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Kyle Larson's Chili Bowl advantage, why is EVERYONE going World of Outlaws? | Daily 1-17-2026
It's driller day at the Chili Bowl and we'll preview tonight's main event, including who I think is the win favorite. Plus we'll talk another World of Outlaws full timer and why it seems like everyone is going Outlaws this year, Wild West Shootout updates and more. Let's go!
It's Saturday, January 17th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
2026 is here and racing is happening over on FloRacing. The Chili Bowl continues all day, we've got the Wild West Shootout later tonight, and it won't be long before we're into the Lucas, USAC, and High Limit seasons. If you want to tune in and need a Flo subscription, head over to dirtrackr.com/floracing and sign up. That gets you all the action and helps out DIRTRACKR. Flo is your home all season for Lucas late models, High Limit sprint cars, USAC, the Short Track Super Series, and a whole lot of other racing on both dirt and pavement. And did you know that your Flo subscription works for all of the other FloSports apps and sites also? That means you can check out FloFootball, hockey, baseball, hoops, wrestling, and way more all with the same login. To grab a subscription for 2026, sign up now at dirtrackr.com/floracing.
It's been a while since we did any Saturday shows, but it's driller day at the Chili Bowl, and there are a few other things to talk about, so why not do a little Saturday content.
Inside the expo center, alphabet soup is well underway for this final day of the 2026 Chili Bowl. I was surprised to see Sammy Swindell up early and racing after his brutal prelim night crash. He was trying to make a run, and had advanced a bit, but then in O-Main two, he broke a right front shock and went for another tumble. Kudos to him for giving it a go, but a shame to see it end like that. Alphabet mains continue all day, with all eyes on tonight's main event and who could be walking away with that driller. After the Friday night program, we've got ten drivers locked in, and they are already seeded for today's pole shuffle. If you don't know how that works, they start at the bottom of the seeding, and it's short, two car races. The winner then advances to face the next car in the seeding. Where you end up is where you start. Things will get going with CJ Leary vs Justin Grant, and then it's Briggs Danner, Hank Davis, Daison Pursley, Christopher Bell, Blake Hahn, Logan Seavey, Emerson Axsom, then Kyle Larson. And yes, that means Yung Money is guaranteed a front row starting spot. This is important because to win the Chili Bowl, you've got to start up front. The last five Chili Bowls have been won off the front row, and a Chili Bowl hasn't been won from beyond the first two rows since Kevin Swindell did it in 2011 from 10th. So it's most likely that your winner is going to come from Larson, Axsom, or Seavey. Those guys are guaranteed front two rows at the start. Outside of those top ten guys, the rest of the 24 starters will come from B-Main transfers. Seven spots available in each of those. So things will continue to ramp up all day, with more and more pressure on those transfer positions. Remember as well, the feature this year is back to 55 laps. They dropped it to 40 last year to try and stave off the track taking rubber, but with what they saw in 2025, they went ahead and pushed it back to 55. So an extra 15 laps where anything can happen.
Taking a look at the wild Friday night feature that ultimately went to Logan Seavey, there are a trio of drivers from that event who likely won't race today. We know Steven Snyder Jr. and Jesse Love are scratches after their crashes, and Gavin Miller was sent for further evaluation last night. Love crashed right at the checkered flag, and was set for a B-Main start. Miller was battling for the transfer with Justin Grant very late when he banged that ramp right at the start finish line and went for a big tumbled. Snyder with nowhere to go in that one, and completely taco'd the downtube on his car. I haven't seen an official update on Miller as I write this, but I doubt we see him at all today.
If you want a win pick from me today, I'm going Larson. I know that isn't a sexy pick, but you put him out in clean air where he can dictate this thing, I think he's going to be incredibly difficult to beat. I think Kevin Swindell has his cars tuned up, he obviously knows how to win in this building, and Seavey and Axsom are two incredible drivers, so they will both have a great shot. I think barring some pole shuffle heroics from another driver, I don't know who else can get into this thing. Drop your win picks in the comments below and enjoy the action today.
In some Friday late model news, Daulton Wilson and Big Frog Motorsports have decided on a national tour for 2026. They're gonna join the World of Outlaws, Big Frog has done this before, Big Perm has not done this before. They're saying he's a rookie, so he's joining Trey Mills, Logan Zarin and Eli Johnson in that class. But this seems a bit crazy to call Daulton Wilson a rookie given his career in multiple Lucas seasons, he's got wins on that side. And I guess if you're gonna put him in this side, he's the favorite for that award. But a little bit curious decision there. Perm looking for his first outlaw win, but like I said, has won with Lucas. He hasn't raced a lot with the Outlaws in recent years. He's been a regular at World Finals and Volusia, we've seen him run the Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury and a few other scattered shows, but usually not more than five or 10 races a year. Adding Daulton Wilson and Big Frog now takes the Outlaw field up to 17. The season opens on Thursday this coming week at Volusia. Wednesday night there's gonna be cars on track, but that is a practice night.
And as we watch all of these announcements come in, I've seen comments about why does it seem like everyone is going Outlaws this year? But I think it's important to point out things are really right on schedule for both series when it comes to these full-timers lists. Lucas is losing Davenport and we still don't know what Brandon Overton is doing. But other than that, it's a pretty good field shaping up for Lucas, which we talked about earlier this week. They're gonna be at 15, 16, 17 as well. What this really feels like to me is a PR issue. World Racing Group and the world of outlaws their staff, they really hammer these announcements and the coverage every single day. They've been putting out a new announcement about a new driver joining the series, and on the flip side, Lucas doesn't do anything. And so we're left to find this stuff for ourselves. This is something I think that Lucas needs to get better at under the Flo ownership. I've talked about this before. They're not even sharing these social media announcements to their pages. So this week when we had Josh Rice and JRR make their decision Lucas did not share that to their page. I think that's a big miss and a big mistake. Perception in this case, is not reality. Both series are gonna have very good fields to start the season. It's just one side just does a way better job of promoting this stuff.
Wild West Shootout got back to racing last night after having Thursday off. Similar vibes last night, Hudson O'Neal versus Bobby Pierce late just like we saw back on Wednesday and there was again contact like we saw a few days ago. This time though, no cut tires. Ryan Gustin was lurking in the background there in case there were shenanigans again. Remember these two made contact on Thursday. Ethan Dotson went on to the win. No issues though this time. O'Neal able to get away in the Rumley six. Second win of the week, and we still have Saturday and Sunday left for racing action. So they're gonna race tonight and they're going to race tomorrow. Jonathan Davenport's still missing a bit of pace this week. A little surprised to not see him a little bit closer to the front. He had top fives earlier in this week. He backed up to 10th last night after starting sixth, we've seen that a few times this week where he starts a little bit further up and then goes backwards as the race plays out. And really the same with Brandon Sheppard, he's in the family car. He has not been a factor any of these nights either. So again, the race tonight finale set for Sunday. We'll see if Ricky Thornton Jr. makes a move to try and run that final race here at the Wild West Shootout. Remember, he ran the opener, he's been in Tulsa all week for the Chili Bowl. He's set for a D main start tonight. We'll see how far he can get and then if he decides to make a move.
That's it for today and a little extra content.
Hope you guys have a great Saturday out there, we'll see you in the next one!