As of Sunday, July 21st, the plan was coming together perfectly. A Progressive American Flat Track campaign that had been billed as a season-long GOAT coronation for Jared Mees as he embarked on securing a record tenth Grand National Championship was instead being executed as a coup d'état.

Playing the spoiler to history, Dallas Daniels had his sights locked firmly on attaining his first premier-class crown, and his progress toward that goal could not be denied. 19 points up and with just six races remaining, the Estenson Racing ace was relishing the opportunity to fulfill his destiny at a range of venues that offered a delicious mix of advantageous layouts and opportunities for redemption.

While only old enough to legally purchase a celebratory beer by a few weeks, Daniels was already practically a grizzled veteran of the GNC wars. Not only living up to, but exceeding all expectations along the way, the double Nicky Hayden Horizon Award winner and two-time Parts Unlimited AFT Singles champion was making good on his third attempt at the sport’s ultimate prize.

It was frankly amazing that he proved a credible Mission AFT SuperTwins title challenger as a rookie in 2022. And he was that much stronger in ‘23, a sophomore season in which he pushed the legendary Mees to the brink.

However, his bid to overthrow the king in his second try was ultimately undone as a result of three uncharacteristic performances on the series’ biggest stages – which also all happened to be located less than a two-hour drive from his Mattoon, Illinois, home.

At Peoria – where Daniels scored his first professional victory in sensational fashion in 2019 – Dallas threw away second place and a chance to extend his points by crashing with just over one lap to the checkered flag.

And then at the decisive Springfield finale – a venue where he had previously doubled as a wild card in the AFT Production Twins category – Dallas suffered an even more surprising failure; trailing by just a single point and in position to claim the crown, he simply lacked the pace to contend for victory in either of the weekend's Main Events.

Peoria and Springfield were the settings for Daniels’ only finishes outside the top three all season long. And while a fourth and two fifths are results to boast about by nearly anyone else’s standard, they surrendered a combined 18 points to Mees in a title race Daniels lost by 17.

Spurred on by that hard lesson, Dallas took another leap forward in 2024, showing himself to be that much faster and more consistent. Ahead in the points after scoring three wins, five seconds, and two thirds in ten races, Daniels was unwilling to leave anything to chance a week out from the anticipated Peoria rematch.

A boy MX racer before he moved on to flat track (and roadrace) stardom, Daniels wanted to sharpen those skills to ensure his advantage at the TT circuit didn’t just hold but expand. To do so, he traveled to a local motocross track with his dad, Nick – who serves as rider coach and mechanic with Estenson Racing – and little brother, Beckem.

“It was just a prep practice day,” Dallas said. “I was just trying to get back in the field of jumping, turning right, using a front brake and all that. I was just putting in my motos. They were done, and I was going to do two or three more. Everything was all good – going great, actually. There's this like section where you kind of jump down this hill and you make a left-hander followed by this small uphill jump. I hit this knot – this kicker – and just went over the bars.”

Lights Out.

When Dallas returned to the world a half-minute later, his half-dazed initial thought was that while he’d dodged a bullet, he was angry at himself for the mistake. ‘Oh my God, this is a week before Peoria. I've just knocked myself out. Like, even if I'm okay, what am I doing?’

Flaggers and EMTs were immediately on the scene. And as he was being assessed, Dallas’ dad asked him anything hurt.

‘No, not really.’

“I then went to move my leg. I was moving my leg, but my foot was not moving. I just… I was, you know, freaked out a little bit. Luckily my dad calmed me down. I was just like, ‘Man, something's really wrong. Something is not right.’

“It sounds silly, but I'm actually thankful I got knocked out because it probably would have been insanely more painful had I not been. I've heard terrible things about broken femurs – that they're just so painful. And obviously the pain did eventually set in, and it was terrible.

“But once I kind of calmed down, to be honest, I started crying. Not because of the pain, but pretty much right then and there I knew it was over.”

Daniels received pain medication via IV before his gear was even off, providing significant relief as he prepared to take the Life Flight express to Carle Hospital in nearby Champaign, Illinois. But no meds would be strong enough to overcome the intense agony of the traction procedure required to realign his femur.

Dallas spent the next four days in the hospital, not only suffering from a broken leg, numerous bruises and contusions, and the aftereffects of being knocked unconscious, but also from fluid in his lungs and difficulty keeping his oxygen levels up… not to mention a hidden injury that wouldn’t reveal itself for weeks.

Nick Daniels made the difficult call to team owner Tim Estenson and the squad’s Director of Race Operations, Tommy Hayden, to inform them over what had transpired, along with the associated reality that their Grand National Championship ambitions had just been set ablaze.

