ROSSBURG, Ohio — It’s been an absolutely life-changing week for Nick Hoffman.
It all started on Thursday afternoon when made it official that he was leaving Tye Twarog Racing at the end of the season to accept a position as the full-time dirt Late Model driver for Spire Motorsports.
He ended in victory lane Saturday in late model racing’s biggest race — the 56th World 100 at Eldora Speedway.
From the moment the news broke, Hoffman emphasized his gratitude towards Twarog for the opportunity he gave him to become a nationally-touring Late Model racer four years ago, and subsequently develop into one of the top drivers in the nation. He also made it clear that his goal for the remainder of 2026 is to win as many more races as he could for Twarog, with the World 100 sitting firmly atop the list.
It was a lofty, but very realistic goal for Hoffman and the No. 9 team. He’s absorbed plenty of expertise over the years from Eldora legends Scott Bloomquist and Jonathan Davenport, and his momentum-based driving style has been known to suit Eldora quite well.
In the past two seasons, he’s come up just short of victory lane time after time – third in the 2025 Dirt Late Model Dream, third in the 2025 World 100, and third in the 2026 Dirt Late Model Dream. With 13 laps to go in the 2026 World 100, Hoffman found himself in an all-too-familiar position — third.
It was at that moment when the race got flipped upside down thanks to a caution stemming from a flat tire on Davenport’s car. It erased the lead that Ryan Gustin had carried throughout the race, which was as large as three seconds over the best in the business behind him. A 12-lap shootout separated Gustin from the biggest prize in Late Model racing, but his chance at Eldora glory came to a heartbreaking end when the driveshaft on the No. 19r car broke on the restart.
Gustin’s misfortune was the break that Hoffman needed, as he inherited the lead for the final run to the finish. Hoffman had been playing the tire-saving game to perfection all race long, leaving him with enough traction at the end to cruise away from defending winner Ricky Thornton Jr. and forever cement himself as a World 100 champion.
“This is incredible,” Hoffman said. “I’ve done so many interviews this week, it’s been a life-changing week for me. I told them this would be the cherry on top, it’s just unbelievable. I got emotional at Mansfield [Speedway] when I won $100,000, but you don’t understand how much this means to me.”
Thornton’s bid to become a back-to-back World 100 champion ended in second ahead of Tyler Erb in third, tying his 2018 finish as his best run on Late Model racing’s biggest night.
The finish:
World 100 (100 Laps): 1. 9-Nick Hoffman[9]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[11]; 3. 1T-Tyler Erb[17]; 4. 1-Brandon Sheppard[19]; 5. 71-Hudson O’Neal[13]; 6. 9M-Tim McCreadie[18]; 7. 49-Jonathan Davenport[2]; 8. 111-Max Blair[23]; 9. 74X-Ethan Dotson[25]; 10. C7-Adam Stricker[3]; 11. 19-Dustin Sorensen[6]; 12. 10-Joseph Joiner[5]; 13. 40B-Kyle Bronson[10]; 14. 22*-Zack Mitchell[16]; 15. 93-Carson Ferguson[8]; 16. 60-Dan Ebert[27]; 17. 8M-Dillon McCowan[24]; 18. 81F-Jadon Frame[12]; 19. 22F-Chris Ferguson[20]; 20. 1Z-Logan Zarin[22]; 21. 19R-Ryan Gustin[1]; 22. 12-Ashton Winger[15]; 23. 8S-Brian Shirley[26]; 24. 5-Drake Troutman[14]; 25. 25F-Jason Feger[28]; 26. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[7]; 27. 25-Shane Clanton[21]; 28. 13-Tyler Carpenter[4]
