Fast Talk presented by MD3 and Five Star Bodies
Fast Talk: Spotlighting winners, other topics
With Mike Marlar, Ashton Winger and Trever Feathers each pocketing $20,000 in late-season events, our roundtable checks in for the weekly feature presented by MD3 and Five Star Race Cars Bodies (edited for clarity and length):
Discuss a weekend winner.
Kevin Kovac, DirtonDirt senior writer: Ashton Winger’s $20,000 victory in Saturday’s Coors Light Fall Classic finale at Mississippi’s Whynot Motorsports Park — making him the first driver to win the event three times — came one day after news broke that he had been disqualified from an Oct. 4 MARS tour win at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway because of a failed tire test. It’s noteworthy that he buckled down in the wake of the frustrating development and responded with a big win. What’s also interesting is that Winger was the second driver in October to be informed of a tire-related DQ and then immediately win a high-dollar show — Zack Mitchell authored the same comeback story in Cherokee’s $30,000 Blue-Gray 100 after receiving a penalty from the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series.
Kyle McFadden, DirtonDirt staff reporter: Reunited with team owner Ronnie Delk, Mike Marlar appears right back to racing how he wants. His last three performances are impressive with a 21st-to-sixth charge at the DTWC and two straight victories over newly-crowned Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champ Devin Moran at Atomic for a $20,000 sweep of Valvoline Iron-Man American Late Model Series weekend. Surely Marlar is grateful for his time at Skyline Motorsports, but let’s face it, he’s where he belongs with Delk's team.
Aaron Clay, DirtonDirt weekend editor: Trever Feathers has been on a tear in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast since taking the reins of the No. 72 Rocket entry. The Winchester, Va., driver went third-to-first and led the final 11 laps of Saturday's eighth annual Keystone Cup at Bedford (Pa.) Speedway — not his best track — for his third straight Bernheisel Racing Components Fall Clash Series victory and fourth in his last five tour starts, boosting his total winnings to more than $37,000 over the span. Feathers now trails leader Mason Zeigler by a slim 46 points with two races left on the inaugural series schedule.
Bryan Ault, DirtonDirt contributor: I’ll spotlight rookie Caden McWhorter of Fairbury, Ill., who earned $5,000 for his first regional tour victory in Ultimate Heart of America Series action at Montpelier (Ind.) Motor Speedway. On a tricky track that requires a balance of aggressiveness and finesse, McWhorter led flag-to-flag, repelling challenges from World of Outlaws racer Tristan Chamberlain, veteran driver Devin Gilpin as well as outrunning Montpelier fan favorite Rusty Schlenk. the 19-year-old showed maturity, racing around the track’s thick banking like a pro. I recall, not too long ago, watching Bobby Pierce and Devin Moran drive around the quarter-mile oval during a DIRTcar Summer Nationals event in similar fashion. We’ll see what McWhorter's future holds.
Evaluate a Silly Season move (or ponder potential team/driver changes).
McFadden: A lot of people on social media tend to believe that Brandon Overton won’t return to the Longhorn Factory Team in 2026. Those speculations just aren’t true. Overton signed a multiyear contract with the team and, while he underperformed this year, I think he deserves another year in the car to really prove himself. I guess nowadays with drivers and teams not afraid to part ways with another, there’s an expectation that if someone isn’t performing right away, change could be imminent. While I understand those thoughts, I don’t foresee Longhorn starting over with a fourth driver in five years. It’s evident Anthony Burroughs is one of the best crew chiefs in the business, and it’s equally evident that Overton is a proven driver. They’ll right the ship eventually, maybe as soon as Charlotte’s World Finals.
Clay: I'm hoping we'll see Tim McCreadie back with Boom Briggs and his Briggs Transport team after the 2025 pairing proved successful. The multitime national touring champ enters next weekend's World Finals with six World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series victories this season and seven overall checkered flags. McCreadie has reminded us all that he remains one of the country's top Late Model drivers.
Kovac: Josh Rice’s hiring by JRR Motorsports is definitely the biggest move so far. Here’s a talented and aggressive regional driver who’s gained wider notoriety, specifically with his Dream preliminary victory this year at Eldora and his performance over the years at his home track of Florence Speedway. He’s been high on the list of drivers whom everyone would like to see get a shot at running a national tour. Now he has his big shot to race full time and I’m quite certain the 27-year-old will make noise in 2026 on whichever series he runs. He’ll encounter growing pains as he tackles new tracks, yes, but he’s well positioned with the experience he already has to make the jump.
Ault: I’ll discuss Rice as well. He’s stood out at the local and regional level for several years and has earned a shot to compete at the highest level. James Ratliff has seen Rice’s success and has taken note of his talents. It was only a matter of time before someone did, but I’m glad the JRR Motorsports group was the one who decided to pull the trigger. First-time tracks will be a challenge, but Rice has earned the opportunity, and climbing the ranks while working a full-time job is definitely a feel-good story. I wouldn’t be shocked if Rice wins as a national touring rookie.
Provide a too-early preview of Charlotte’s World Finals.
Clay: The 19th annual World Finals may not feature an intense points battle — Bobby Pierce will bring a commanding 124-point advantage over Nick Hoffman as he looks for his second World of Outlaws series title in the last three years — but it will feature a similar format that has been utilized since 2022 (time trials on Wednesday prior to two $15,000-to-win prelims Thursday-Friday and Saturday's $25,000-to-win finale). More than 60 of the top Late Model drivers are expected to compete across the four-day event, won last year by Chris Madden of Gray Court, S.C., who overcame a contentious back-and-forth battle with Ricky Thornton Jr. for the lucrative top prize.
