The 2022 national super late model season technically kicked off just over a week ago with the annual Wild West Shootout, but this Thursday marks the first series sanctioned races of the season for the top tours.
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series takes to the track at Volusia for the Sunshine Nationals this weekend – the first three race days out of the 60 scheduled to take place over the course of the year.
It could make or break some full-time, national touring series commitments for a number of drivers, depending on how their next month goes.
We’re breaking down who’s committed to what tours right now and where we might see some drivers go.
Familiar faces and a former champ
Currently, six series regulars will return to race full-time with the World of Outlaws – now, that doesn’t mean success in different races can’t alter plans, but expect to see them throughout the 2022 season baring a major change.
Brandon Sheppard is back in the Rocket Chassis house car to defend his series title. He started off his season at the Wild West Shootout at Vado where he came away with the first two wins of the six-night event.
Sheppard became the first driver in series history to win three straight championships last year, but a title this season would make him the only driver to have five.
The other driver with four titles to his name is coming back to settle the score. Josh Richards will return to the tour after departing Clint Bowyer’s Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series team to compete with the Outlaws.
Richards will team up with Boom Briggs in his first time with the series since his 2016 championship run. Briggs finished the season seventh in the standings with three top 5’s in 49 race days, but Richards’ stats with the tour speaks for themselves. We’ll see if “Four-Time” can make another run.
Both 2021 runner-up Chris Madden and series rookie of the year Tyler Bruening appear to be returning to the tour along with Brent Larson, Dennis Erb Jr., and Iowa native Ryan Gustin.
Five drivers slated for World of Outlaws Rookie of the Year
On top of the full-time powers, five different drivers plan to throw their names in the hat for rookie of the year.
The most familiar of the names for the tour might be DIRTCar Summer Nationals regular Tanner English, who captured a win on the mini-tour in 2021. Another semi-regular with the series in Gordy Gundaker will take a stab at a full year as well. The pair finished third and 21st with the Hell Tour last season, respectively.
Max Blair hasn’t run a full season with the series in his career, but he has three wins with the tour to his name over the past five seasons, one of which came at Lernerville.
Kyle Hammer will be joining the tour as well, switching to a Longhorn Chassis by Wells for the year. The Illinois native is sure to have the tools, at the very least, to compete a bit.
The rookie with the least amount of experience of the five comes with Gary Dillon out of North Carolina. Dillon told WorldofOutlaws.com that he wanted to get away from the drama that surrounds limited late model racing. He has just a handful of starts to his name with a best finish of 14th at the Drydene Xtreme Series opener.
The discipline of money and the open schedule drivers
If you follow late model racing relentlessly, it’s no secret that the money being given to drivers this season is bursting out of the envelopes.
The World of Outlaws announced an increased season purse as well as bonuses, the Lucas Oil tour is hosting a mini-series with its big races, Race XR is shelling out money for its ‘Super Series,’ and above all else the Eldora Million returns in June.
This could lead to fewer drivers running tours full-time and instead just going where the money is on any given weekend. Although, it could create a year where we see a plethora of big names at any given race.
Kyle Strickler has seen the successes first-hand at Volusia, routinely sitting on the podium a year ago at the DIRTCar Nationals at the track. Kyle Larson has announced that he will throw his name in the ring for this weekend, too.
Drivers like Bobby Pierce, Mike Marlar, Tyler Erb, and Garrett Alberson got their seasons started this week in Vado and are expected to make the trip down to Florida for speedweeks.
The expected Lucas Oil tour regulars like Jonathan Davenport, Hudson O’Neal and Jimmy Owens should be in Florida this weekend. The tour’s 2021 champion and rookie of the year in Tim McCreadie and Ricky Thornton Jr. raced in Tulsa at the Chili Bowl Nationals.
There’s no shortage of names and until Thursday there’s just an amount of storylines to watch. The Sunshine Nationals mark chapter one.
The action at Volusia starting Thursday and each of the World of Outlaws races this year can be seen live on DirtVision.com. For more information, visit Always Race Day as we track where each name goes throughout the next month.
Florida Speedweeks National
Super Late Model Schedule
Jan. 20-22 | WoO LMS Sunshine Nats
Jan. 27-29 | LucasDirt Golden Isles
Jan. 31-Feb. 1 | LucasDirt Bubba RP
Feb. 1, 3-5 | LucasDirt All-Tech
Feb. 6-12 | LucasDirt East Bay
Feb. 16-19 | WoO LMS DIRTCar Nats
