Inside Dirt Late Model Racing
Column: Riggs, Longhorn support Overton's reset
Something just didn’t work right in 2025 for superstar driver Brandon Overton. And something needed to be changed.
Team owner Scott Riggs realized it. So did Steve Arpin, the Longhorn Chassis leader. Their mutual acknowledgement of Overton’s shortcomings contributed to last week’s announcement of a significant alteration in Overton’s direction for the ’26 campaign, one that will see the 34-year-old from Evans, Ga., continuing his association with Riggs Motorsports but no longer running under the Longhorn Factory Team banner.
Both Riggs and Arpin stressed that the separation of Riggs Motorsports from the in-house Longhorn program was not the result of any “blow up,” as Riggs said. The two men asserted that they remain good friends, and Riggs pointed out that his team, which also includes regional efforts for his sons Jason and Jack, remains a Longhorn customer.
“There is like zero animosity,” Arpin said. “Overton is a hell of a driver and Scott Riggs is just a phenomenal owner and phenomenal partner.”
This was at its root a bid for success that began with the highest of expectations but simply didn’t go according to the best laid plans. Overton’s single season as the Longhorn house car pilot was largely forgettable for a driver boasting such a lofty resume who was teamed with a well-heeled car owner and the full resources of a flourishing chassis company while also racing under the guidance of an accomplished veteran crew chief in Anthony Burroughs.
Overton showed flashes throughout the 2025 season — his first with Riggs Motorsports after a five-year tenure with Wells Motorsports — but won only four times, including a single Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory, on May 2 at Circle City Raceway in Indianapolis, Ind. He also fell from contention from a Final Four berth on the Lucas Oil tour by mid-season and finished seventh in the points standings.
What went wrong? Why didn’t what appeared to be a Dream Team not produce results?
“Brandon Overton, obviously, there’s no questioning his talent, right?” Arpin said. “It’s just the package they had, the group they had this year, just obviously didn’t click, right? And that’s OK. That happens. That happens in all aspects of life, but that doesn’t take away from Brandon's talent whatsoever.”
Riggs, 62, agreed with Arpin’s assessment. The mix just wasn’t right, and it was time for a reset in hopes of putting Overton on a more successful path. That includes Riggs putting his team’s preparation in the hands of Overton — all the equipment will be housed in a shop near Overton’s home in Georgia after it was maintained this season by Burroughs at Longhorn’s headquarters in China Grove, N.C. — and assembling an almost entirely new crew with Ryder Cantillo as the lone holdover; Burroughs and Justin Tharp tendered their resignations and have since moved on to Koehler Motorsports to reunite with driver Ricky Thornton Jr., so Riggs will hire two new crew members to give Overton three full-timers.
“Nobody’s mad, screaming,” Riggs said. “We’re all disappointed with the year we had, and I just think sometimes things just don’t work out for whatever reason. I don’t go out the road a bunch, but I’m at maybe 20 of ‘em, and I know when you don’t have that chemistry, it is really hard to be in that truck, in that enclosed space, and race the amount of races those guys race.
“They’re still friends. I mean, they talked, and it just felt like, you know, it just wasn’t going to work. And really, there's no other story. Nobody left mad. There’s no hard feelings. (Burroughs) told me (departing) was the hardest thing he ever did because him and I are pretty close, and I said, ‘Look, I want you to be happy. Don’t worry about it. Let’s be happy in life because it’s too hard. I wish them the best.”
Riggs is anxious to give Overton the opportunity to be more involved in the day-to-day operation of the team. While Overton had embraced relinquishing preparation duties to Burroughs and Co. this year with the thought that it would take pressure off him and allow him to focus on driving, he’s always been a hands-on racer who seems to be at his best when he’s around the cars on a regular basis.
“It was a big adjustment for him to not work on the car,” Riggs said. “We told him at that time (of his hiring) he didn’t have to be at the shop if he didn’t want to be, whatever, and he had a baby (a daughter earlier this year) so he was able to be home. But I think Brandon’s ready to dig in, and we’re as excited as we were last year when they all came in. Brandon, he’s probably going to be his own crew chief but with really good help behind him.”
Riggs said Arpin offered to let his team continue using space in the Longhorn shop, but Riggs respectfully declined.
