Fast Talk presented by MD3 and Five Star Bodies
Fast Talk: Recapping Big E's (final?) DTWC
With Devin Moran wrapping up the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and Bobby Pierce repeating at Eldora’s Dirt Track World Championship, our roundtable checks in for the weekly feature presented by MD3 and Five Star Race Cars Bodies (edited for clarity and length):
Evaluate Devin Moran’s path to his first national touring title.
Kevin Kovac, DirtonDirt senior writer: It seemed his time was coming after runner-up championship finishes in each of the last two seasons, and his near-flawless performances over the five-race Big River Steel Chase for the Championship proved it. He might not have rung up a season-long win total as large as Ricky Thornton Jr.’s, but he did win nine times overall (including a semi victory) on the Lucas Oil tour so it’s not like he just snatched the title with a strong playoff run after winning just a handful of times. Moran had become the tour’s most consistent driver even before the Chase, during which he was the only Big Four driver to avoid trouble. He was a worthy champion and certainly an overjoyed one because his pedigree as the son of a Hall of Famer makes his well aware of the sacrifice and years of experience it takes to capture a national title.
Todd Turner, DirtonDirt managing editor: He did what you need to do in the playoffs — run up front every night. That Eldora’s fourth-place finish, which easily could’ve been a runner-up performance, was his playoff worst is all you need to know. Even if the rest of the Big Four didn’t run into trouble — and each of them did, all more than once over five playoff events — Moran’s steadiness gave him his first national touring title. While his results waned midseason, Moran hit the home stretch with a flourish. Moran finished fourth or better in 17 of his last 18 Lucas Oil starts since the beginning of August, including semifeatures. We should’ve seen this coming.
Kyle McFadden, DirtonDirt staff reporter: Under the refined Lucas Oil playoff format, Moran is a deserving champion. He shored up consistency concerns that held him back over the summer to become title-worthy by fall. He did everything he had to do to get the job done when it mattered most, posting finishes of third, second, first, third and fourth, in addition to three fast time awards. You can’t say that Moran didn’t earn the title. A part of me, however, would rather not see a playoff format be used. Ricky Thornton Jr. is the most deserving champion and I still would like the series to increase the amount of bonus points per regular season victory from 10 to 20 to tweak playoff handicapping. But hats off to Moran, he performed when the stakes were highest. Everyone knew the format and signed up for it beforehand knowing what could pan out.
Bryan Ault, DirtonDirt contributing writer: Sometimes consistency pays off more than victories, and for Moran, that certainly proved to be true. While Moran's competitors were uneven, he stayed steady. The DTWC weekend in many ways encapsulated the Chase. All three of Moran’s competitors collapsed when it mattered most: Hudson O’Neal and Jonathan Davenport were virtually eliminated from contention at Brownstown’s Jackson 100 weekend and Ricky Thornton Jr.’s flat tire at Pittsburgh was costly. All three of those drivers had problems in the 100-lapper and had no answers for Moran. Throughout the Chase and Saturday’s DTWC, Moran was always up front. Congratulations to Moran and his crew, who have always been welcoming to me and always an enjoyable group to talk with.
Consider Bobby Pierce’s second straight DTWC victory.
Turner: Pierce’s longest dry spell (minus cold-weather months) since 2022 was going to end sooner than later, and Eldora’s six-figure windfall was ripe for the picking, even if he did start 13th. His winning car has three crown jewel triumphs at Eldora, so we’ll likely be seeing it again next season at the Big E. A 30-victory season is a lofty standard for mere mortals, but Pierce will definitely be looking to head into the ever-so-brief offseason with another victory or three at Charlotte, Senoia or Gateway.
McFadden: I had a feeling he’d right the ship before too long, and I had a feeling it’d come this weekend at the DTWC (I picked him to win the race). Pierce snapped a 15-race losing streak Saturday, his longest since he went 16 races between victories from July-September in 2022, so really he had never been in that kind of slump since switching over to Longhorns in January 2023. It was a prototypical performance we’ve seen from Pierce over the last three years, that no matter where he started (13th on Saturday, for instance), he looked plenty convincing and made his car work all the over the racetrack. Pierce didn’t have to pound the cushion lap after lap either at Eldora, which is a promising sign for him, because that’s often his fastest line around the half-mile. I suspect Pierce bottles up what he learned over the weekend comes back as a sure-fire favorite at 2026’s Dream.
