DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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A key PA dirt track and a small rule change that caught my attention | Daily 1-7-2026

The two winningest Outlaw drivers in 2025 are confirmed back, we go through a few sprint car things with series choices and ride updates, and there is a curious sprint car rules thing to talk about. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, January 7th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

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There is an interesting sprint car rules situation that's popped up in Central Pennsylvania that I'm a bit surprised hasn't really gotten any reaction. Yesterday afternoon, Williams Grove put out it's rules for 2026, and there is a change in there for their weekly 410 shows. Kevin Nouse, former All Star series director and former tech director with High Limit, has taken over as race director at the Grove, and he's brought a bit of High Limit to the PA institution. Next year, teams will be allowed to run a single in-car shock adjuster, which is a move we saw High Limit make for 2025. It was one of a handful of rules that took High Limit down a bit of a diverted path from the World of Outlaws rulebook. The few differences between the two national tour rule sets didn't go so far as to mean drivers would be heading in different development directions, but adding the adjuster was one way High Limit hoped to improve racing; give drivers the chance to make changes mid-race. What I think is intriguing here, is Williams Grove has long been a track deeply tied to the World of Outlaws, and so it's curious they are diverging on rules here just a bit, even if it's something small. I did go back and check to make sure that the Outlaws didn't sneak this into their rulebook for 2026, but it is not there. Also confirmed through a text message to the series. This could also be something that comes into play with the PA Posse 410 series, given they don't have their own rules, and are instead relying on track rules for each event. Again, not a massive divergence, but just something that made me go "hmm."

Two more World of Outlaws confirmations today, means we've got the top four from 2025 all back for another go in 2026. Earlier today it was the series announcing Tim McCreadie is returning to Boom Briggs' team for the full Outlaw tour. McCreadie started 2025 slow, but battled all the way back to a fourth place finish in the final standings. With six wins, only series champion Bobby Pierce ended the year with more than McCreadie. The New York veteran looked like a different guy by the spring, and the swap from Rocket to Longhorn chassis really paid dividends. In the first eight races starting out with the Rocket, McCreadie had just two top ten finishes, he missed a feature, and had an average finish of 14.29. After swapping to the Longhorn at Farmer City, it was 35 races, with six wins, 12 top fives, and 25 top tens. The average finish over the span was 8.89. A significant turnaround, and McCreadie looked like a serious contender again. I've seen a bit of chatter here and there about TMac being a potential championship contender next year, but while the turnaround was incredible, I don't think they are quite there just yet. The nine team would need to pick up another nearly three positions in average finish to get down to where Pierce was in 2025, and that's if you remove that opening Rocket stretch. In 2025 there were still too many finishes outside the top ten even down the stretch. I would expect more consistency this coming season given the direction they got themselves going in, but an improvement that large seems to be a bit ambitions. I'd also expect Hoffman to be better next year. But could McCreadie get into the top three, and continue to pick up wins in 2026? Absolutely. I think he and Gustin will continue to be right in the mix there towards the top behind Pierce and Hoffman.

Not long after the McCreadie announcement, Bobby Pierce shared his 2026 schedule, and even though he didn't say it explicitly, and we don't have an announcement from the series, Pierce has the entire 61 race Outlaw slate on his website, so count him back as well. Neither this, nor the McCreadie announcement are surprises, as both were expected back. This will be year four for Pierce, and had it not been for that tire penalty in 2024, it could have easily been three straight World of Outlaws titles. 38 of his 42 career Outlaw victories have come in just the past three years, and he's been one of the top two or three drivers in the country over that span. Pierce had 11 series wins in 2025, plus 21 wins elsewhere, including the Dirt Track World Championship and Gateway Dirt Nationals. He also won the FloRacing Night in America title. Doing some quick math, between purses and points funds, I've got Pierce right around $1.4 million in earnings for this past year. And that doesn't include any thing like tow money, contingencies, or other income. Not a bad year for the Smooth Operator. He'll come out of the gate as easily the favorite for the title, and I think right now Hoffman is the closest challenger. Pierce's season will start this coming weekend at the Wild West Shootout.

On the World of Outlaws sprint car side, they did put out a release today about Chris Windom coming back full time next year with Sides Motorsports. We already knew this was happening though, as Windom basically said so during the Outlaw banquet after World Finals. We haven't talked a ton of sprint car stuff here lately, as things have been really quiet since some of the rookie announcements before Christmas. As I said back in December before we went on the holiday break, the Outlaws currently sit at 13 full timers. That includes rookies Ashton Torgerson, Scotty Thiel, and Scott Bogucki, plus David Gravel, Donny Schatz, Spencer Bayston, Cole Macedo, Chris Windom, Logan Schuchart, Bill Balog, plus Buddy Kofoid, Carson Macedo, and Sheldon Haudenschild. Those last three aren't technically confirmed, but we expect all three to be Outlaw teams. Last week I posted to the DIRTRACKR Facebook page about the ongoing Sheldon Haudenschild/KCP situation, and we still have no details on when, or if the move will be confirmed before DIRTcar Nationals. Sheldon keeps posting to social, and shared a photo of firesuits and shoes ready to go, but it's possible they don't put out a release. They might just head to Volusia and have the car rolling out of the trailer be their announcement. I was told several days ago, that one possible hangup is them trying to get all the paperwork done between the team and NOS, as the energy drink company is expected to support Haudenschild's effort. When dealing with corporate entities, these things can take a significant amount of time. If you're curious, my deal with Kubota was nearly a year in the works before we announced it. There is no reason though to believe the Sheldon/KCP deal isn't happening. The remaining sprint car questions for 2026, are who, if anyone else joins a national tour. We still don't know yet Garet Williamson is doing, and we've said before Hank Davis, TJ Stutts, and Emerson Axsom could be in play. The other question is Chase Randall. He was a High Limit full timer last year, but nothing yet from him on his plans. He was just at Tulsa Shootout, and is racing at Chili Bowl for Trifecta Motorsports. Randall hasn't run Chili Bowl since 2022, and was in Australia last year during this time. I've been told there could be sponsor changes on this car, but I do want to point out that Randall didn't make his High Limit announcement for 2025 until February. I have reached out to Randall's people for comment, but haven't heard anything.

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Hope you guys have a great Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!