DirtonDirt Dispatches
Dispatches: Georgian plucks first Hell Tour win
Tyler Millwood in victory lane. (brendonbauman.com)
Among the latest notes and quotes from around Dirt Late Model racing during the Fourth of July weekend, including DIRTcar Summer Nationals and other action (look for World of Outlaws coverage of Deer Creek’s NAPA Gopher State 50 elsewhere). Also find a listing of live-streaming video from specials around the country:
Peachy victory
Tyler Millwood of Kingston, Ga., who committed to the DIRTcar Summer Nationals for the first time this season, knows the day-after-day grind of the tour isn’t easy. “It might look easy sometimes, but it’s not,” he said.
He faced one of the toughest tasks of the grinding, 31-race tour Thursday at La Salle (Ill.) Speedway with the 10th-starting driver closed in on leader Jason Feger in the race’s final laps. Feger held the low groove and there was just one way around.
Said Millwood: “It took every ounce of my knowledge to say ‘Can I move out and try to get by him there?’ ”
The resounding answer? Yes. In close quarters racing amid traffic, Millwood ran a car’s width higher than Feger and grabbed the lead on the 34th of 40 laps. Feger’s last-ditch effort in the high side couldn’t stop Millwood from capturing his first-ever Hell Tour victory.
“I don't know about y'all, but this is a bad-ass race from where I was watching,” Millwood said in victory lane, his voice cracking. “I gotta thank everybody at the track here for putting on a good show.”
Crew members Lance Bracewell, Brett Dukes, Junior Rodriguez and Jason Huskey watched Millwood discuss his exploits in victory lane after the $5,000 triumph. Millwood became just the second Peach State driver behind previous tour champion Ashton Winger of Hampton, Ga., to win on the Summer Nationals.
"First off, I gotta thank my beautiful wife and my son, Sam and Rush at the house, for letting me do this. Mom and Dad, all the guys at work because, I couldn't do it without all them,” Millwood said. “Them four dudes standing right there. I couldn't do it without them.”
The 34-year-old Millwood, who took time off from his duties at the family’s Millwood Plumbing the tackle the Midwestern circuit, entered the race with two top-five finishes in a dozen feature starts, but he hopes to add to his success with nine races remaining.
“It's bad ass,” said the winner on the Southern All Star, Schaeffer's Spring Nationals and Ultimate Southeast circuits. “Hope we can do this a couple more.” — DIRTVision and staff reports
Tough decision
The news dropped earlier this week that the long-running Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout would return to Arizona after a four-year stint at Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park. Miniseries co-promoter Chris Kearns called it a “very tough decision.”
Vado's winter racing was widely praised. The facility was state-of-the-art. The track struggled drawing large crowds and colder weather was a challenge (snow cancelled one of 2025’s events), but Vado track owner Royal Jones was unwavering in his WWS support. Jones offered the miniseries a landing place when the closure of Arizona Speedway left the miniseries temporarily without a venue.
“For me, the thing that people don't know about that I think about is that it's not just about how big our crowds are, how much (money) we're making it's not about all that. It was about — and I've talked about this a lot to other people — is that the day, the second I find out that Arizona Speedway was getting closed down by the state, I called Royal Jones and I said, ‘Hey, I need a place to take the Wild West Shootout,’ ” Kearns told FloRacing. "Within two seconds he said yes. And that actual moment four years ago, five years ago, weighed heavy on me on making the decision to even move out of there.”
But bringing the event back to Casa Grande’s Central Arizona Raceway — the site where Ernie Mincy’s Early Thaw in 2001 re-established a tradition of high-profile Super Late Model racing — returns the miniseries home.
“They knew from when we (to Vado) that the goal was always get back to Arizona. They knew that. Royal’s still gonna sponsor the event. He's gonna race the event. We still love Vado Speedway, but they understood that we needed to get back to Arizona, and he knew by seeing all the stuff, and we've all seen all the improvements (promoters) have made at Central Arizona that it was inevitable and probably needed to happen. And it's a great speedway now.”
The Brad Whitfield-promoted Central Arizona oval, which for three seasons has hosted lower-profile Early Thaw events for Late Models in January and February, is an improved facility than when it last hosted the Wild West Shootout in January 2013.
