it ready for the Fall months.
“David and Kyle, it’s the two of them, basically,” Oedewaldt said. “The thing that impressed me the most, I mean, I’m just a local guy racing here for fun, and here’s a guy that you’ve looked up to in his NASCAR and dirt racing career, and his father as well.
“But, he made one comment when he approached me at (DIRTcar Nationals) and said, ‘When I leave here, you will have my number and Kyle’s number. You call anytime, and if you don’t call when you’re racing, you’re just hurting yourself.’ I feel like we’ve become really good friends. I talk to Kyle twice a week about different things that are racing-oriented. So, to me, that speaks volumes when you’re with down-to-earth, real people, and I’m proud to call them friends, honestly.”
Oedewaldt also has close ties with Florida veteran Paul Shead, as the two drivers formed Oedewaldt-Shead Racing (OSR) in 2023 to race as teammates around the southeastern racetracks.
“When we first moved down here, I ended up parking by him and we hit it off there,” Oedewaldt said. “We were competitors, and I got to know him a little better, their history, and the veteran that he is. They struggled a little bit on setup stuff, and I had a little better help as far as guidance and equipment.
“The biggest thing Paul was to me, being a veteran, was helping me to be a better driver. He could point out some of the mistakes that he saw I was making. Between him and I, we both complement each other so well in areas that the other one suffers or lacks. We teamed up and created OSR at the end of 2023, so the racing friends that you make and the support that you get was a big change.”
If Oedewaldt isn’t racing in Florida, he’ll travel to Illinois and race alongside his son, Zac, across multiple tracks in the midwestern region. For Zane, it’s a time when they can help each other grow notebooks while visiting smaller tracks uncommon to Florida, such as Farmer City Raceway and Spoon River Speedway.
“His car and my car in Illinois are both out of the same race shop right behind my automotive shop he runs,” Oedewaldt said. “We were always on kind of the same thing. He has a Lethal (Chassis), and we shared notes, but they weren’t the same kind of cars.
“The biggest adjustment was that the setup had to be different. (Volusia) was faster, the car had to be free, and the biggest struggle when you raced is it took so much time. In addition to that, when you move to a completely different place, you really don’t know anyone to bounce ideas off of. Garret (Stewart) was fantastic down here, and he was nice enough to share some information with me to get me steered in the right direction. But, Spoon River was the biggest track we raced at in Illinois, and that’s a small 3/8-mile track.”
When Oedewaldt brought his brand-new Beak Built Chassis to Volusia for the Battle in Barberville in September, he was a prominent figure in the night’s Feature as track title contenders Seth Geary and Jason Garver fought against the No. 11Z. On the final lap, Oedewaldt used every inch of the track’s cushion to edge the two racers at the checkered flag for his first triumph at the Barberville facility.
“Volusia, to me, is the biggest stage out there in dirt Modifieds,” Oedewaldt said. “Before I moved down here, we’d come down, race East Bay, and come watch Volusia, but never had the opportunity to have enough time off to race there. It’s almost without words, I mean, it was such an amazing feeling to get that first win against them, and for it to be such a big stage for us.”
With the pressure of winning at Volusia off his shoulders, Oedewaldt is better prepared for the marquee events he’ll tackle in November that will close out his 2025 schedule.
“You try not to focus on the prize money and look at it as every other race,” Oedewaldt said. “But, having to win there and showing speed, you feel like you can compete with them guys, and there are some people that may have only raced there a handful of times.
“I kinda almost feel like at some point, some of us local guys that have won there or shown speed, that’s our home track. We’ll unload, and we have the confidence to get around there to just go race with them.”
Oedewaldt caps off his DIRTcar UMP Modified season at “The World’s Fastest Half Mile” in the Prelude to the Reutimann on Saturday, Nov. 15, and the 12th Emil & Dale Reutimann Memorial on Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 20-22.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.