Mansfield Speedway
Six-figure scenario plays to perfection for Hoffman
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Nick Hoffman (9) looks to grab the lead. (Todd Battin)
MANSFIELD, Ohio (May 30) — Nick Hoffman has dreamed up late-race, race-winning scenarios in his head too many times to count.
When career-altering money is on the line, he’s imagined the poise, wherewithal and discernment required to know when, how and where to strike. It’s what made the sting of losing 2024’s Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway on the final lap linger even heavier — until Saturday night. | RaceWire
With $100,057 on the line in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series Blaster 57 Special at Mansfield Speedway, Hoffman slipped back to third midway through the 57-lap feature. But he stayed the course.
Hoffman practiced patience in saving his equipment, gumption when it came time to press the issue and poise to finish the job, even as he settled for a less-than-ideal line to carry him to the finish in a race where he slipped underneath race-long leader Garrett Alberson on a restart with 11 laps remaining.
It all culminated in his first career six-figure payday.
“You dream of these kind of days,” Hoffman said. “You sit in bed, whether you’re playing basketball or you’re playing like it’s the fourth quarter of the NBA Finals or Stanley Cup, or the game-winning goal. This is what I feel like right now. It’s an unbelievable feeling.
“I lost that one at Fairbury to Pierce,” he added. “He passed me on the last lap. This here just makes up for all that. All the close misses and everything else, to get my first big one out of the way, is just huge.”
Throughout Hoffman’s rise — from juggernaut modified racer to nationally touring Dirt Late Model star — there always seemed to be an inevitability that he’d eventually arrive as a six-figure winner.
Hoffman has elevated his game every season since landing his first full-time Late Model ride with Tye Twarog Racing in 2023, when he recorded five victories, including his first national touring triumph. He followed with eight victories in 2024, six against national competition, before posting a career-best nine victories last season, eight on the national stage.
This year, Hoffman has taken another step forward. His victory Saturday was his seventh in 33 starts, all but one coming with the World of Outlaws, and it kept him within striking distance of Bobby Pierce atop the series standings, trailing by just nine points.
When Twarog hired Hoffman, he believed nights like Saturday were possible. Even so, the reality of cashing a six-figure check left Twarog — whose richest victories as a car owner had previously been a pair of $30,000 scores, last year's Dairyland Showdown at Mississippi Thunder Speedway with Hoffman and the 2018 Prairie Dirt Classic with Devin Moran — nearly speechless.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Twarog said. “I never dreamed I’d win $100,000.”
“There’s so much potential in this kid,” Twarog added. “Right now, I think he’s got everyone on notice with how he’s racing. Him and Bobby — who would’ve ever thought anybody could keep up with Bobby Pierce in the Outlaw standings? Tonight proved it. He’s one of the top three, four, five drivers in the country.”
Now, Twarog can't help but wonder what might be possible over the next week. The Dream pays another $100,000-to-win Saturday at Eldora, where Hoffman logged third-place finishes in the Dream and World 100 last season.
“I knew we were right on the brink of winning a big one,” Twarog said. “I feel good going to Eldora next week. Can we get another $100,000? I don’t know, we’ll see. Right now, it’s been a pretty magical year. … This is what he needed.”
Twarog commended Hoffman's patience above all else. Racing with a harder tire compound than early leaders Garrett Alberson and Josh Rice, Hoffman knew slipping backward early was a possibility and refused to let it alter his game plan.
“Patience, patience, you know, patience. He was very patient,” Twarog said. “He fell back to third and it didn't rattle him. Once his tires got warmed up there, he come back up through the field a little bit. ... He did exactly what he had to do.”
By lap 37, Hoffman had tracked down and passed Rice in traffic, a sign his tire strategy was beginning to pay dividends.
“Earlier in that race, I fell back to third,” Hoffman said. “Having harder tires on, I knew that was probably going to happen. I wanted to maintain with those two guys and make sure I didn't fall to fourth, because on a restart, you'd be back another row. No matter what, I was running hard enough to stay on that second row of a restart.”
The winning opportunity came on the lap-46 restart. Hoffman had already mapped out his plan, studying Alberson's line throughout the race with help from Mansfield's hulking backstretch video board.
“I could watch that thing pretty much all the way down the frontstretch, all the way through one and two,” Hoffman said. “The biggest thing was being able to see where everybody was racing.”
Hoffman intended to slide Alberson entering turns one and two. Instead, Alberson caught the cushion and lost momentum, allowing Hoffman to pull alongside and complete the pass down the backstretch. From there, his mindset shifted from offense to defense.
“In (turns) three and four, that lane I had been running was deteriorating so bad, I had to slide myself a little bit and try to carry more entry speed,” Hoffman said. “Some laps I was really good. Some laps it bit me in the ass.”
Even then, Hoffman raced assuredly.
“Strategically, I put myself in the right spots to go when I needed to,” Hoffman said.
Twarog believes a stronger support system and a more assertive driver have helped propel Hoffman into the sport's elite tier. The foundation starts with the crew.
Veteran crew chief Darren Townsend returned for a second season, while additions Scott Fegter from Paylor Motorsports and Brayden Sebenaler, who previously worked for Tyler Erb and Jerry Bowersock, round out the race-day crew.
“My crew has been phenomenal,” Twarog said. “It took all the worries off of Nick. We had only had one, two guys, and now we actually have a good team. The driver can worry about driving and setup now.”
Hoffman echoed those sentiments.
“This is the best crew I've ever had,” Hoffman said. “The best support I've ever had in my career. Everything's clicking for me right now.”
Onto the assertiveness: Twarog has challenged his driver lately to attack opportunities — restarts in particular — with greater authority. Saturday, he finally saw it.
“I always get on him. I say he always lags back a little bit on the starts,” Twarog said. “But he was up on the wheel and he did exactly what he had to do on the start.”
The performance stood out all the more because the track conditions weren't necessarily tailored to Hoffman's strengths.
“His style racing is black, slick, ride around, roll the turns,” Twarog said. “That's where he's progressing from year one to year four here. In year one and two, he wouldn't cowboy enough like that. That's the first time I saw him cowboy up on two straight restarts at the end. He drove it in there, cowboyed up, turned the race car and got it done.”
With his first six-figure victory in the bag, Hoffman believes it could be a springboard to even bigger things, perhaps as soon as this week at Eldora.
“Jonathan Davenport, Bobby (Pierce), they'll tell you, the first one is the toughest one to get,” Hoffman said. “You get confident enough to know you can win these races. Driver confidence is the most important thing in this racing industry.
“This racing deal will knock you down and get you pretty upset with yourself, thinking you won't be able to do it. Then you do stuff like this, it's unbelievable. Super pumped-up now. I still haven't processed it. It's just unreal.”