Ault: I wasn’t expecting Pierce to be a factor after his ninth-place finish at the World 100 and the fact that he hadn’t reached victory lane in nearly two months, yet Pierce delivered in a big way. He also played spoiler for Lucas Oil contenders, preventing Moran or any other Big Four driver from pocketing $350,000 in a single weekend. The victory is likely a big boost of confidence as the WoO tour concludes in Charlotte and he re-establishes himself as the top driver in the country.
Kovac: Going nearly two months without a win is an eternity for Pierce, and he’d admit that the dry spell had him in sour mood. It also meant he was especially focused on the $100,000 prize for the last crown jewel event of 2025 — grab that, and being stuck at 29 wins since Aug. 23 wouldn’t be frustrating for him. The cushion that stacked up for Saturday’s 100-lapper certainly played to Pierce’s advantage, but he also made some slick moves to advance from 13th to the lead by the halfway mark and then outduel Chris Madden, who acknowledged after finishing second that Saturday’s racing surface was “a young man’s racetrack” and he was proud just to give Pierce a strong challenge on it. That’s also now four crown jewel victories (two DTWC, two World 100) at Eldora for Pierce, including three in the last two years. He’s starting to rack them up, which makes him disappointed to see the DTWC heading back to West Virginia next year.
What’s your view of the DTWC’s return to West Virginia and plans to continue non-DTWC Lucas Oil action at Eldora?
McFadden: I love it. Look, who doesn’t appreciate Eldora, right? It really is the greatest dirt track on the planet. But with it being the home of the World 100 and Dream, the two biggest events in our sport already, the DTWC just never belonged there long term. Did the Tony Stewart-owned track rise up as a suitable stopgap until Carl Short and the Lucas Oil tour figured out the DTWC’s future. Absolutely. But the DTWC belongs in West Virginia. Mike Hurley has worked wonders to not only reopen WVMS, but provide what seems an enjoyable and worthwhile experience for fans at the reconfigured third-mile. The recent opener there looked promising, and though there were concerns about the track being too bottom-dominant, give WVMS another year to work out the new-configuration kinks and they’ll be fine. As for Eldora’s doubleheader, it’s great the Lucas Oil tour is able to still have the Big E on the schedule.
Ault: When the DTWC moved to Eldora, I was concerned that the additional big race at Eldora would devalue other races at The Big E. I think it’s the right move for everybody for the race to move back to West Virginia, not only to give the revamped track a big race but also to add some space within Eldora’s crown jewels. Going to Eldora used to be a special time since it was only twice per year, but as I walked into the track on Saturday afternoon, I kept thinking: “We race here too much.” Racing at Eldora three times a year with every event being a multi day show makes the DTWC feel like a watered-down experience. The addition of two Eldora races to the Chase has me wondering what other changes are in-store for the Lucas Oil series ahead of 2026.
Turner: The shortened third-mile layout at WVMS is promising (and long overdue), and with the long-running event's origins in the Mountaineer State, it’s no surprise promoter Carl Short took track owner Mike Hurley up on his offer to come home. Perhaps it was perfect timing. If the DTWC was going to vacate one of the sport’s best tracks, it needed to land somewhere special. We know three crown jewels at Eldora is one too many, right? I’m not sure a doubleheader Lucas Oil playoff event solves that. As I mentioned in this space before, multiple-track weekends in the playoffs would be my preferred test (Attica, Muskingum and Eldora for an attractive Ohio tripleheader?)
Kovac: I’m all for it. I feel going back to the home state of its birth brings back more of the DTWC’s identity as a major event. Certainly it was a big deal to run the race the last three years at Eldora, but, as important as it was as the Lucas Oil Series finale, it was clearly No. 3 on Eldora’s crown jewel totem pole. The DTWC just didn’t have the electric atmosphere of the Dream or the World 100, which isn’t surprising because it’s difficult for any track to bring the juice (and the huge crowd) for three big shows featuring the same division over a five-month span. That special feel of the DTWC will be back at WVMS with the smaller track encouraging participation by more teams. As for the new two-day Lucas Oil show at Eldora, I’m with Todd — I’d love to see Eldora be part of a three-race Midwest weekend to spice up the Chase with a barnstorming stretch. Again, a two-day weekend at Eldora is going to have a strange, smaller feel especially coming just a month after the monumental World 100.
Pick another DTWC topic or comment on another weekend event.
