We’re six races into the World of Outlaws Late Model season and a rookie is leading the points standings – at least kind of.
Late Model veteran Kyle Strickler has committed to running the full season with the tour and has gotten off to a red hot start.
The driver of the No. 8 car is the only man on tour with multiple trips to victory lane this season as well as five top 10 finishes this year.
It’s been his world that everyone else is living in, and going into three weekends of major races, that’s something that could pay dividends for his PCC Motorsports team.
In the next three race weekends, the World of Outlaws tour will race for $40,000 at the Rock Gault Memorial at Cherokee Speedway, compete in the annual Illini 100, and race for the first time at Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt track.
If anyone can get some momentum under their belt, they could walk away with big money, and so far Strickler is the only one to do that.
Defending series champion Brandon Sheppard sits 66 points back of the points leader, but he has yet to secure a top five finish all season. That’s a year removed from making the top five in every race, but nine, and collecting a series-high 14 wins.
By his standards, B-Shep is off to a rough start.
Ricky Weiss sits 10 points behind him, trying to get a head start on his run to upset Sheppard to win the title, as Strickler seems to be in position to do so far.
All three of these guys will be battling over the course of the next month as well as this weekend as the series goes to Cherokee.
Another Rookie of the Year contender in Ross Bailes earned his first and only World of Outlaws win at Cherokee, so he’ll be looking to try and get another victory under his belt there.
It all starts on Friday, March 26 with night 1 of the Rock Gault Memorial, scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. CT and streamed live as always on DirtVision.com.
| World of Outlaws Late Model Standings | ||||
| Position | Driver | Points | Behind | |
| 1 | Kyle Strickler # | 844 | – | |
| 2 | Brandon Sheppard | 778 | -66 | |
| 3 | Ricky Weiss | 768 | -76 | |
| 4 | Tyler Bruening | 764 | -80 | |
| 5 | Kyle Bronson | 762 | -82 | |
| 6 | Dennis Erb Jr. | 748 | -96 | |
| 7 | Darrell Lanigan | 740 | -104 | |
| 8 | Chris Madden | 730 | -114 | |
| 9 | Scott Bloomquist | 726 | -118 | |
| 10 | Ross Bailes # | 718 | -126 | |
| 11 | Cade Dillard | 698 | -146 | |
| 12 | Boom Briggs | 696 | -148 | |
| 13 | David Breazeale | 682 | -162 | |
| 14 | Chase Junghans | 674 | -170 | |
| 15 | Ryan Gustin # | 674 | -170 | |