“They're nonstop. Yes, they put a wall around the place, they put more grandstands in, they've put some suites in, they're doing a scoreboard, they’re nonstop,” said Kearns, who co-owns the WWS with Matt Curl and Ben Shelton. “They're nonstop still doing improvements. They don't plan on stopping. They want it to be, not just a premier facility in Arizona because there's not a lot of racetracks there, they want it to be a premier facility and they're working hard to do it and it'll be nice.
“Going back there now, I mean, I'm super excited about just getting back there. We’re actually going out there in a couple weeks to do a site visit and see all the stuff that everybody's told us about that we've seen pictures of, so I'm pretty excited about it.”
The 2026 Wild West Shootout purses and details haven’t been announced for other Jan. 10-18 action, which includes modifieds and X-mods, but Kearns said the "destination vacation for racing” won’t disappoint.
“We've got a couple of what we consider big things planned, big announcements for the racers, which in turn, turns out well for the fans because more big racers come,” Kearns said, “but we'll get to that later on.” — Staff reports
Streaming schedule
Among upcoming Dirt Late Model special and sanctioned events available via live streaming:
Thursday, July 3
• World of Outlaws Real American Late Model Series at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn. (DIRTVision)
• DIRTcar Summer Nationals at La Salle (Ill.) Speedway (DIRTVision)
• Wartburg (Tenn.) Speedway Limited Late Models (Dirt Rich TV)
• American Crate All-Star Series presented by PPM at Willard (Ky.) Speedway (Dirt Rich TV)
• American Crate Late Model Series at Hunt County Raceway in Greenville, Texas (RaceON)
Friday, July 4
• Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Atomic Speedway in Alma, Ohio (FloRacing)
• World of Outlaws Real American Late Model Series at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn. (DIRTVision)
• DIRTcar Summer Nationals at Red Hill Raceway in Sumner, Ill. (DIRTVision)
• Ultimate Southeast Series at Tri-County Racetrack in Brasstown, N.C. (Pit Row TV)
• American Crate All-Star Series presented by PPM at Mountain Motor Speedway in Isom, Ky. (Dirt Rich TV)
• Mississippi State Championship Challenge Series at Sabine Speedway in Many, La. (RaceON)
• Structural Buildings WISSOTA Challenge Series at Gondik Law Speedway in Superior, Wis. (Dirt Race Central)
• Nutrien Ag Revival Super Dirt Series at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan. (Start2Finish TV)
• Vanderlaan Northeast Crate Late Model Alliance at Ohsweken (Ontario) Speedway (G Force TV)
• Crate Racin’ USA 604 Series at Xtreme Speedway in Moulton, Ala. (Crate Racin’ USA TV)
• American Crate Late Model Series at Rocket Raceway Park in Petty, Texas
Saturday, July 5
• World of Outlaws Real American Late Model Series at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn. (DIRTVision)
• Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Muskingum County Speedway in Zanesville, Ohio (FloRacing)
• Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series at Senoia (Ga.) Raceway (Hunt the Front TV)
• Iron-Man-DIRTcar Summer Nationals at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Ind. (DIRTVision)
• Ultimate Heart of America Series at Rockcastle Speedway in Mount Vernon, Ky. (Pit Row TV)
• Mississippi State Championship Challenge Series at Super Bee Speedway in Chatham, La. (RaceON)
• Nutrien Ag Revival Super Dirt Series at Nevada (Mo.) Speedway (Start2Finish TV)
• Crate Racin’ USA 604 Series at Xtreme Speedway in Moulton, Ala. (Crate Racin’ USA TV)
• American Crate All-Star Series presented by PPM at Lake Cumberland Speedway in Burnside, Ky. (Dirt Rich TV)
• Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway Super Late Models (FloRacing)
• Structural Buildings WISSOTA Challenge Series at Gondik Law Speedway in Superior, Wis. (Dirt Race Central)
• American Crate Late Model Series at Grayson County Speedway in Sherman, Texas (RaceON)
• Elite Racing 602 Crate Late Model Series at Natural Bridge (Va.) Speedway (Dirt Rich TV)
Sunday, July 6
• DIRTcar Summer Nationals at Duck River Raceway Park in Wheel, Tenn. (DIRTVision)
