Fast Talk presented by MD3 and Five Star Bodies
Fast Talk: Wild West recap with Volusia next
Upon the conclusion of the Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout and with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series opener upcoming, our weekly roundtable weighs in for the weekly feature presented by MD3 and Five Star Race Cars Bodies (edited for clarity and length):
What’s your prime takeaway from the Wild West Shootout?
Kevin Kovac, DirtonDirt senior writer: The simple fact that the miniseries should be settled back into the state where it belongs. Arizona’s weather (much more likely for 70-degree days than New Mexico) and off-day sightseeing activities fit the feel of the “spring training” event perfectly. And while while there’s no doubt Central Arizona Raceway is a fast track with its curved frontstretch and banked corner, it proved to be quite worthy of being the WWS host track with the action it provided and the crowds it drew.
Kyle McFadden, DirtonDirt staff reporter: Just that the racing grew more compelling as the week went on, so a big hat tip to the track crew led by Chad Bauman and Reece O’Connor. There were plenty of unknowns heading into the week, and Central Arizona Raceway had sizable shoes to fill taking over for Vado Speedway Park. But the on-track product delivered something different each night. Five winners in six nights speaks to that. In a sport that can grow stale with the same winners or have the occasional pole-dominated snoozer (which happened only once: Garrett Alberson on Saturday), Casa Grande largely avoided that. Add in picture-perfect weather the final four nights, and it was an enjoyable week. Hopefully Casa Grande is the long-term home for the miniseries, because it just felt right.
Aaron Clay, DirtonDirt weekend editor: Competition benefitted from a change of location. Vado Speedway Park is an excellent facility that put on some great racing, but if we’re being honest, the on-track product grew a bit stale as Bobby Pierce dominated while winning the previous two miniseries titles. Shifting to Central Arizona Raceway this year, the event nearly saw the biggest variety of winners since 2015 in Tucson. We'll see if returning to Arizona continues to be a positive change going forward, but for this year, it certainly stood out as my prime takeaway.
Mike Ruefer, contributing DirtonDirt photographer: I’ve been going to the WWS since it was in Tucson. I followed it to Arizona Speedway in Queen Creek, then to Vado, N.M. The Vado weather simply wasn’t as war as Arizona in January. The WWS is home and back in Arizona where it needs to be. The whole gun-slinging aura fits the Arizona Wild West lore and its name. The track and Casa Grande area will help make this kickoff event in the sport bigger than it’s ever been. I was impressed.
Discuss a driver upbeat leaving Arizona (or one who’ll be glad to leave the Grand Canyon State behind).
McFadden: Jonathan Davenport and the Double L Motorsports crew definitely want to get home. If you would’ve told me to start the week there’d be five winners without Davenport in that equation, I wouldn’t have necessarily bought into that. What shocked me is that he backslid in five straight features until Sunday’s furious 23rd-to-second charge. Usually, as we all know, Davenport’s built for long-distance races and late-race speed. Not at the Wild West Shootout. Of course, Sunday’s heat-race skirmish with Tyler Erb only salted the wound. Who knows when Davenport’s next race might be. He could make a Speedweeks appearance, or he might not race until March. We don’t really know. Maybe a sour week in Arizona will prompt him to race again earlier than expected.
Clay: I don’t mean to kick a man while he’s down, but I’m pretty sure Brandon Sheppard will be glad to get back to Illinois. While Sheppy qualified for all six features, he mustered a modest best result of sixth with a 14.3 average finish over the miniseries. Luck certainly wasn’t on Sheppard’s side, as he fought multiple mechanical gremlins throughout the week-long event in his family-owned No. B5. B-Shepp faithful will be hoping he can quickly turn the tide as he shifts to driving the Rocket Chassis house car during Speedweeks.
Ruefer: I had a nice Sunday conversation with team owner Ken Roberts about Garrett Alberson’s. victory. An early season victory in Garrett’s native region in front of his family and friends, including Ken’s wife Beth, meant the world to Roberts. He's so appreciative and humble with success. It’s a tough sport, we all know, but Ken and Beth have slowly built this championship-caliber team around Garrett who just keeps getting better and better. Roberts Motorsports has a lot of confidence heading towards Speedweeks.
Kovac: How about Ethan Dotson? The 26-year-old Californian struggled through a pretty rough rookie season on the World of Outlaws tour so he was in need of a morale pick-me-up entering 2026 and he got one with his midweek victory. You could see the relief that came with the win from how hard he pounded the roof of his ASD Motorsports car when he emerged in victory lane. The rest of his finishes were solid if not spectacular (four top-10 runs with a best of sixth), but his Arizona tuneup for the season — which included help from experienced mechanical hands Cody Mallory and Tommy Grecco — was certainly successful.
How does the Rumley Engineering team, which carried Hudson O’Neal to the WWS title, benefit from its approach to racing with schedules, philosophy, etc.?
Clay: Kevin Rumley seems to do an excellent job of picking-and-choosing a schedule that best fits his team. He rarely stacks multiple events on top of one another, giving his team a chance to regroup and enter with their best effort each time they hit the track. Very rarely do you see his Rumley Engineering equipment appear tired, nor do you see his team overextend their use of available resources. Simply put, Rumley does an excellent job of making the most of what he has while showcasing speed and consistency.
Ruefer: Kevin’s a true innovator while pushing the boundaries within the rulebook. You might call it research and development, but it’s more than that because the Rumley team is also wanting to win races. What better way to validate innovative ideas than putting them to practice and making them work with trophies and big checks. The schedule might be limited but the expectation is always the same. His work and ideas are making Longhorn’s better in the long run. It also takes a very good driver in the seat and Hudson O’Neal makes everything happen on the track. It’s where theory and reality meet.
