When Joey Gase’s mother died unexpectedly in 2011, he and his family were faced with a question they didn’t know the answer to: Would she like to be an organ donor?
The future professional driver, who made his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut later that year, said the decision was simple.
His mother would’ve wanted to help as many people as possible – and that’s exactly what she did. Her organ, eye and tissue donations ultimately helped save or improve the lives of 66 people.
“Organ and tissue donation is something that’s really important to me because of my mom, Mary,” Gase told NBC in the latest episode of “My New Favorite Driver.” “… We knew if she could no longer continue her life, she would want to do whatever she could to help others continue theirs.”
When she suffered a sudden brain aneurysm in April 2011, the Iowa native’s mission in life changed forever. He saw the difference that organ donation made, and that made Gase’s next goal simple — bring awareness to the cause.
“Ever since that day, I wanted to raise awareness for organ, eye and tissue donation, and also honor those affected by it,” Gase said. “I want people to go register to be organ donors, but also to have that talk with their loved ones – so if that ever happens to them, they would already know what their loved ones would want.”
While pursuing a career as a NASCAR driver, he has worked hand-in-hand with organizations doing just that.
According to Donate Life America, 13 people die each day while waiting for an organ transplant. Gase has partnered with the organization to make people talk about the issue, using his connections in local markets as sponsors for his cars at different tracks.
At Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Gase has partnered with Donate Life Texas on several different initiatives.
“We have registration drives that we give for NASCAR events here down at Texas Motor Speedway,” said Chad G. Carroll, executive director of Donate Life Texas. “We’ve done car reveals, where we reveal the car design that we’ve worked hand-in-hand with Joey to design the paint scheme.
“Historically, we’ve had a ‘Handprints for Hope’ ceremony. We get folks out there who been impacted by donation to put on a rubber glove, put their hand in some paint and then put it on Joey’s car.
“Last year, we had a couple who lost their son and he became an organ donor. We were able to bring them out, meet Joey, see their son’s picture on Joey’s car as he raced. It was really a special weekend for that family to be able to be involved in that. Losing a child is a terrible tragedy, and the grief associated with that. I hope we were able to give them a bit of respite and a little bit of catharsis to help with their grieving process for their son.”
Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Joey Gase, driver of the No. 35 Donate Life TX Chevrolet, drives during qualifying for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 12, 2024 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Gase’s efforts have not gone unnoticed in the NASCAR community. In 2015, the then-22-year-old won the inaugural Comcast Community Champion Award — given annually for 10 years now to individuals for for their community service-focused efforts to make the world a better place.
Now a 32-year-old veteran racer, Gase has made more than 400 starts across NASCAR’s top three divisions — the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck Series. He’s competed in the Daytona 500 three times, including a career-best finish of 20th in the 2021 race.
While racing keeps Gase busy, he’s also a team owner in the Xfinity Series. Joey Gase Racing opened in 2021, and now operates two cars in the series as Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen.
Still, Gase finds time for the more important cause — honoring his mother through organ donations.
“It’s something that gets a lot of different people involved,” Gase said. “When the media and the public see these pictures and handprints on the car, they want to know why it’s on there and we get to tell them. So, it really does raise a lot of awareness. It’s really cool to see how many people come up to us and say they’ve registered to be a donor because they heard my mom’s story or another honorees story that we had on the car that weekend.”