CONCORD, N.C. — The time has come for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision to head north for the busiest portion of the 2026 season.
Starting this weekend, will contest 10 races in 16 days at seven different tracks across Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota. It all starts with the series debut at 141 Speedway in Maribel, Wis. The third-mile bullring will be part of a huge weekend of motorsports in the area, with the NTT IndyCar Series racing less than an hour away at Road America.
World of Outlaws action kicks off at 141 with the $12,000-to-win opener on Friday, June 19, ahead of the $25,000-to-win finale on Saturday, June 20.
Teams will spend Sunday making the six-hour tow to Ogilvie Raceway, where the Series will visit for the first time since 2019 for a $12,000-to-win program on Monday, June 22. Ogilvie will be the first of four Minnesota tracks the World of Outlaws will stop at on the upcoming swing, which concludes with the state’s biggest dirt track race, the NAPA Auto Parts Gopher 50 at Deer Creek Speedway July 2-4.
ON A ROLL
If the last three weeks are anything to go by, the second half of the World of Outlaws season could be very profitable for Tyler Erb.
“Terbo” spent the first four months of the season waiting for his turn to break into victory lane, and it finally came in the form of a career-high $100,000 payday at Mansfield Speedway. Erb has been riding high ever since, showing plenty of speed at the Dirt Late Model Dream before earning another $30,000 for his second win of the season on Saturday night at West Virginia Motor Speedway.
Despite not having a realistic chance of catching Bobby Pierce and Nick Hoffman in the championship battle with more than 200 points to make up, Erb looks capable of racing those two for wins night after night as the summer rolls on.
Like most drivers, his notebook for 141 is blank, but Erb does have a few Ogilvie starts to look back on. He collected top 10s in two of his three World of Outlaws starts there between 2016 and 2018, and more recently finished fifth with the XR Super Series in 2024.
SNOWBALLS
Even a mediocre weekend can be costly when you’re battling someone like Bobby Pierce for a championship – just ask Nick Hoffman.
The Mooresville, N.C., driver finished outside the top five on back-to-back nights for the first time this season at West Virginia, managing a ninth on Friday and a 12th on Saturday. Those results, combined with Pierce’s win on Friday and fourth-place run on Saturday, took what was a single-digit deficit to Pierce and turned it into a 44-point gap that Hoffman must make up.
That said, the trip north is the perfect time for Hoffman to do that, as the region has been kind to him throughout his three-and-a-half years on the road with the World of Outlaws.
Out of his 17 series wins, he’s won three races in Wisconsin, three more in Minnesota and once in North Dakota. Pierce can be strong up north as well, though, as he won $50,000 at Ogilvie in the Minnesota Mega in 2024 and finished runner-up at 141 eight years ago as part of his stint with Dunn-Benson Motorsports.
BACK UP FRONT
Dennis Erb Jr. got the weekend he had been needing all season at West Virginia.
The reconfigured three-eighths-mile’s formidable bottom groove played right into Erb’s hands, and he took full advantage of those conditions.
The 2022 series champion finished second behind Pierce for his best finish of the season, then backed it up with a solid sixth-place effort on Saturday. Erb’s 2026 season has been plagued by crashes – most of them caused by nothing other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time – which has wrecked the team’s inventory and forced Erb and crew chief Heather Lyne to play catch-up all year long.
Now that he finally has some results to be proud of, Erb is ready to build on last weekend when he travels north. He was in a similar position at this time last year, but Erb’s three podiums on the northern swing last year kicked off a second-half turnaround that eventually led to a win in October at Humboldt Speedway.
WELCOME BACK CODY
Cody Overton hasn’t entered a World of Outlaws race since February, but that’s going to change next week.
Overton will drive a second car for James Trantina III and Triple B Motorsports for the remainder of 2026 alongside Dan Ebert, with his debut in the ride set for Monday night at Ogilvie.
The Thomson, Ga., driver planned to follow the full World of Outlaws tour for the third-straight season in his self-owned No. 97, but a string of engine failures during Speedweeks left Overton with no choice but to step back and regroup. He’s made scattered starts in both super and crate late models in the months since then, with the goal of securing a long-term deal that can put him back on the road full-time with the World of Outlaws in 2027.
SUPERMAN
Overton won’t be the only Georgia native joining the World of Outlaws in the upper Midwest.
Jonathan Davenport’s independent 2026 schedule will take him through Minnesota and North Dakota, beginning with his first appearance at Ogilvie on Monday.
Davenport will also be racing at I-94 emr Speedway, River Cities Speedway, Nodak Speedway and Norman County Raceway for the first time, giving fans across the region the chance to see the future Hall of Famer in action.
The one track on the swing Davenport has been to before is Deer Creek, where he’s accumulated two wins and six top fives in seven starts on Gopher 50 weekend.
Other drivers expected to follow the World of Outlaws north include Gordy Gundaker, Michael Leach, Jake Timm, Amelia Eisenschenk, Laela Eisenschenk and more.