McFadden: Because they’re built for a 15- to 20-race schedule, Kevin Rumley ensures that he’s fielding relatively fresh equipment pretty much every time his No. 6 takes the track. Rumley, of course, always has something up his sleeve, too. With no Longhorn Factory Team this year, Rumley’s supplementing the needs of the chassis enterprise through his R&D entry. It’s quite evident they’ve found something with Hudson O’Neal as the two have become a potent pairing since linking up following O’Neal’s departure of Rocket1 Racing in 2024. They’re running so well together they’ve added Volusia’s Sunshine Nationals to their schedule this weekend.
Kovac: The modest, pick-and-choose schedule that Kevin Rumley maintains is really perfect for his tinkering, engineer’s mind, allowing him time between races to implement the ideas that inevitably pop into his head. It also keeps his equipment fresh — he doesn’t have a fleet of cars and engines — and Rumley himself is excited to go racing where he wants to. When Rumley brings his No. 6 to the track for the talented Hudson O’Neal, you know it’s going to be in the mix and Rumley wants to be there. What’s interesting is that this month will likely end up being Rumley’s busiest stretch of action all year with the team’s WWS championship-winning success prompting him to make the cross-country trip to run this weekend’s WoO Sunshine Nationals at Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park.
What was a favorite Central Arizona moment, perhaps something streaming viewers might’ve missed?
Ruefer: Each race day goes by fast with cars hitting the track at 3:30 p.m. There are a lot of moving pieces behind the scenes with racers and staff to make the event look seamless in front of attending fans and those watching from home. A big piece of this daily show is the drivers' meeting that outlines the itinerary. On Sunday, from the bottom of his heart, even co-promotor Chris Kearns was so thankful to all who have made the WWS a success. He loves the miniseries and loves putting it on for the racers and fans to enjoy.
Clay: We saw a couple impressive back-and-forth battles between Bobby Pierce and Hudson O’Neal this week, the last one coming in Sunday’s finale when contact sent O'Neal spinning from the lead on lap 31, as Pierce prevailed to win more than $50,000. However, my most memorable moment came during their midweek battle as O’Neal appeared to pinch Pierce nearly into the frontstretch infield before contact flattened O’Neal’s left-rear tire, ending his chance for victory. Oddly, Pierce stumbled on the ensuing restart, allowing Ethan Dotson to lead the final nine laps in securing his first career miniseries victory, worth $10,000.
Kovac: Here’s something real neat that I didn’t see while I was covering the first two nights of the miniseries nor while watching the stream. The anecdote comes from WWS race director Kelley Carlton, who passed along that after Sunday’s victory lane ceremonies, runner-up Jonathan Davenport stopped his car at the top of the track while exiting the infield and handed his steering wheel to event promoter Chris Kearns, who was walking down the ramp. Carlton said’s Kearns’s reaction was priceless — he was “positively giddy” as he danced around and held the item above his head. As Carlton described it, Kearns dearly wanted to show someone but no one was around him. I wish I could’ve seen that live or a video camera caught the moment when a promoter was fan-boying.
McFadden: A few quick-hitters. … Garrett Alberson received a warm ovation while exiting the track following Saturday’s utterly dominant performance. Fans seemed the most energized about his win than any other since I arrived Wednesday. … Four-time Lucas Oil champ Jimmy Owens gave Jake O’Neil a helping on the wrenches this week. When I asked Jimmy if he sees himself becoming a crew chief after racing, he says that life isn’t for him, unless it’d be an opportunity too good to pass up. … Also, non-Late Model related, but how about 70-year-old Ken Schrader winning Saturday's X-mod feature? That was special to witness.
What’s something you’re looking for in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series opener at Volusia?
McFadden: Bobby Pierce, Ryan Gustin, Drake Troutman, Tyler Erb, Ethan Dotson and Dustin Sorensen are among series regulars who made season debuts in Arizona, and all showed speed to some capacity. So now I’m interested to see what the rest of the full-time roster can do in their debut weekends, namely Nick Hoffman and Tim McCreadie. Hoffman has cracked victory lane two years in a row at Volusia and has ample experience around there thanks to his modified days. McCreadie, meanwhile, ended 2025 on an especially high note and could be a title contender should he start the season smoothly. The overarching question this year on the WoO tour is can anyone hang with Pierce for the duration of the season? I’m skeptical, but also intrigued by the tour’s roster upside.
Clay: While the Wild West Shootout opens the year for many drivers, I feel like the season officially kicks off with Volusia’s Sunshine Nationals. I’m looking forward to seeing how some new driver-team combinations fare during their first competitive laps, while also keeping an eye on which World of Outlaws regulars get off to a hot start. While Devin Moran and his Double Down Motorsports team won’t be contesting the full WoO schedule, I'm interested to see if they can keep his Volusia hot streak alive and won't be surprised if they score at least one victory this weekend.
Ruefer: The change of scenery is nice. When one chapter is over, it’s on to the next race. I’m looking forward to the new crop of drivers who with the best of intentions plan on running all year long. With the conflicting dates between WoO and the Lucas Oil Series in February, drivers will have to declare sooner than in past years on what series they plan to run. The Sunshine Nationals may have fewer cars, but still the excitement remains the same at Speedweeks. I like the straw hat the Sunshine Nationals winners receive. I think I need one just to look cool while I’m walking on the beach.
Kovac: I’ll be keeping an eye on Volusia’s racing surface. The track managed by former WoO official Tyler Bachman had new clay applied since last year’s DIRTcar Nationals so this will be the first Super Late Model racing on it. Word is that the surface is more “old-school” Volusia than the faster track that competitors have dealt with in recent years. This weekend will provide a high-profile look at how the surface races, not to mention how it holds up to plenty of punishment with no shortage of Super and Crate Late Models expected to compete.
