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Toyota sprint car engines on sale, Outlaws add a contender, Chili Bowl Tuesday surprises | Daily 1-15-2025
Two young, surprise lock-ins headline Chili Bowl Tuesday, plus the World of Outlaws sprint car full time roster adds another, Toyota sprint car engines go on sale officially, and more. Let's go!
It's Wednesday, January 15th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
Tuesday at the Chili Bowl officially became the surprise night of the week. I guess at least so far anyway. If you say you had Landon Brooks and Brenham Crouch one-two, and locking into Saturday before yesterday's program, I'd guarantee you were full of crap. But that's exactly what we got. Both guys locked in for the first time, and both will make their first ever championship main event starts. I did say yesterday that Brooks was a darkhorse pick, so I will gladly take at least some credit for that, but I did not expect him to come out on top of that field. And Crouch has taken some heat in recent weeks and months for his silly season move on the sprint car side from his family-owned team to the CJB car. He didn't even run Chili Bowl in 2024, with his two previous appearances resulting in a Saturday C and a Saturday D in 2022 and 2023. I definitely think he deserves some positive attention today for stepping up on a big stage and taking a leap forward. I know he's going to be working with Paul McMahan this season as a mentor, I saw Paul in victory lane last night, and this will be a big confidence boost for him and something to build on. The big mover of the night was Buddy Kofoid. He got clobbered by Corbin Rueschenberg in the second qualifier, and tore the turn four fence down. While those fence repairs were happening, the KKM squad did an incredible job to put a new front end in that car and get Kofoid back out. Buddy did need to make a B-Main appearance, he won that, and then drove from 18th to third in the main event. He definitely had the speed to win, but ran out of laps. He'll start at the front of a B come Saturday, but his chances to win the driller will be slim coming from that far back. Kofoid's night really was a microcosm for many of the expected contenders on Tuesday. Many of them had issues. Zach Daum didn't make it out of the B. Hank Davis, Jonathan Beason, Kofoid, and TMez all needed B transfers. Brad Sweet crashed out of the feature, as did Clinton Boyles, and TMez. Boyles was definitely the heartbreak of the night. Hunter Schuerenberg was way down the order, and KTJ finished 13th after starting third. Outside of Kofoid, the night really belonged to some lesser known names. The guy who is getting hammered online today is Corbin Rueschenberg. Obviously the qualifier tangle with Kofoid. There was also a late race dustup with Ricky Thornton Jr. in that same race, a feature situation with KTJ, and lots of other not so great moments. Afterwards in an interview with Matt Weaver, he didn't seem to be too remorseful about any of it. I guess that's the Chili Bowl for you. Back to Brooks and Crouch, they join Kyle Larson and Shane Golobic in that locked in group. Brooks' win was also the first in the building for Matt Wood Racing.
Today in Tulsa, they are right back at it again with a fresh group. Same schedule, hot laps at 4 central, heats at 5. Today's field includes Daison Pursley, Emerson Axsom, Corey Day, Jake Swanson, Blake Hahn, Colby Copeland and Mitchel Moles. You'll also see Sammy Swindell today, plus the debuts for guys like Gordy Gundaker, and Alex Yankowski. Corey Day was the Wednesday winner a year ago, he looked fast the other night in the Race of Champions. Jake Swanson was the other lock-in car, he's back driving for Alex Bowman. Daison Pursley struggled on Wednesday last year, and if you might remember, that setup the epic run on Saturday, from fourth in the D to start, all the way to fourth in the feature by the end of the night. FloRacing again with live coverage if you aren't headed to Tulsa today.
Side note if you were curious, we talked about all of the Chili Bowl tech stuff on the show yesterday involving chassis checks, tire doping, and traction control. I traded a few messages with tech director Cody Cordell yesterday. He did tell me that nobody has been thrown out of the building so far for any of those rules violations. As I said yesterday, you'd hope that would be the case with all of the advance warning the teams had before the event.
