Mayor Steve Barnett knows a thing or two about winning. He has been doing it his whole life – in love, in sport, and in politics. While his most celebrated victories came on the race track, Barnett has proven that a winning attitude and a drive to succeed can propel you to the winner’s circle in every part of life. The key to winning is often found in failure – another lesson Barnett knows well.
“I lost more races than I ever won,” Barnett is quick to point out when reflecting on his racing career. With each race without a victory, Barnett and his team, which included his wife, Jeannie, learned to make changes and improvements to the car setup and his driving style that would put him in victory lane.
His racing career spanned 42 years and included 200 Main Event wins and 28 championships, making him one of the most celebrated dirt track racers in history and placing him in the National Dirt Track Hall of Fame in 2018. Since his racing retirement he has also been given a place in the Late Model Hall of Fame and the Brownstown Speedway Hall of Fame. With each failure to take the checkered flag came the hunger to improve, to reach excellence and to win.
Racing was a family affair, as his father had a race team when Barnett was growing up. When he reached driving age, he wanted to slide behind the wheel of a race car, but his father wasn’t offering any free rides. To make his racing dream a reality, the younger Barnett sold his daily-driver car, a 1970 Chevelle, and purchased his first race car and trailer. His endeavor started in 1975 and was completely self-funded for his first two years behind the wheel.
“My dad wanted to see how serious I was,” Barnett says about his auspicious start in racing. After two years his father was convinced his son was indeed serious and driven to win, so he became his first named sponsor in what would become a long line of sponsorships to come.
His first win on the track came in 1980. However, his first real win came in 1978 when he married Jeannie. She became his biggest fan and a devoted member of the race team, and the duo have outlasted his racing career, having just celebrated their 47th anniversary on February 25.
After his first win on the race track, his career accelerated quickly as he won six consecutive races and sped into a hall-of-fame career. Barnett’s father had taught him how to set up his own car, a chore he continued to do his entire career. He did have a crew chief, and his wife kept his lap times and statistics. He also created lifelong friendships with three influential local legends.
CJ Rayburn, a friend of Barnett’s father and a world-renowned race-car chassis builder from Whiteland, went on to build the cars Barnett would race over four decades. Another Indiana legend in performance, Glen Niebel, built the racing engines that would propel the number 89 car into victory lane in the early part of Barnett’s racing career. Later in his career, local resident Bill Tranner would assume the roll of chief engine builder.
Through his relationship with Niebel, he would meet his most well-known racing partner, Tony Stewart. Niebel convinced Barnett to allow the 18-year-old Stewart to drive his backup car. That first race, Barnett finished in second place, beaten by his own car with Stewart at the wheel.
They would continue as a race team for the remainder of Barnett’s driving career. Even though Stewart moved on to the IRL and then NASCAR, he maintained a dirt track car and would often race unannounced at dirt tracks across the Midwest. When Stewart was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2019, he thanked Barnett in his acceptance speech.
Off the track, Barnett began to show interest in local politics. A seat had opened on the Franklin City Council and he surprised Jeannie by running for the open seat in the Republican party caucus in 2008. Just as he had done on the track so many times, Barnett was victorious and his political career began. He went on to be elected as City Council president, a seat he held for five years.
Balancing the rigors of a racing schedule, a full-time job and the City Council was a tough race to complete, yet he managed a dizzying schedule for several years, until one lap around the race track changed it all.
He was one of just 18 drivers to enter the 2016 Battle of the Bluegrass Late Model Series at the Brownstown Speedway. Barnett, a fan favorite and proven champion, did not complete the first lap before a near-tragedy occurred. When the car in front of his went sideways through a turn, Barnett swerved to miss a collision when his right side frame stuck into the track. He was then hit from behind and his car went into a barrel roll, flipping four times.
Barnett was transported by lifeline helicopter to St. Vincent Hospital. He had sustained a broken back, collar bone, nose and rib, along with a concussion and two black eyes that were swollen shut. Stewart, upon hearing of the accident immediately flew in to assure that Barnett had the best possible medical care. Despite the severity of his injuries and his age at 59, Barnett pledged he would race again.
The next race he would enter, however, would be a much different competition. Franklin Mayor Joe McGuiness announced his resignation as mayor to accept a position with the state. This created a vacancy for the mayor’s office. Barnett knew this was a race he wanted to enter and win. The Johnson County Republican Party would hold a caucus to fill the vacant spot, so he began campaigning.
Doctors had just cleared Barnett to resume racing, but many in Franklin voiced concerns about a potential mayor still racing on the weekends. Regardless, Barnett was once again victorious and was sworn in as Franklin’s newest mayor in January 2017. Immediately after he was proclaimed the victor, he officially announced his retirement from racing.
While the challenges are vastly different, the drive behind the mayor is the same; Barnett is a fierce competitor. Wasting no time, Barnett wanted to propel his beloved city into the winners circle, so he set an aggressive course of action to make the city the best place to live, work and play.
Like all races he had entered in his career, this would not be an easy one to win, and along the way he has encountered many obstacles to success. One difference is that on the track, you see the checkered flag wave and you know if you won or not. As the mayor victories aren’t so clear, yet they have tremendous impact on a larger audience.
One such victory is the environmental clean up of the old Amphenol site where IDEM found contamination in the soil and groundwater. Another victory has come in the form of infrastructure improvements. “Our infrastructure in Franklin is set for 50 years of future,” Barnett says. The picturesque downtown area has been revitalized under Barnett’s leadership and has become a bustling hub of activity that offers an array of activities.
With only eight years as mayor, Barnett clearly moves as fast in office as he did in his race car. The city has recognized tremendous improvements in a short time for quality of life. Miles of sidewalks have been repaved, trails extended, the amphitheater opened, and the new Senior Center is nearing completion. The next goal in the mayor’s sights is youth sports improvements, beginning with the potential expansion of Scott Park and the Little League baseball programming.
As a racer, Barnett shares that he always seemed to emerge as a driver advocate or leader to fight for the other drivers. As mayor, his job is essentially the same role, only advocating for the residents and business owners of Franklin. Barnett is excited to share details of the 2025 budget and is quick to throw praise onto the dedicated city employees in all departments. He is very proud of this enlarged “pit crew” working to keep the city safe and winning. Barnett’s winning ways will even continue on the race track as the Northern Allstars Late Model Dirt Series announced in March that the 2025 series champion will be awarded the Steve Barnett Champions Trophy in recognition of his success on and off the track.
Franklin, Barnett firmly believes, is running a winning race, and he intends to keep the pedal to the floor. He still owns his old race car, and now proudly uses it in parades and at the county fair to honor all of those who have helped him win throughout both careers – and as a reminder that winning can only occur when we stay in the race.
