DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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These early season driver changes are CRAZY; High Limit alters work area, other rules; Axsom chooses | Daily 2-3-2026

Given his comments back a few weeks ago during his Chili Bowl prelim night, I hope you weren't surprised today with the announcement that Emerson Axsom will be full time with the World of Outlaws this season. That campaign starts on Wednesday at Volusia during DIRTcar Nationals, but the 2026 Chili Bowl winner has already been in a sprint car this year. He ran the three ASCS nights at Volusia, with finishes of 9th, seventh, and second. He'll obviously be looking to stay in that same range when they bolt the 410 in for the next several nights. Axsom becomes the 17th full-time driver for the World of Outlaws this season. He joins a rookie class of five, with the other four being Ashton Torgerson, Scott Bogucki, Scotty Thiel, and Kasey Jedrzejek. Axsom has 71 career Outlaws starts, with seven top-five finishes and 24 top tens in those 71 starts. Scotty Thiel actually has the most starts of any of the rookies with the series at 73. Axsom has 71, but he has easily been the most successful of that group when they’ve raced with the series. I think Axsom easily becomes the favorite for Rookie of the Year, given his pedigree, where he’s at in his career, and what he’s done so far. He’s still looking for his first national tour win. He’s never won with the Outlaws or High Limit, but he has won with the IRA and the All Stars. He’s also got USAC National Sprint Car wins, obviously without the wing. This is another big rookie class for the Outlaws. They had multiple rookies again last year, I think it was six or seven, while High Limit this year only has Tanner Holmes. I think it’s notable that the Outlaws have been able to draw so many rookies while High Limit has just the one. This is also one of the bigger Outlaws full-time fields I can remember in a number of years. Last year was big at 15, but we may be going back five, 10, or even 15 years since the last time we started the season at Volusia with this many full-time cars.

The Outlaws also put out an expected entry list for Wednesday’s season opener, and they’ve got 44 cars on it right now. Besides the 17 full-timers, that includes a number of High Limit drivers: Justin Peck, Brent Marks, Tanner Holmes, Daison Pursley, Tyler Courtney, Brenham Crouch, and Danny Sams. There are also other traveling drivers like Brian Brown, Ryan Timms, Chase Dietz, Anthony Macri, Danny Dietrich, and Parker Price-Miller. These are going to be some tough features to make through Saturday night with this group of drivers, especially with guys trying to get established early in the season with points. I think we’re going to see some drivers in holes after Saturday night, depending on how things go. When we talk about Buddy Kofoid and Carson Macedo leaving Volusia in holes in past years, those are the types of things that absolutely cannot happen if you want to compete for the championship. Remember too, the Outlaws are right back at Volusia in a few weeks for another round during Bike Week, and then after that they settle into a southern schedule.

Real quick, 2026 is here and it's a good time to get in on a FloRacing subscription. They've got late model action later this week, 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.

The other sprint car news today was High Limit announcing rule changes heading into the 2026 season. This is now back-to-back years where we’ve seen relatively significant rule changes for High Limit, and once again they differ from what we’ll see from the Outlaws. The first change is to the single-file restart procedure. This isn’t a huge deal, but the restart cone is being moved from the front stretch back to Turn Four. No passing before that spot, and cars must be nose-to-tail. This does not affect double-file restarts, which will still be used. The series is also limiting provisionals to two per race, determined by owner points. Full-time teams will still have a set number of provisionals for the season, but High Limit is limiting how many can be used on any given night. High Limit has also added limitations to the work area, similar to changes USAC announced recently. Teams will now only get guaranteed time for flat tires, and that guaranteed time is being reduced from two minutes to one minute. Teams can still attempt repairs for damage in the work area, but there’s no guaranteed time for things like wings, suspension, or front-end damage. Teams will only get guaranteed time once per feature. If you have two flat tires, you only get guaranteed time for the first one. I traded messages with High Limit CEO Brad Sweet, and he said the goal is to be more efficient in the work area and cut down on wasted time. Running efficient programs has been a major focus for High Limit, especially with limited support divisions and faster race nights. The downside is that fewer teams will be able to salvage nights after crashes. For full-time teams, incidents could now be more costly. In the past, two minutes could get a lot done. Now, without guaranteed time, some of that damage is going to take teams out of races where they might have previously been able to get back on track and salvage a top-10 or top-15.

Moving on, for those keeping score at home, we’ve already had one driver-team split in sprint car racing in 2026, and now we have one on the late model side. Team owner Brett Coltman announced in a Facebook video that he and Donald McIntosh have parted ways. McIntosh confirmed the split with his own post, saying, “Racing is a very demanding sport. It takes commitment and a team around you that’s like family. Everyone needs to be on the same page, motivated, and understand limits and goals. It takes faith and putting God first. I’m not sure where my racing will go from here, but Coltman Farms Racing and I have decided we’re best to go our separate ways.” McIntosh had just joined Coltman Farms late in 2025 after splitting with the Billy Hicks team following a Lucas season where he was Rookie of the Year. All indications were that this team would be full-time on a national tour, likely Lucas, since they hadn’t publicly signed with the Outlaws. Now everything is up in the air. Coltman went from two teams, with Tanner English as a full-time Outlaw and Zack Mitchell nearly winning the Hunt the Front title, to just one car at the moment, a part-time development deal with Luke Morey. That’s a significant pullback. Coltman mentioned in his video that he’s looking for a driver with a toter and a crew, which suggests another hire could be coming. I’ve heard a couple of names floating around, but we’ll have to wait and see. McIntosh is searching for a ride again, and that’s a tough position to be in with Speedweeks already underway. 2026 has barely started, and it’s already wild.

The ASCS did get a chance to wrap up their portion of DIRTcar Nationals last night. It was a really fun feature. Brady Bacon got around Brian Brown in lap traffic and went on to win. Emerson Axsom went seventh to second, Austin McCarl went fifth to third, and after winning the first two nights, Tyler Courtney finished fourth in the finale. We’ll see a number of these teams stick around for the 410 racing. Some will head home, and others will stay in Florida to run Winter Heat with the USCS Sprint Car Series.

Alright, that's it for today. Thanks as always for tuning in.

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