Matt Sandefur is Mr. Consistency when it comes to winning dirt track races.
At age 39, he has won over 60 races in a seven-year span including a track championship at Tri-County Racetrack in Brasstown, North Carolina in 2023. He has won two races so far at Sugar Creek Raceway in Blue Ridge in 2026.
He drives two cars. One is his own personal open wheel car (#22) and the other is owned by Timmy and Janet Millwood (#111).
Sandefur’s winning began at 22 years old racing go karts at his friend and fellow driver Drew Deaver’s home track El Cheapo Raceway in McCaysville.
“I think I won maybe two or three races back then,” he said. Sandefur raced go karts for four years.
After a hiatus, he began racing in the 602 Beginner Crate Model Class in 2018
His first race was decent. “Seem to always be able to start up front in all the features. I won three races my first year,” Sandefur said. He ran Sugar Creek and North Georgia Speedway in Chatsworth that year.
He took the next three years off, then moved to the open wheel modified class in 2022. He won four races that year.
In 2023, he won nine races at Sugar Creek in addition to the Tri-County championship. In 2024, he won 17 races at North Georgia and Sugar Creek. In 2025, he won 12 races at North Georgia and Sugar Creek. This season at Sugar Creek, he’s won two races. He’s also won a race at Tri-County and one at North Georgia.
Sandefur spent the first part of his life in Caraway, Arkansas. His family moved to Fannin when he was 11 to start an alpaca business.
He didn’t grow up in a racing family. He’s the only one that races.
As a kid, his dad was a mechanic. “I grew up working on cars and tinkering on stuff and always had some junk to get running and go riding. I always had that passion of wanting to race, but it was always so expensive,” Sandefur said.
Sandefur went to his first race at 16 years old.
Sandefur said the hardest part about driving is just patience. “A lot of people think you get in these cars and you hold them wide open and just go in circles, but that’s the least from what you do sitting in that seat. The driving's the easy part for me. The working on them and washing them and fixing them and all that is a full time job after you've done work 40 hours all week.”
Sandefur said the key to consistent winning is being able to read the racetrack. The racetrack is constantly changing.
“You have to keep up with that with your car. You'll see drivers walk up to the fence, watch a couple laps, then they'll go back and work on their car. Then when you get on the track, you will be able to read the track and see the dirt changing to where you need to go. You might start out running the top, and then halfway through the race, you're down in the middle or in the bottom. It just depends on how we call it, how the racetrack blows,” he said.
Sandefur’s advice to future drivers is to work hard at it and don't give up. “Don't get discouraged. Don't be afraid to ask somebody if you don't know. I see a lot of new people that struggle because they're too prideful and don't want to ask somebody. They feel like he wins all these races, so he isn’t gonna talk to me," he said.
Sandefur is most proud of helping people. “It doesn’t matter to me if they're four years old or 40 years old. If they come to me and ask a question, I'll give them an honest answer and lead them to the best way I can.”
Spending time with his three children Mason, Manning, and McKinley is the most important part of his life. “They go to every race with me and they help me work on the car. Winning's great, but winning is no fun if you don’t have nobody to share it with,” Sandefur said.