Stevie "Fast" Jackson, if anything, is resourceful.

The trash-talking, fast-driving doorslammer driver from Georgia was in the final round of the NGK NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway when he lost control of his supercharged Camaro and crashed. He was uninjured, but his race car was mortally wounded.

As Jackson returned to his Evans, Ga.-based shop on the next day, he pondered his next move. He could attempt to repair the mangled race car, which would take well beyond the three weeks until the next race on his schedule. Jackson then pondered a new car, but even working around the clock at the chassis shop would come up weeks short.

Then he looked over in the corner of the shop at his other car, the Shadow 2.0, also a supercharged Camaro.

The Shadow 2.0 had been labeled as a Pro Modified car, albeit with 10.5-inch Drag Radial tires, so making the transition to a bigger tire shouldn't be that big of a deal? Right?

"We just unbolted the Radials and put the slicks on, and we had to raise the rear springs about six rounds and she’s ready to go," Jackson said, with a solemn look on his face.

Then Jackson couldn't hold in the facade any longer.

"No, it WAS a big deal," Jackson admitted. "This thing is a hot rod. We kind of built this as a dual purpose car, as a back-up car. It’s never been raced in a legal trim so we had to have a course in drive shaft, bell housing and headers and wiring and safety stuff, like the electric motor stuff."

Three weeks was hardly enough time to make the conversion, Jackson admitted.

"By the time we got home and got everything unloaded and surveyed the damage, we had four or five days to put it together," Jackson admitted. "So it’s been a really busy 10 days for me and my guys. Nobody has had a day off, nobody has slept much. As drag racers, we hear that a lot but I kind of lived it the past 2 weeks."

One would think Jackson would be used to this breakneck pace considering this is the usual pace for the Drag Radial events, particularly those promoted by Duck X promotions. At the most recent event, the Sweet 16 event, Jackson and his Radial vs. the World, there were nine qualifying sessions in two days.

"You’re always tearing up stuff and fixing it," Jackson explained. "A crash or a fire is the worst thing. Crashing motor parts and breaking transmissions, tearing all that stuff up, we’re geared up to do that. Nobody on my team is good at carbon fiber work so we try to steer away from anything that requires that kind of stuff. Accidents like that happen and it’ll happen again but we want to try to minimize the impact when it does and try to prevent it from happening altogether. I’ve been thrashing like this for 25 years. This is not like a new thing for me. I’ve lived a lot of life in my time on earth."

Knowing his mindset to live life on the edge, it's a wonder Jackson didn't just keep the drag radials on the car to race this weekend. Don't think the idea didn't cross his mind.

"We had a serious conversation and I swear we looked at the weather and I told Phil and the boys, “If it messes around and it’s 60 degrees out there, I’m going to drop this thing on drag radials and go about 265 and the NHRA is going to slap me out of racing.”

"But with the weather the way it is and the track temperature at 135 degrees it’s just not an option. But if it was cooler I was going to give it a rip for sure."

Jackson has taken some time to investigate what caused what has been a reliable car to crash.

"There were a couple of factors," Jackson explained. "No. 1 we’re not certain that the fuel car that blew up in front of us didn’t leave a little oil on the track. The car was loose from the 330 on. No. 2 couple that with the NHRA downgrading the track prep the way they want it slipping and sliding all over the place to slow the fuel cars down. And thirdly, then me not lifting when I was supposed to. At the end of the day, I take responsibility as a driver. It’s our job to quit and it’s hard sometimes to do that in a final round. But it was a culmination of those three things.

"I definitely think we got into a little bit of fluid. As early as it got loose and as long as it was loose there was definitely something on the race track. At the end of the day, it’s my decision when you light that top bulb. Like I tell my guys all the time “It’s your job to get me in the top bulb. When I get the top bulb it’s my show and my decision.”

"A hundred times we’ve saved that run and that time I didn’t. We’ll use a little more common sense next time."