“Those (Longhorn) guys are great,” said Riggs, who is also building a shop near his home in Winchester, Tenn., that will house his son Jack’s cars but also be available to Overton when he’s in the area. “I like them all. We’re all friends. (Kevin) Rumley, Matt Langston, all of them … we text all the time. We just felt like, for us … Steve offered for us to stay there at the shop, but honestly, we felt like, hey, we’re in the way a little bit if we’re not running totally their cars. Like we’re gonna run Longhorns, but the only thing they owned (as part of the Factory Team arrangement) is the cars. I owned everything else and paid the personnel.”
Arpin, meanwhile, is taking a different approach with Longhorn’s in-house development program, moving away from the Factory Team concept as a full-fledged entity after nearly a decade-long run. Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., was the company’s flagship driver from 2017-23, first with the Sweeteners Plus team and then for the last four years with Paylor Motorsports, and Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., filled the role with Riggs Motorsports in ’24. The Factory Team produced some major highlights, including Lucas Oil Series championships with McCreadie in 2021 and ’22 and a World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series title in ’24 with Sheppard.
“So where I’m at it with it, as a company, and I’ve always stated this, our sole purpose for housing a house car team and facilitating a house car team is just simply to develop and continue moving our products forward and providing service to our customers,” said Arpin, a 41-year-old native of Fort Frances, Ontario, who excelled in open-wheel modified and global rallycross competition and also dabbled in NASCAR racing before assuming leadership at Longhorn. “Like, that is the purpose of a house car program and bearing that expense within our company, and we’re just looking at the best, most efficient ways to be able to provide that service and continue moving forward for our customers.
“Obviously, one of the things that’s unique about our program is, what we’ve always done, our long-term development program is with the (K&L Rumley Enterprises) 6 car, and then we had our house car program to kind of take some of that stuff that was tested enough and go racing. But for those guys to be out trying to win a championship and race for a living and put food on all their own tables, it’s probably not the right approach to use that as a development program as you’re trying to move forward.
“So ultimately, Scott Riggs has been an incredible partner. We’ve offered them to stay in our shop and everything, if the logistics worked for that and everything. We’re building new cars and everything right now for them. We’re just kind of changing up how we’re going to go about trying to provide our customers service and keep on moving our products forward to do our best to stay on top and keep the advantage that we’ve had over the last few years.”
Arpin said Longhorn has “some other stuff that we’ve got in the works that I’m really excited about, but it’s still just all coming together on how to move forward with it.” He’s focused on finding the right path to maintain Longhorn’s strength in a very competitive Dirt Late Model world.
“The reality is, bites of speed are harder and harder to come by these days,” Arpin said. “Everyone has done such a good job, and obviously we’re in a very fortunate spot on having a lot of success, but somebody is going to pass what’s currently winning races right now. Somebody is going to do that, and we’re just putting ourselves in position to be the one to pass ourselves rather than getting passed from someone else.
“So we don’t want to be complacent at all with the success we’ve had, and we’re going to make sure we do what we have to do to put our customers in a place where they’re always having the best competitive advantage they can using our products.”
Riggs said he’s keeping his close relationship with Longhorn. He had cars on order a month-and-a-half ago so Overton will son have basically three brand-new cars at his disposal, plus a nearly-new machine that he crashed last month at Senoia (Ga.) Raceway but Riggs noted is now “fixed and ready to go.”
A decision on which national tour Overton will follow still is in the works, but Riggs is looking forward to his second year with the down-home Georgia racer.
“You know, going into (the first year together), I didn’t know him that well because I never was around him at the tracks,” said Riggs, a longtime businessman in the telecom sector who currently operates Riggs Fiber. “But when I first started talking to him, I just liked his demeanor. I know people kind of say he cusses a lot, he really doesn’t when I'm talking to him. He talks like you and I are talking, just like normal.
“I like a lot of things about him, and I know he wants to win. His nonchalant attitude that people sometimes see doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to win. He wants to win. Really bad. He’s just laid-back, but you know what? I’ve seen the fire. He’s like, ‘Don’t you worry. We’re gonna win.’ ”
Riggs is ready to have an enjoyable season with Overton, who will join Jason and Jack Riggs in competing in this weekend’s Kubota Gateway Dirt Nationals at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, Mo.
“He’s a really good person. His wife’s great. They’re not drama queens, they’re not on the internet getting mad at some of these comments,” Riggs said. “I feel good where we're at. I had a little bit of a shock for about an eight-hour period (after ending the Factory Team affiliation), and then I was ready to go and we went to work and we started figuring things out.
“We love to compete. (Son) Jason (Riggs) and I love this thing, so we looked at it and said, ‘Hey, you want to keep going?’ We both said, ‘Yep, let’s go. Let’s get this thing going again.’
