Through his company, Newton has supported several dirt racing avenues, including this weekend’s Honest Abe Roofing Open Wheel Showdown at Jacksonville Speedway
Many know Kevin Newton as “Honest Abe” himself, the founder of Honest Abe Roofing, and longtime supporter of Open Wheel racing. But there was about a two-decade period when he stepped away from motorsports.
What brought him back has led to a wave of support for various dirt racing series and events like the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota’s upcoming race at Jacksonville Speedway, Oct. 3-4.
He entered the motorsports world like many, wanting to be a professional race car driver.
When Newton attended middle school in Terre Haute, IN, his friend Gregg Dillon introduced him to the world of motorsports with Quarter Midgets in 1990. When he won in his debut race, Newton knew where he wanted to spend his nights with his family and friends.
“Well, I got introduced to Quarter Midget racing when I was 12 years of age from a friend who raced them,” Newton said. “I had never seen that before, so I stayed the night with the family and watched him and his other brothers race. I didn’t really know about any type of racing up to that point, so I went home the next day and told my dad that we had to get one.
“My father had a business friend who supported racing around the area, and he had an older car that he let me drive, and I won my first race in it with about six cars. It wasn’t much, but that was really the launch of all that.”
Newton continued to work his way up the ladder, moving from Quarter Midgets to Micro Modified Midgets before receiving opportunities in the mid-1990s to run bigger classes of cars until he stuck to racing Midgets and Non-Winged Sprint Cars around the Indiana region.
“I spent about three years doing Quarter Midgets, then we moved into Micro Midgets for about three seasons,” Newton said. “I ran Outlaw (Micro Sprints) in the first year, then moved to the Modified Micro Midget Association, and it was a culture shock with me because I was racing with adults for the first time. It was a learning curve, but we were able to win the title in 1996. Then I got a call in the fall to run a Non-Winged Sprint Car for the Wabash Valley Racing Team, so that was crazy going from a 250CC motorcycle engine to a 410 engine, but it was a lot of fun.
“I got teamed up with George Tucker, who did work with (Jeff) Gordon and (Tony) Stewart when they raced Midgets. He had a little engine shop in Gasoline Alley, so he took me under his wing and showed me the ropes of Midget racing. We went our own ways, then I won the NAMRS Midget Series championship in 1999, and the promoter of the Auto Value Super Sprints Series helped me get a deal to run pavement Sprint Cars in Michigan, and that was when I was like ‘This is racing.’”
While he found early success, it didn’t always translate into a positive trajectory.
“I was always working the whole time I was racing,” Newton said. “I got a call from the Law Brothers to run a USAC Sprint Car, and I was hit or miss. We could qualify well, but I was thickheaded, which I don’t think helped much. I was about 22 at the time, and I had an argument at the Little 500, like one of those you’d get a divorce over. I realized then that I wasn’t ever gonna be a professional race car driver at that point, so I quit and focused on being a top performer in business instead of a top performer in a racecar, ultimately.”
He took a break from the motorsports world and turned his attention to founding Honest Abe Roofing, installing, repairing, and maintaining residential roofs since 2007.
After over 20 years away from a racetrack, Newton’s friend, Gregg, again guided him into the motorsports world, this time to watch his son, Carson Dillon, compete in Winged Sprint Cars. It did not take long for the racing bug to bite Newton again. The lost interest in the sport withered away, and Newton became more involved in supporting various motorsports initiatives.
“I took about 23-24 years off from being in motorsports and really worked on myself,” Newton said. “And once again, back to (Gregg), he came into my office and said ‘Hey, would you be interested in supporting my son racing a 305 Sprint Car?’ and I was like, ‘Sure! You’re son’s old enough to do this?’ So I was totally disconnected from everything from the last 20 years. So, they walked me through it, what it all does, and we got a bunch of the parts for Carson, plus the slight intention of me driving a Sprint Car a few times.
“We bought a spare car, put a 305 in it, raced it a few times, and I think I won in the fifth race out of the gate, then won a couple more races that year. But right away, I got the bug again, so I got Winged Sprint Cars and Midgets built for the following season in 2022.”