At about that same time, the paddock rumor mill kicked itself into high gear.

Dallas explained, “There were some other flat track racers at the track so it kind of made its way around the paddock before Monday morning. My phone was blowing up, and I wasn’t able to talk to Tommy or Tim until I got home. What was cool was that everybody on the team – every single person – came and visited me on their way to Peoria.”

Considering his condition, the prevailing message was the same almost without exception: “Great job this season, now rest up, get healthy, and we'll see you next year.”

But however obvious, that was a message Dallas wasn’t ready or willing to hear.

“I'm the kind of person that's not going to give up and quit even if people are telling me it's over – which everybody around me was pretty much telling me it was.

“And for a long first two weeks, I couldn't even get up out of my chair. I couldn't put my own socks on. I couldn't get dressed. I had to sleep downstairs for a few days, and I had to call my parents in the middle of the night when I had to go to the bathroom so they could lift my leg off the couch.

“At that point, I really wasn't thinking about it. But two weeks later, I started going to physical therapy. I got along with my physical therapist really well. He's a great guy – a local therapist named Mark Masse who used to do some running with my grandpa back in the day.

“He asked me, ‘What do you think is a realistic timeline for you to be back?’”

“I said, ‘Well, there's a race in six weeks…’

Any hopes of redemption at Peoria were pushed back a full year from the moment Daniels was thrown over the bars. But Springfield?

He said, ‘Uh, I think we're going to need longer than that.’ And I was like, ‘Okay,’ but he never really told me it was impossible.

“From that moment forward, I started working with Dr. Tom Bryan out of California, who Tommy hooked me up with and who I'd worked with on some previous injuries. He's worked with a lot of racers – JD (Beach), Garrett Gerloff, Hayden Gilliam, and lots of other road racers.

“I asked him, ‘Do you think this is a possibility?’ He said, ‘Maybe, but it’s not likely. But if you do feel up to it, we need to get another x-ray before you race.’”

Weeks of dedication, gym work, pedaling, and a mandatory x-ray later – Dallas was able to secure that unlikely doctor’s note.

While he still retained a slim-to-nothing shot at the title, Daniels’ primary motivation to return at Springfield was to slay the dragon that was his previous year’s (lack of) performance at the track when it mattered the most.

He explained, “I really wanted to see if we had made that progress with our motorcycle. Last year we did so badly, you know – we struggled so bad there. That was more why we came back. It wasn't really to try to win or get points. It was to see if we've made improvements. Obviously, the championship was in the back of our minds. But the forefront of our attention was to see if we’d made those steps.”

Despite moving slowly around the Illinois State Fairgrounds paddock, hobbling around with the aid of a crutch – he moved plenty fast around the Illinois State Fairgrounds Mile dirt track… faster, in fact, than any other of the best flat trackers on the planet as they qualified for the day's first Main Event.

Improbably – almost impossibly when viewed from a wider perspective – Daniels earned pole position and then added two more podium finishes to his season-long perfect streak.

Despite those stunning results, there was still some question whether or not he would be healthy enough to compete at the season finale. That was especially true after the competition at Springfield revealed he’d also suffered a separated shoulder in his motocross crash that had gone overlooked during the treatment of more pressing, more obvious injuries.

Whereas the nature of the Springfield Mile offered some opportunities to rest and relax – at least as much as one can do so while separated from the opposition by mere inches and moving at triple-digit speeds – the Lake Ozark Short Track would subject him to a much more physical and tightly confined battleground.

And yet, at the conclusion of another evening of heroics, Dallas limped away with his 13th podium in 13 tries in 2024, somehow cutting his way up from ninth place and multiple seconds back to take the checkered flag in second position and right on Mees’ rear wheel.

“The track wasn't super, super physical. But with how close the racing was, it was mentally taxing because it was just slide job after slide job. But yeah, I was impressed with myself a little bit at that one.”

While he would have never asked for it – and hopes he’ll never again be provided the opportunity – the nightmare injury scenario and subsequent comeback allowed Daniels to explore the depths of his capacity in ways he never otherwise could have.

When asked what lessons he’ll take from his highly unusual 2024 season, he said, “That's a good question. I think just that you can push yourself to new levels, and you can do anything that you set your mind to. This injury has been arguably the toughest thing I've ever gone through, and arguably, at the worst time possible. I was leading the Grand National Championship by 19 points and going into some of the tracks I was looking forward to the most on the calendar. I was so excited for that swing.

“But I think it taught me a lot about myself. How bad I wanted it. How much I love racing. Sitting on the couch watching the races was tough. I think it was tougher than the injury itself. And I just wanted so badly to be back.