“And you gotta have fun,” he continued. “Like, let’s have fun. That’s what I told them: ‘We’re going to have fun, we’re gonna laugh, and if we have a bad night, OK, we’ll shrug it off and we’ll go get to work.’ ”
Ten things worth mentioning
1. Arpin addressed the recent discussion among Dirt Late Model observers centered on how several Longhorn Chassis campaigners have used Ohlins Shocks in late-season events. Longhorn, of course, has maintained a close relationship with Bilstein Shocks in recent years — though Longhorn customers of course can choose their shock brand — so hearing of Ohlins Shocks on some of the company’s cars has raised some eyebrows. According to Arpin, it’s part of Longhorn’s quest to find as much speed as possible. “What we’ve done this year is really wanted to look at everything that’s out there within the marketplace from a technology standpoint and make sure sure that we have the newest, latest, greatest and up-to-date technology that's available in the marketplace to build off for our customers,” Arpin said. “Ultimately, at the end of the day, we’re a chassis company, and all we care about is that Longhorns are winning races. So whether they’re winning races with Bilsteins or Ohlins or Penskes or Foxes, whatever it might be, all we care about is that Longhorn customers are winning races. What we're doing is making sure that whatever we feel is the most competitive technology available in the marketplace is available directly to our customers.”
2. Could Longhorn establish a closer connection to its program with Ohlins as it has with Bilstein? Arpin said talks are taking place. “There is some stuff obviously happening and we’ll announce that here in the coming weeks,” he said.
3. During my conversation with Scott Riggs, I had to ask him if he’s also a diehard Miami Dolphins fan like his son Jason, who typically makes several trips to Miami each year to see the Dolphins play in person. Scott said he certainly is a fan of the Fins. “I’ve been a Dolphin fan since 1970,” he said. “I’m responsible for Jason being one. My youngest son, he’s 17, he’s a Dolphin fan, too.”
4. Talk about great free pre-race publicity — promoter Cody Sommer has gotten a ton of it this year for his Kubota Gateway Dirt Nationals. Social media has been abuzz for more than a week with posts from drivers and race teams showing off new wraps they’ve readied for the event. It’s amazing how many fresh bodies and wraps fans will see at the Dome, which really demonstrates just how big the weekend has become for the sport.
5. One of the Gateway wraps that caught my eye: Jason Feger’s Kenny Schrader tribute scheme, one that will give his car — already conveniently a No. 25 like Schrader’s NASCAR Cup entry — that offers a clean facsimile of Schrader’s memorable white-and-green Kodiak-sponsored machine.
6. I like the Christmas-themed Dome wraps as well, including two with nods to famous holiday movies: Tanner English going with National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (including a Cousin Eddie character on the door that has the head of English’s team owner Brett Coltman) and Dave Hess Jr. with the Nightmare Before Christmas look that includes a Jack Skellington character.
7. Less than one week after news broke that Donald McIntosh of Dawsonville, Ga., will join Coltman Farms Racing to run a national tour in 2026, the Gateway Dirt Nationals will mark his debut with the Georgia-based team. McIntosh’s car will carry the No. 7M, a number he used when he had his successful run with Blount Motorsports as well as in appearances with his own car.
8. Some Gateway trivia: Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., is not only bidding to win the event’s finale for an unprecedented third straight year, he’s the only driver who has started all eight Saturday-night headline features at the Dome since the race’s inception in 2016. (Covid-19 cancelled 2020’s race.) Five drivers have appeared in seven Gateway finales: including two-time winners Bobby Pierce and Tyler Carpenter plus Gordy Gundaker, Shannon Babb and Tanner English.
9. How many drivers have entered all eight Gateway Dirt Nationals? That list totals nine: Sheppard, Pierce, Gundaker, Babb and English plus Bob Gardner, Chad Zobrist, Derek Fetter, Jason Feger, Mike Spatola, Rusty Schlenk, Ryan Unzicker and Scott Bell.
10. While veteran racer Mark Voigt’s wife Kristi continues her recovery from multiple injuries she suffered on Nov. 13 when the couple’s golf cart was struck by a car during their vacation in Key West, Fla., she was released from the Miami Trauma Center on Dec. 1 and transferred to a hospital closer to their home in Marine, Ill. Kristi and Mark, who sustained lesser but still significant injuries and spent the past two-plus weeks in Miami with his wife, were flown home in private plane provided by Bill Weder and Chris Loemker while Steve Bartlett provided the ambulance service to their local hospital.
