By Ben Deatherage
GLIDDEN, Iowa (Nov. 24, 2025) — The open country between Scranton and Glidden is quiet in the fall, corn stubble rolling out beneath a November sky that feels wider than the world. Out here, farm towns don’t hide their history. These towns were built by people who kept going no matter the obstacles, and in that way alone, they fit the life of Shane Butler.
Butler returned to racing in 2025 after nearly four years away, climbing back into a Sunoco IMCA Hobby Stock at Boone Speedway. The comeback was more than a restart. It was a declaration that life had finally given him back the one thing he had lost — his health, his freedom, and the chance to chase the sport that runs in his family’s blood.
The Road Back
Butler had raced since he was 17, when his father Rodney built him his first Hobby Stock. Racing was a Butler family constant. His dad had raced Hobby Stock–type cars for three decades beginning in 1985, often carrying the number 37 as a tribute to his own childhood hero, Rich Lions, who was 36. Shane grew up in the garage and in the pits, and by the time his brother Seth started running Figure 8 races, it was clear the whole family had the same wiring.
For years, life followed that rhythm — racing, wrenching, and weekends at the track. But underneath it all, Butler was fighting a battle no one could see.
“I was a type 1 diabetic for twenty-four years, and eventually that led to kidney failure,” Butler said. “I did dialysis for three years, four hours at a time. It became part of my life. I didn’t think about it as good or bad. It was just what I had to do.”
He tried racing once in 2021, but the illness was too much for his body. Butler remembered that night vividly, and his honesty carried a quiet weight.
“I had good equipment, but I physically couldn’t do it. My body was shot. I was done.” The realization forced him to sell everything he owned in racing except his seat. “That seat was the one thing I couldn’t let go of,” he said.
Everything changed on September 1, 2023. Butler received both a kidney and pancreas transplant, donated by a twenty-year-old woman whose family he now knows personally.
“I’m fortunate because unfortunately she was not,” he said softly. “Her family is amazing. I think about her every day.”
A Life Rebuilt
Glidden became home shortly after the transplant, offering a fresh start, space to breathe, and the chance to rebuild with a life he’d never fully had the strength to enjoy. Butler had spent his entire life in Scranton, which still takes pride in its 1897 water tower, the oldest working one in Iowa, while Glidden remembers its roots stretching back to 1866 — a town whose very name remains a point of friendly debate, credited either to railroad promoter Captain W. T. Glidden or to Joseph Farwell Glidden, the inventor of barbed wire.
“I wanted my own house, and Glidden was the right place,” he said. “It’s quiet, and it’s good. I’ve been here about two years now, and it feels like home.”
He went to work at American Athletic, a company that manufactures NCAA basketball equipment and Olympic-level gymnastics structures. Butler serves as a CNC tubing-laser operator, shaping critical components that end up in arenas across the United States. The pride in his voice came through clearly. “From the uprights to the backboards, I’ve got a hand in all of it.”
Before that, he spent most of his career with New Way Trucks in Scranton, building garbage trucks. Work was steady. Life was structured. But now, with his health back, every day feels like something earned.
“I haven’t felt this free in a long time,” Butler said. “It’s amazing. I got my life back.”
The American Athletic, Inc. facility where Shane Butler works as a CNC tubing-laser operator, producing NCAA basketball equipment and Olympic-level gymnastics structures. (Photo courtesy of AmericanAthletic.com)
Family, Racing, and the Number 37
When Butler returned to the track, it was because his brother Seth wouldn’t let him give up. Seth offered him a spare car and engine, giving Shane a path back into the cockpit.
“My brother believed in me from day one,” he said. “He’s the reason I came back.”
Butler had run the number seventy-three early in his career as a nod to his father. After Rodney passed away in 2014, Shane carried that number through one more season — then changed it to thirty-seven, the number his dad used for nearly his entire career.
“It just felt right,” he said. “My dad was thirty-seven all those years. It was time I carried it too.”
Racing is the Butler family’s glue. When Shane isn’t at work, he’s in the race shop with Seth, wrenching, preparing, and planning.
“We’re a racing family,” he said. “It’s in our blood. It’s what we love.”
Seth Butler (center) holds the winner’s trophy in Victory Lane after a Sunoco IMCA Hobby Stock victory at Kossuth County Speedway on May 16, 2024. His brother, Shane Butler, stands at far right among the celebration group. (Photo by Icon Image Photography)
Racing Forward
Butler’s return to racing is still unfolding, and he’s savoring every bit of it. He knows exactly what it means to be here — alive, strong, healthy, and finally free of the disease that dictated his life for more than two decades.
“I’m a big advocate for organ donation because I’m alive because of it,” he said. “If someone gets inspired by my story, then that means everything.”
He also knows he didn’t walk this road alone.
“I’ve got to give a shoutout to my amazing wife Kaitie. She takes care of me,” he said. “And my brother Seth — he’s my biggest supporter in racing.”
He extended thanks to Vault Nutrition, Butler Speed Shop, the Smith family with K Chassis, Finish Line Body and Paint, Spare Time Lanes, Arsenal Fabrications, The RRP Program, the Strabley family, Misguided Customs, Joe Doran Farms, Thuglife Motorsports, Smith Farms, and everyone who helped him get back on track.
“I hope people see that I got a second chance,” Butler said. “I plan to make the most of it.”
Out here in Glidden, where the wind carries the sound of freight trains and harvest season, second chances are rare. But for Shane Butler, they’ve come with horsepower — and a new reason to chase the next green flag.