“I was on the podium at every race up until that point. I just kind of expected to be there. This injury made me appreciate not only being able to race a motorcycle, but just live a normal life. Like when you can't get off the couch, you appreciate walking without a limp. You appreciate being able to drive a car. I mean, l just appreciated everything in life a lot more.”

What Dallas wasn’t able to appreciate, however, was not winning the Grand National Championship in what would soon be confirmed to have been his final chance to do so pit up against the iconic Jared Mees, who announced his retirement shortly after earning a record-breaking tenth title.

While Daniels did manage to outscore Mees by four points in their head-to-head meetings in ‘24, that proved small consolation compared to the realization that he’d exhausted all his opportunities to overcome the all-time great in their competing quests for the crown.

“When I went to the awards banquet after the finale, I was just so sour. I think what made it the hardest was when he was accepting his awards, he basically announced his retirement right there. I was like, ‘I’ve given him a good run these last two years, but I'm never going to get another chance to take him down.’

“Last year when I lost it, it was like, ‘Hey, we got next year; we can do it.’ Well, we don’t have that anymore. And that was tough because, man, I had him right where I wanted him. I had him teed up. I could see it on his face. He might not want to admit it, but I had him right where I wanted him.

“I could not believe I let this slip through my fingers. And for the next two weeks after the banquet, I was just a huge – for a lack of a better word – asshole to my family and friends. I was just in a bad mood. I remember sitting at the dinner table, and my mom was like, ‘Are you okay? Like what's wrong with you?’

“I was just having trouble coping with it. It took me a minute to get over it. But you know, it just is what it is. You have to learn to live with it, even if it sucks. And it sucks. But eventually, I was able to say, ‘Hey guys, I'm sorry that I was taking this out on you.’

“Someday, I’ll be able to look back, and it’ll be one of those moments that I’ll be able to tell a story about: ‘Hey, I learned from this and it made me stronger – made me who I am today.’ One of those things. Yeah.

“But you know, Jared and I have great respect for each other, and he’s taught me a lot. Now I’ll just have to apply it against the generation of racers I’ll be competing against now.”

And Dallas doesn’t expect it to get another easier against said generation, even with Mees exiting the championship landscape.

At this point, Daniels has nearly shed his limp and been given the all-clear to resume his normal training regime. While the immediate focus is to strengthen his leg muscles and allow his shoulder to fully mend, just over the horizon is the start of a new campaign – one in which he’ll be viewed as the odds-on favorite… even if he isn’t thrilled with that billing.

“Just because Jared quit doesn't make it any easier at all,” he said. “If anything, I think it'll be just as difficult. I don't really have anything over anybody in terms of experience or speed or whatever. You could make the talent argument, but really, what I have over them is just years with my team.”

While he’s yet to ink a new deal for 2025 and beyond, Dallas is expected to be back with Estenson Racing and speaks as if that is all but a foregone conclusion.

He continued, “We have years of development with the bike, and I know what I have. But if Briar Bauman stays with what he’s got, that’ll be the same argument for him next year. Brandon Robinson is going to have to get on an all-new motorcycle and figure that out and develop it. But those guys – they’re talented and they’ve won races for a reason. I don’t think it’ll take them much time to figure out whatever it is they come up with. And it’s not just them – there are plenty of others, including some younger guys who are coming up and coming on strong.

“So I don’t like hearing, ‘Oh, you’re the favorite. You’re definitely going to win next year. Your bike is the best bike. Blah, blah. blah.’ That’s not true. The guys I’m racing against are really good, and they’re going to have good bikes. I think it's a great time for flat track. It's a deep field, and it's going to be an exciting year. We’ve got to do our job and show up ready.

“There are still a lot of areas I can improve. It might not be technique or riding style or raw speed, but in terms of racing against other riders, I think I have a lot to learn. Jared helped me pick up a lot of that. He taught me a lot. But I'm still not quite as savvy as Jared or Briar or Brandon. I'm getting close, but they've got years of experience, and that's kind of what it takes – just putting yourself in those situations to be able to capitalize and win races even on nights when you’re not necessarily the fastest guy.

“I think there's a lot of room to improve and for us to improve our motorcycle. Our bike is good, and, if you ask the paddock – we’re probably viewed as the favorite going into next year.

“But the way I look at it is, it still hasn't won the championship yet and neither have I. You could say you’re a championship contender, or that you would have won the title this year. But the facts are I have not won a title. So, the job isn't even close to being finished yet. And even when I do win a title, I want to win more than one. So, there's always room to improve, and I’m going to have to.”