Bringing his company into the racing fold, Newton founded 2nd Law Motorsports in 2023 and fielded Sprint Cars and Midgets with multiple drivers, including World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car drivers Cole Macedo, Bill Balog, and Hunter Schuerenberg, USAC Sprint Car competitors Logan Seavey, Kevin Thomas Jr, Brady Bacon and Jake Swanson, plus rising stars in Dillon and Rylan Gray.
“We got it all in one location, and we’ve had a bunch of great drivers and good team members that we had a chance to help or work with, so that was always exciting to see young guys come through and get a chance to see them blossom and grow. I think of Cole Macedo, who’s doing great with the World of Outlaws, and I see him as one of your future superstars. We’ve had guys like Hunter Schuerenberg, Jake Swanson, (Logan) Seavey, Kevin Thomas, Brady Bacon, and some others.”
In February, Honest Abe Roofing joined the World Racing Group family as the official sponsor for every World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series Qualifying session and the sponsor for the American Sprint Car Series’ Redraw and Dash races.
In the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series, the Indiana-based company supports every doubleheader weekend with a cookout for drivers and teams after the opening night’s events. The weekend in Jacksonville is a first for Honest Abe Roofing, serving as the title sponsor for an Xtreme program.
Newton said he has seen the impact of Honest Abe Roofing’s involvement in motorsports, which inspires him to continue working to connect fans with his company in multiple ways.
“For me, it was an easy alignment,” Newton said. “I enjoy doing this, I enjoy being a part of it. So, me, I knew I was spending the money one way or the other, so I wondered what it’s going to look like if we could somehow tie racing with business and create some potential payback from bringing cars to the racetrack with the right people, right time, right place, audience, outcome, and make sense of it all.
“We have seen not so much of what is payback, but the exposure and putting investment into the cost acquired to go ahead and be part of separate series, and having your brand in front of people at the tracks has definitely been a positive. We’ve seen multiple race fans that have allowed us to go into their homes and show some roofing solutions. We’ve had the chance to grow our franchise system across the country with new franchisees who were exposed to our brand through motorsports, which is exciting and beneficial.”
Newton made his Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series debut in the 2024 finale. Though he missed the Feature on the first night, he was able to gain the help of Tim Engler and Thomas Meseraull to help get the Honest Abe Roofing No. 16TH Midget into the Feature on the second night in a double-duty weekend with a 410 Sprint Car with the Midwest Open Wheel Association (MOWA) Sprint Cars.
“It’s funny because when you drive a Sprint Car vs. a Midget, you’re looking for all that power,” Newton said. “You expect a lot out of the Midget when you go from the Sprint Car, and none of us knew what the hell we were doing that first night because it was all Sprint Car guys, and I don’t know anything other than roofing. But, we got help from Tim (Engler) and Thomas Meseraull, so we got it rolling good that second night.”
Celebrating the bicentennial year of Jacksonville, IL’s founding, Honest Abe Roofing and the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets have a slate of activities for drivers, teams, and race fans alike to participate in.
After Friday night’s opener at the quarter-mile, food and drinks will be provided as part of the Honest Abe Roofing Cookout. On Saturday morning, the Honest Abe Roofing Pinewood Derby returns for the second year with Box Stock and Super Stock cars participating in the slopedown challenge before the final night of the Honest Abe Roofing Open Wheel Showdown begins.
“Jacksonville has a great community overall,” Newton said. “People think about Illinois, they only think of Chicago, but don’t see the rest of what the state is. It’s what I call the ‘Backbone of America,’ and all of the people doing the hard labor right out of Jacksonville. We do a lot of work in those small areas through Illinois, and just being part of those small towns is always fun and one of my favorite places to visit.
“Kenny (Dobson) does a great job getting fans in the stands. Now, when the Outlaws come to town, it’s a different story because it’s packed times 10. But it’s packed for a local show and it’s just phenomenal. That’s exciting to see that support from people in the community, and to be part of it and in people’s homes is a cool combination and enjoyable for sure.”
The Honest Abe Roofing Open Wheel Showdown at Jacksonville Speedway will take place on Friday-Saturday, Oct. 3-4, marking the final Illinois weekend of the 2025 Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series season.
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.