Ault: The Lucas Oil tour’s Dirt Track World Championship has seen a non-series winner emerge victorious three years running. Will that happen for the big World of Outlaws finale in Charlotte in two weeks? History suggests so, considering the fact that since 2022 when the World Finals expanded to three feature events with the Saturday paying $25,000-to-win, no WoO regular has won it. (Chris Madden won last year when he wasn’t a series regular while Lucas Oil guys Ricky Thornton Jr. and Jonathan Davenport won the previous two years.) Bobby Pierce captured a preliminary feature victory last season, but he finished 17th in 2024 and sixth in 2023 in the Saturday shows, so his record at Charlotte is a mixed bag. Madden was a solid runner-up at Eldora’s DTWC, and he'll be among Charlotte favorites.
Kovac: The WoO points race likely won’t provide any drama — it would take a huge collapse for Pierce to lose the championship — but there could be one side story that creates some intrigue. Jimmy Owens has long held top-winner status at the World Finals with his seven victories since the event began in 2007, but, since his last win in ’19, he hasn’t finished better than seventh. Jonathan Davenport, meanwhile, now sits just one victory behind Owens on the victories list. J.D. has been shut out of victory lane the last two years, but he swept the last two-race weekend in ’21 and captured the $25,000 finale in ’22, so perhaps he’ll tie, or even pass, Owens this year with three feature opportunities.
McFadden: With a 124-point lead over Nick Hoffman, it appears Bobby Pierce will clinch his second WoO title in three years before Saturday’s World Finals finale. Outside of the usual favorites, that being Pierce, Ricky Thornton Jr., Devin Moran and Jonathan Davenport, I think Mike Marlar and Chris Madden will be tough to beat at Charlotte. They usually are. Marlar has six straight top-six finishes, with four being podiums and one of those a victory. Marlar’s also fresh off the $20,000 sweep of Iron-Man Series weekend at Atomic. Madden, meanwhile, has been running strong aboard his Kale Green Motorsports entry and knows the Charlotte 4/10-mile oval better than anyone.
Bring up another racing topic you wish someone would ask you about.
Ault: How we can make our sport more appealing to a larger audience, specifically for tracks within an hour or two of a major metro area. I’m thinking of fans who have been to a NASCAR or IndyCar race but have no experience at all with a dirt track and don’t own a camper, but would like to take an interest in something new without staying for an entire weekend. What can we do to get those fans off the couch and bring them into our camp, too? How can we structure race schedules to accommodate a trip to the track without getting home at 2 a.m.? It’s a big world out there, and many race fans would take an interest in our sport if we made it more attractive.
Kovac: I’m always up for somebody asking me how a racetrack should handle the running of their headline division. Talking about that topic will always get me fired up. It perplexes me to no end when tracks running multidivision shows don’t base their programs on making sure the featured class is never silent for an extended period. Juggle the schedule on the fly if the other divisions are keeping the headliner off the track and risking a late start for the big event of the night. That’s what I’ll tell anybody who wants to discuss it.
Clay: After visiting Casa Grande, Ariz.'s Central Arizona Raceway over the weekend, I can't be more excited for January's Wild West Shootout at the newly-renovated 3/8-mile oval residing at the Pinal County Fairgrounds. After track closures forced the event to move to Vado, N.M., for four seasons, the six-race miniseries returns to the Grand Canyon State featuring lucrative single-race payouts and healthy week-long points awards. A buzz is certainly in the air with great anticipation for the return of one of Dirt Late Model racing's most prestigious events and one that serves as an unofficial kickoff to a new season.
McFadden: More special events with Late Models and 410 sprints as co-headlining programs are always welcomed by me. I was reminded of that Saturday at Atomic where both Late Models and sprints raced for $15,000-to-win. A nice crowd showed up for Atomic’s season-ending event, probably because both divisions have a large Ohio following. Two years ago, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and Kubota High Limit Racing scheduled a doubleheader at Atomic, but weather nixed that and it never got rescheduled. I was disappointed to see two tours not on the schedule together again in 2025. I think it’s beneficial to the sport to have at least one program a year where these two tours share a program.
Suggest something that would improve the safety of life at the racetrack.
McFadden: I’m no expert in this realm, but oftentimes I see safety officials arrive to an accident scene a moment or two (and hopefully not longer than that) later than what I’d deem comfortable. General training for track safety workers would speed up efficiency to ensure drivers are taken care of promptly following an accident or scary incident at the racetrack. Racetracks do a grave disservice to drivers if safety workers aren’t fully prepared with both training and equipment.
Ault: I believe limiting the number of bikes, ATVs and four-wheelers on the grounds would go a long way. In my opinion, fans shouldn’t be allowed in the pits with those vehicles at all. It just makes the entire area more congested. You have to keep your head on a swivel walking around the pit area, but sometimes a car will be backing up or approaching you and in the process of trying to get out of the way, someone on a pit bike will buzz by you at the same time. On nights with heavy car counts and many support classes, it’s hard enough to dodge other drivers because everybody is packed-in like a bunch of sardines.
Kovac: I have to agree with Bryan on the pit bikes especially. I’ve seen quite a few close calls in the pits with crew members zipping around on those motorbikes that seemingly every team now brings to the track. Would more warnings, or maybe even fines or penalties (loss of motorbike riding privileges for a few races?), keep the speeders under control? That would definitely reduce the possibility of someone being struck by a pit bike appearing out of nowhere.
Clay: While head-and-neck restraint systems have become mostly ubiquitous in our sport, and many tours and organizations require them, it can still fall between the cracks among drivers who don’t like them or if there’s lax enforcement. Popularized in part by 2001’s tragic death of Dale Earnhardt, HANS and similar devices have proven successful in limited injuries in high-speed crashes. For lower-level tours and off-the-beaten tracks that may not put an emphasis on head-and-neck restraints, it’d be great to see everyone get on board to protect human life.
