World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Breaking down WoO's expected roster for '26
By Kevin Kovac
DirtonDirt senior writer
The 2026 World of Outlaws Late Model Series season kicks off Jan. 22-24 with the Sunshine Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., where at least 17 prospective regulars are expected be in competition. With Bobby Pierce returning to chase a second straight and third overall series championship, our ’26 WoO primer takes a look at the drivers set to hit the road with the tour — barring a post-Speedweeks change in direction — and assesses the best and worst case scenarios for each of them (drivers listed alphabetically):
Tristan Chamberlain
Hometown: Richmond, Ind.
Age: 18
Team: Gibson Racing
Series history: Third year on tour (career-best 13th in points in 2025)
Best case: Regaining momentum after a frustrating sophomore campaign, Chamberlain logs multiple top-fives and reaches double figures in top-10s while flirting with a first-ever victory and 10th place in the points standings.
Worst case: Chamberlain can’t shake the struggles he’s experienced over his two years with the national tour, forcing his team to reevaluate their focus and consider shifting to a more regional-based schedule in search of a knowledge- and morale-building reset.
Notable: The son of Dirt Late Model veteran Duane Chamberlain recently earned his high school diploma, allowing him to put his full concentration on racing this season after balancing working on his equipment with the online classes he took while on the road for the past two years.
Ethan Dotson
Hometown: Bakersfield, Calif.
Age: 26
Team: ASD Motorsports
Series history: Second year on tour (10th in points in 2025; one career victory)
Best case: The hard knocks Dotson absorbed during his rookie season fade into the past as he proves his immense talent, winning multiple features and contending for a top-five finish in the points standings as he establishes himself as a budding Dirt Late Model star.
Worst case: Improvement on the national level is more difficult than anticipated as Dotson is unable to surpass his ’25 total of one series win and wallows at the back end of the top-10 in the points standings.
Notable: Dotson recorded his first-ever WoO triumph in 2025’s ninth race, at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway but managed just five more top-five outings over his remaining 34 starts.
Dennis Erb Jr.
Hometown: Carpentersville, Ill.
Age: 53
Team: Dennis Erb Racing
Series history: Eighth year on tour (fifth in points in 2025; champion in ’22; 15 career victories)
Best case: Cemented in Rocket Chassis from the start of the season after swapping brands during the ’25 campaign, Erb runs in the top-five more consistently than last year and wins more than one WoO feature for the first time since his championship run in ’22. He also tallies back-to-back top-five points finishes for the first time since he had three in a row from 2020-22.
Worst case: Erb is unable to win a feature reach double-figures in top-fives, leaving him battling to salvage a points result in the back half of the top-10.
Notable: Erb, who snapped a WoO victory drought of over two years with his lone 2020 triumph in October at Humboldt (Kan.) Speedway, continues his status as one of the sport’s longest-tenured national touring series regulars with his 14th consecutive season chasing a national circuit. He followed the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series from 2013-18 before becoming an Outlaw in ’19.
Tyler Erb
Hometown: New Waverly, Texas
Age: 29
Team: Best Performance Motorsports
Series history: Fourth year on tour (career-best sixth in points in 2017; four career victories)
Best case: Making an impact in his first WoO season since 2018, Erb captures more than a half-dozen features and remains in championship contention for much of the season before settling for a third-place finish in the standings.
Worst case: Returning to regular national series action after two years running his self -proclaimed and -chosen Fun Tour doesn’t excite him as hoped as his win total is modest and his title aspirations effectively are snuffed out by midseason.
Notable: Erb, a Lucas Oil Series regular from 2019-23, has recorded three of his four career WoO victories at a single track: Atomic Speedway in Alma, Ohio, which is not on the tour’s 2026 schedule.
Ryan Gustin
Hometown: Marshalltown, Iowa
Age: 35
Team: Todd Cooney Racing
Series history: Sixth year on tour (career-best third in points in 2025; 15 career victories)
Best case: Finally finding the race-to-race consistency he’s lacked while pushing double figures in wins, Gustin comes of age on the national scene by becoming a WoO champion.
Worst case: Gustin remains too up-and-down to seriously contend for the title and fails to match his career-best points finish of 2025.
Notable: Gustin is one of three drivers with at least five WoO victories in each of the last two years, joining Bobby Pierce and Nick Hoffman.
Nick Hoffman
Hometown: Mooresville, N.C.