Ault: I rant here often about how long and late races go, so I was overjoyed for the earlier start time of Eldora’s festivities under threat of rain. I got home at 9 p.m. from an Eldora crown jewel, which will almost certainly never happen again. Cutting the extras — driver interviews, driver intros, etc. — didn’t take away from the event in the slightest. Maybe starting hot laps at 4 p.m. every weekend is unrealistic, but 5:30 p.m. is certainly reasonable. Is the abbreviated schedule, earlier start times, and prioritizing the primary class too much to ask? Hopefully these are some valuable lessons from the weekend that can be replicated in 2026.
McFadden: We’ve got a dandy of a title finish shaping up on the Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series this weekend entering its doubleheader finale of the season at Atomic Speedway as Rusty Schlenk leads Colten Burdette by a mere six points. Burdette’s put together a stellar season for car owner Steve Curtis, winning three series events this year, including two of the last three and the tour’s most recent stop at Atomic last month. Schlenk, of course, will be tough to beat. I plan on covering Saturday’s Iron-Man season finale, so I’m looking forward to an exciting points finish.
Turner: Hudson O’Neal’s Lucas Oil playoffs ended about how they started. Considering he was coming off a $75,000 Knoxville victory, it’s unfathomable how rough things went for the SSI Motorsports team over five races at three tracks. Only once did he finish better than 17th — not exactly a showstopper with an eighth-place run in the Pittsburgh opener — as he spun early in the Brownstown opener, retired early in the Pittsburgh finale then hit the wall exiting turn two as the DTWC’s first retiree. O’Neal’s playoffs went as bad as Moran’s did good.
Kovac: Credit goes to DTWC promoter Carl Short along with Eldora and Lucas Oil Series officials for pushing up the start time of Saturday’s finale program and then further shuffling the schedule of events with a threat of rain increasing into the evening. I was especially pleased when, shortly before the new 4 p.m. start time for hot laps, they decided to run the 100-lap DTWC first, right after the B-mains, because an updated forecast showed a high chance for a thunderstorm by 7 or 8 o’clock. That’s the kind of on-the-fly adjustment with the headline division in mind that I love to see. I was also impressed that the sense of urgency didn’t diminish when the probability of precipitation went down. If officials slowed down the show, the weather could have easily shifted back and stopped the action. The DTWC was checkered at 6:45 p.m. and the steel-block feature and DTWC non-qualifiers’ race were completed at 7:38 p.m. — and the number of fans in the pit area afterward was way up from the past two DTWCs at Eldora.
You’re launching a regional Super Late Model team. Pick a driver from the lower ranks you’d hire.
Kovac: I’ll stay here in my home state of Pennsylvania and pluck Sarver’s Michael Norris for my regional Super Late Model program. At 33, he has plenty of experience and a strong resume — including a couple WoO wins at his his home track of Lernerville and even half a season on the Lucas Oil Series in 2019 as a fill-in driver for Clint Bowyer Racing — but, with two young children and his responsibilities at his family’s salvage business, he seems settled into local-regional racing. Running a Mid-Atlantic-focused schedule along the lines of Gregg Satterlee’s, I think I’d win plenty of races and enjoy myself as a car owner with Norris behind the wheel.
McFadden: There’s plenty of talent out there to choose from, but if I’m looking for someone turnkey and an unheralded driver who’d want the opportunity, I’ve hire Winchester, Va.’s Trever Feathers. The 33-year-old hasn’t had the means to venture too far from the Mid-Atlantic region, but he’s impressed of late with the Cameron-Mann Motorsports team of Southern Maryland filling in for the injured Tyler Emory, winning three of his last six events — including two over Mason Zeigler on the Fall Clash circuit this past weekend at Hagerstown Speedway and Sept. 20 at Clinton County Speedway. Feathers isn’t a throttle-masher like most up-and-coming drivers nowadays, but has always been smooth and steady, and one to take care of his equipment.
Turner: He’ll need a little seasoning in the higher-powered cars, but I’ll grab Limited Late Model standout Lane Snook from Port Royal, Pa. He’s clicked off a remarkable 20 victories in his third season in the division while capturing titles at Selinsgrove Speedway and his hometown track, where at 16 he’s the youngest champion. The third-generation driver won nearly half his 2025 starts and has a bright future, no doubt.
Ault: Cody Mahoney raced for many years before taking time away from the sport. He returned to Dirt Late Model racing last season and has raced part-time in 2025, running a family-owned operation around Brownstown and the Northern Allstars series. Mahoney has also crew chief for Hall of Famer Don O’Neal amid stints in the cockpit. With his experience with both wrench and the wheel, he strikes me as an obvious choice.