Moving on to proceedings away from the Chili Bowl, but sort of related. The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and Roth Motorsports did confirm officially yesterday that Buddy Kofoid will return to the series for year two. His rookie year got off to a slow start at Volusia, but after that the team settled in, and they closed out 2024 very strong. Six of their seven wins came in the last 16 Outlaw races, and that included a $100,000 score at Huset's. At one point he looked unstoppable, winning four times in five races, and finishing on the podium in eight straight. In the final rundown, he was fourth in standings with seven wins, 32 top fives and 53 top tens in 65 races. If it wasn't the best rookie year in the history of the Outlaws, it was certainly near the top. And this team could be formidable this coming season. The whole crew is back, including crew chief Dylan Buswell. The Toyota engine program continues, as does support from Mobil 1. We talk about David Gravel and Carson Macedo, but Buddy Kofoid could be a legit championship contender in 2025. They need to eliminate some of those bad nights, and improve their average finish by about two positions. That would put them squarely in the fight. The confirmation of Kofoid now brings the Outlaws to 11, with that list also including Gio Scelzi, David Gravel, Carson Macedo, Donny Schatz, Logan Schuchart, Sheldon Haudenschild, Cole Macedo, Garet Williamson, Chris Windom, and Bill Balog. Word on the street is the Bill Rose six is probably back, and driver plans are expected to be finalized there soon. There are still a few other possible wildcard additions for the Outlaws in the pipeline. The start of the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series season is now three weeks away.
In the Roth/Kofoid release, there was no mention of the second sprint car team, no surprise there. What was also announced though, was that Toyota Racing Development is now officially taking orders for the TRD 410 sprint car engine. They will have contingency deals in place with the Outlaws, High Limit, and Knoxville Raceway. And both Speedway Engine Development and Rider Racing Engines will be offering TRD power plants for sale. If you might remember back to April last year, I had a daily show segment where I talked about the Roth Motorsports sprint car teams operating separately, with Buddy Kofoid's car being kept in Knoxville, and James McFadden's car being in Indianapolis. McFadden's crew chief Brent Ventura and the Roth Motorsports social media folks voiced their displeasure at me for pointing that out, but this engine situation was another difference I'd heard about between the two cars. One was supposedly running the Rider Toyota, and the other the Speedway Toyota. In looking around at some photos, it looks like Kofoid was likely on the Rider Toyota, at least more often, and McFadden the Speedway. I do know that at various points McFadden used both, and based on results, I'd say both are potent pieces. McFadden getting his Roth 83 into a High Limit charter spot, and we just talked about Kofoid's stats. So you can now get the traditional Chevy-based 410s from various builders, Fords from Shaver, and Toyotas from Speedway and Rider. I'll be curious to see where else we'll see some of these other engine options start popping up.
Staying with the World of Outlaws, but switching to the late model side, they've added two more signed drivers to their full time roster for 2025. Yesterday they announced the return of Daniel Hilsabeck, and today came the news that Tristan Chamberlain is back. Hilsabeck fell of the Outlaw tour back in June last year when he broke his wrist in a crash at Brownstown. He'll try again to fight it out starting next week at Volusia. And Chamberlain will look to build on a rookie campaign that saw the 17 year old driver pick up six top tens on the season. Hilsabeck and Chamberlain I believe take the Outlaws to 18 total. At last check I had Kyle Bronson as the 13th guy. Since then we know they've added Max Blair (well sorta), Dustin Walker is back, as is Tyler Bruening, and now these two. So I think that's 18. Some other drivers who could still sign between Lucas and the Outlaws include Drake Troutman and Tanner English, and I haven't heard what a guy like Jimmy Owens has planned.
Alrighty friends, we'll call it good right there for today. Make sure to stop by dirtrackr.com to see all the latest news releases, the streaming schedule, and the dirt racing podcasts page. Always lots of good stuff over there.
Hope you guys have a great Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!