Age: 33
Team: Tye Twarog Racing
Series history: Fourth year on tour (career-best second in points in 2025; 11 career victories)
Best case: Hoffman’s steady march toward a WoO championship over his three years as a regular — fifth to third to second in the points — culminates with a talent-affirming season that sees him nearly double his career win total en route to capturing the title in a down-to-the-wire battle.
Worst case: The NOS Energy Drink-sponsored driver claims a half-dozen victories but experiences too many hiccups to enter the season-ending World Finals with a shot at the championship.
Notable: Hoffman seeks to become the fifth driver in WoO history to win the championship the season after finishing runner-up in the points standings, joining Josh Richards (2009, ’16), Darrell Lanigan (’14), Brandon Sheppard (’19) and Bobby Pierce (’25).
Eli Johnson
Hometown: Clewiston, Fla.
Age: 31
Team: Clyde Johnson Contracting & Roofing
Series history: Rookie
Best case: An aspiring racer in his second full year of Super Late Model action, Johnson nabs a handful of top-10 finishes highlighted by one at his home track, Hendry County Speedway, which the WoO visits for the first time on Feb. 20-21.
Worst case: The grind of tackling a national tour with limited experience becomes too tall of an order and Johnson is forced to drop off the circuit and reload by seeking laps on the DIRTcar Summer Nationals and other regional series.
Notable: Johnson is the lone prospective WoO regular in 2026 who has never started a series feature. He failed to qualify all three nights of last year’s World Finals in his WoO debut.
Brent Larson
Hometown: Lake Elmo, Minn.
Age: 49
Team: Larson Motorsports
Series history: Ninth year on tour (14th in points in 2025; career-best fifth in points in ’22)
Best case: The stars finally align for the longtime WoO loyalist with his first-ever victory coming in a dream preliminary-night run during the USA Nationals weekend at Cedar Lake Speedway, the track where he’s a former Late Model track champion and sits seventh on the division’s all-time win list. He earns a career-high number of top-five finishes (three) and stays in contention for a top-10 result in the points standings.
Worst case: Larson is unable to secure his elusive WoO checkered flag and finishes outside the top 12 in the standings.
Notable: Larson, who has the longest current streak of consecutive full-time seasons racing with the tour among 2026’s prospective points-chasers, enters the campaign winless in 329 career WoO starts. Last season he failed to record at least one top-five finish for the first time since 2020.
Tim McCreadie
Hometown: Watertown, N.Y.
Age: 51
Team: Briggs Transport Racing
Series history: 10th year on tour (fourth in points in 2025; champion in ’06; 39 career wins)
Best case: McCreadie starts his second year back as a WoO regular much stronger than 2025, sending him into a magic-carpet ride that see him match his single-season career-high for WoO victories (eight in ’05) and winning his second championship exactly 20 years after he captured his first as a Dirt Late Model upstart in ’06.
Worst case: While McCreadie wins multiple features, he fails to achieve sufficient consistency and falls from title contention.
Notable: Tied with Chris Madden for seventh on the all-time WoO victories list, McCreadie has won at least one feature in every season he’s been a WoO regular except his first (2004 when he was Rookie of the Year).
Trey Mills
Hometown: St. Augustine, Fla.
Age: 18
Team: Mills Motorsports
Series history: Rookie
Best case: The rising teenager maxes out with a couple top-five finishes — including one in March at Mississippi’s Magnolia Motor Speedway, where he earned a career-high $20,000 Comp Cams Super Dirt Series victory last year — en route to claiming Rookie of the Year honors while just missing a top-10 points finish.
Worst case: Early-season struggles prompt Mills’s family-owned team to step off the series and gather more experience running a regional schedule.
Notable: Mills, who made his WoO debut as a 13-year-old during 2022’s DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park, has started four WoO features in 17 attempts. All of his A-main runs came last year with a best finish of 10th at Talladega Short Track in Eastaboga, Ala.
Cody Overton
Hometown: Evans, Ga.
Age: 28
Team: Cody Overton Racing
Series history: Third year on tour (career-high eighth in points in 2025)
Best case: Assuming ownership of his racing effort with assistance from former team owner Dave Steine and backers Bruce Kane and Allen Murray, the younger brother of superstar Brandon Overton continues his upward trajectory. He breaks through for his first-ever WoO triumph early in the season, sets new highs in top-five and top-10 finishes and challenges for a top-five finish in the points standings.
Worst case: Overton’s new team ownership responsibilities add an extra layer to the 2026 grind and he doesn’t improve on the numbers from his sophomore WoO campaign.
