Dan Hovden recorded his 175th career win Tuesday, July 9 during the Summit USRA weekly racing series at the Winneshiek County Fairgrounds. (Photo by Seth Boyes)
By Zach Jensen,
Decorah’s Dan Hovden has been racing for 16 years, and the 31-year-old is already on his way to winning his first national title this year. Hovden won the B-Mod main event July 9, during the Summit USRA Weekly Racing Series event at the Winneshiek Raceway in Decorah. The race marked his 175th career win, and three days later, he earned his 176th win when he took the checkered flag in West Union.
“The first time he went to load his car on a trailer, I thought ‘That kid will never make it,’” said Les Hovden, Dan’s father, who owns the NAPA Auto Parts store in Decorah. “But, he’s done alright.”
The younger Hovden started racing hobby stock in 2008, and in 2013, he switched to B-Mods.
“My dad used to help out Todd and Scott Halverson in our garage at home, and that got my brother into it,” he said. “And, whatever my brother did, I wanted to do too.”
Hovden said his brother Mitch has won eight USRA National Championships. So, between the both of them, their two-stall racing garage is filled not just with tires and spare parts but countless trophies and over-sized winners’ checks.
“The last few years, I’ve just been giving my trophies to kids that come down in the pit after the races,” Hovden said. “They enjoy them a lot more. I gave Tuesday night’s trophy to Jackson Roney.”
While many racers are just happy to be on the track, Hovden said it’s just not as fun if he doesn’t win.
“The adrenaline rush has got to be the best,” he said. “People like the adrenaline, and they can go out there and not win and be okay with it. But, we’ve been successful for so long that if we don’t run decent, it kinda sucks. It makes us do our homework in the shop, and homework in the shop is what wins races more than anything.”
Hovden said, in addition to shop homework, it helps to have a couple major supporters in his corner. He said winning would be much harder without the support of Josh Hageman and his wife Jade.
He also said, including parts costs, tires, fuel and fees, it costs drivers $400 just to put their cars on the tracks, which is the same amount a first-place win yields.
“But, any fun hobby costs money,” Hovden said. “There are people that think we’re good, because we own a parts store, but we still need to buy our parts, and we still need to do the work. I don’t think people understand how much work it takes to race. We race Friday, Saturday and sometimes Sunday. Then we unload and wash on Monday and do maintenance on Tuesday and Wednesday and tires on Thursday, and then we’re racing again. It’s a full-time job in addition to your full-time job.”
And while Hovden is often heralded with cheers after crossing the finish line, many tracks have it’s local loyalties — Hovden himself is more likely to hear dissenting boos and receive some derogatory gestures from the crowd in West Union
“I’m sure they have their hometown favorites they want to win, but when they boo us, we just use that as more fuel to win,” Hovden said. “It drives us to work hard and drive harder. If they buy a ticket, they can do whatever they want, but if they boo us, we’re just going to do better.”
Hovden is hopeful that he’ll earn his first national title this October as the national season nears its end — and around the same time he and his wife expect to have their first child together.
But, he doesn’t expect his newborn will slow him down too much.
“I’m sure I’ll be a lot busier,” Dan said, “but I don’t plan on quitting.”
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