Jason Leffler

Jason Charles Leffler (September 16, 1975 – June 12, 2013) was an American professional open-wheel and stock car racing driver.

Leffler began his career racing midget cars in the USAC series, where he won three consecutive midget championships from 1997 and 1999, as well as the Silver Crown series championship in 1998.

He was the third driver to win three consecutive midget car championships.

He won the Hut Hundred and Belleville Nationals in 1997, and the Turkey Night Grand Prix and Copper Classic in 1999.

Roger Penske met Leffler at the 1998 Hut 100.

Leffler's success also caught the attention of Joe Gibbs Racing, a team which had previously signed Tony Stewart from the USAC ranks.

Leffler joined the team in 1999 and made four starts in the Busch Series during the season with moderate success.

At the same time, he also started a race in the Indy Racing League at Walt Disney World Speedway in the No. 5 Treadway Racing machine, but finished last after crashing early in the race.

Leffler began racing in the open-wheel ranks, competing in the 2000 Indianapolis 500 before moving to primarily NASCAR competition.

He died from injuries sustained in a 410 sprint car race at Bridgeport Speedway in Bridgeport, New Jersey.

Leffler made his first, and only, start in the Indianapolis 500 in 2000.

This effort was put forth by Treadway Racing with backing from Roger Penske's United Auto group.

During the 2000 season, Leffler drove full-time for the No. 18 MBNA sponsored Joe Gibbs Racing team in the Busch Series.

He finished twentieth in the final standings, earned three pole positions during the year, and finished second at Phoenix.

He also made two IRL starts, among them a start for Treadway in the Indianapolis 500 where he started and finished seventeenth.

After that season he moved up to the Winston Cup Series to become the driver of the #01 Cingular Wireless Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing as the permanent replacement for Kenny Irwin Jr.., who was killed in a practice crash while driving for the same team at New Hampshire in 2000.

Leffler's car retained sponsorship from BellSouth through its Cingular Wireless property, and with Ganassi's purchase of a stake in Felix Sabates' former team came a switch in manufacturer as Leffler became one of several drivers to drive Dodge Intrepids in the brand's return to NASCAR.

It was a controversial decision, as Leffler performed poorly the season prior in excellent Joe Gibbs equipment in the Busch series.

During his inaugural Cup season, he had only one top 10 finish and four failures to qualify.

He was, however, the inaugural pole setter at Kansas Speedway.

After his 37th-place finish in the 2001 championship, Ganassi replaced him with Jimmy Spencer for the 2002 season and remade Leffler's former car into the #41 Target Dodge.

Leffler joined Ultra Motorsports in 2002 to drive the #2 Carquest/Team ASE Dodge Ram in place of the departed Scott Riggs and had great success early on with the team.

In his first year, he tied a single season Craftsman Truck Series record by scoring eight pole positions, and qualified no worse than eighth at any race during the season.

Despite not winning a race, he had six second-place finishes and a fourth-place finish in the championship.

He also won the Night Before the 500 midget race and got to drive Ultra's #7 car in the final two races of the Cup Series season after the team fired Casey Atwood.

Leffler finally broke through in 2003 when he scored his first career victory at Dover.

Despite the success, Leffler ended up losing his ride at Ultra in a controversial fashion.

Haas CNC Racing, which was fielding its first full-time Cup Series team, had fired its driver Jack Sprague after the Tropicana 400.

Team owner Gene Haas named John Andretti as his replacement, but he was unavailable for the Brickyard 400 due to a prior commitment with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Haas approached Leffler to drive the #0 NetZero Pontiac Grand Prix in the race and he agreed to do so.

Ultra, which had warned Leffler that such a move would be in violation of his contract, responded by firing him.

Leffler made ten starts in the #0, becoming the permanent driver after the Sirius Satellite Radio at the Glen.

The team then signed Ward Burton away from Bill Davis Racing to take over the car, and he joined the team before the season was over to get a head start.

Leffler was moved to the #00 Haas Automation car in the Busch Series for the remainder of 2003, with the idea that he would remain there for 2004.

At Nashville Superspeedway in 2004, Leffler scored his first career Busch Series victory.

He also was involved in a controversial finish at the Winn-Dixie 250; he was penalized by NASCAR for "over-aggressive driving" on the final lap, that saw Michael Waltrip get spun, and then Dale Earnhardt Jr.. get wrecked, both by Leffler.

He was running third in the points when the team released him from his contract.

He ended up finishing twelfth in the championship despite missing the last seven races.

He won his second Turkey Night Grand Prix in 2005.

Shortly after his dismissal, Leffler signed a deal to re-join Joe Gibbs Racing for 2005, taking over a newly created Cup team sponsored by FedEx.

Leffler qualified in the 17th position, which was also where he finished.