Notable: Overton made a significant year-over-year jump in WoO performance, going to six top-fives and 20 top-10s in 2025 after a 2024 season with zero top-fives and seven top-10s. He logged a career-best WoO finish of third in last year’s opener at Volusia Speedway and late in the season at Louisiana’s Boothill Speedway.
Bobby Pierce
Hometown: Oakwood, Ill.
Age: 29
Team: Bobby Pierce Racing
Series history: Fourth year on tour (champion in 2025; also won championship in ’23; 42 career victories)
Best case: Extending his run of extreme success as a WoO regular, Pierce exceeds his single-season career for wins (14 in 2023) and claims a second straight championship, joining Billy Moyer (1988-89), Josh Richards (2009-10) and Brandon Sheppard (2019-21) as the only drivers in WoO history with consecutive titles.
Worst case: Pierce’s win total drops below 10 and several untimely bouts leave him just shy of another championship.
Notable: After putting up big victory numbers from 2023-25 (14, 13, 11), Pierce has an opportunity to grab a share of the WoO record for most consecutive seasons with double-figure wins currently held by Brandon Sheppard (four straight from 2017-20).
Dustin Sorensen
Hometown: Rochester, Minn.
Age: 25
Team: Dustin Sorensen Racing
Series history: Third year on tour (11th in points in 2025; career-high 10th in points in ’24)
Best case: Sorensen makes a Year 3 leap, not only winning twice — including on home turf at Minnesota’s Deer Creek Speedway — but also reaching double-figures in top-five finishes, propelling him to a career-high result in the points standings.
Worst case: Victory remains elusive for Sorensen, who doesn’t break through for a checkered flag and only matches his career-best points finish.
Notable: Sorensen has tallied five top-five finishes in each of his two seasons as a WoO regular. His career-best finish is second on two occasions: in 2024 at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway and last year at Humboldt Speedway.
Jake Timm
Hometown: Winona, Minn.
Age: 29
Team: Jake Timm Racing
Series history: Second year on tour (12th in points in 2025)
Best case: Timm celebrates a career-first WoO triumph early in the season at his father’s Mississippi Thunder Speedway in Fountain City, Wis., and adds several other top-five finishes as he climbs to 10th in the final points standings.
Worst case: Buried deep in the points after a slow start, Timm decides to step away from the tour to regroup for 2027.
Notable: Timm recorded a single top-five finish in 2025, placing a WoO career-best fifth on June 28 at Minnesota’s Norman County Raceway.
Drake Troutman
Hometown: Hyndman, Pa.
Age: 20
Team: Team 22 Inc.
Series history: Second year on tour (Rookie of the Year and sixth in points in 2025; one career victory)
Best case: Troutman becomes a multiple-time feature winner, approaches 20 top-five finishes and moves up to a fifth-place finish in points.
Worst case: Snakebit by bad luck, Troutman falls short of his ’25 statistics, including a slide back in the points standings.
Notable: With his victory on June 21, 2025, at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway in Pevely, Mo., just one month after turning 20, Troutman was the youngest WoO winner since Ashton Winger captured a feature at the age of 20 on July 3, 2020, at Wisconsin’s Cedar Lake Speedway.
Daulton Wilson
Hometown: Fayetteville, N.C.
Age: 28
Team: Big Frog Motorsports
Series history: Rookie
Best case: Excelling in his first season as a WoO regular after spending the previous four years touring nationally on the Lucas Oil Series, Wilson grabs a first-ever WoO victory, hits double-figures in top-fives and secures a top-10 finish in the points standings while claiming Rookie of the Year honors.
Worst case: A slow break out of the starting gate leads the team to reevaluate options and retreat to an independent schedule.
Notable: Wilson has seven top-five finishes in 37 career WoO feature starts, including career-best third-place finishes in 2021 and ’22 at South Carolina’s Cherokee Speedway and in 2024’s Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway.
Logan Zarin
Hometown: Hookstown, Pa.
Age: 22
Team: Logan Zarin Racing
Series history: Rookie
Best case: The fourth-year Super Late Model driver blossoms after spending several seasons gaining experience traveling to a wide variety of track, displaying enough consistency to claim Rookie of the Year honors while finishing just outside the top 10 in the points standings.
Worst case: A rough start at Speedweeks leads to more struggles on the road, prompting the family-owned team to pull off the circuit and log laps elsewhere to gear up for a future national-tour attempt.
Notable: Zarin has entered 25 WoO events since 2021 and made 10 feature starts with a career-best finish of 14th in ’21 at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio.
