EASTABOGA, Ala. — Whoever says there’s no night racing at Talladega has never been to Talladega Short Track.
As they have annually since 2023, the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision will be part of the spring NASCAR race weekend across the street at Talladega Superspeedway.
The Alabama Gang 100 has quickly risen in prominence to become one of the biggest Late Model races in the region, pitting the top drivers from across the country up against many of the southeast’s best regional competitors.
This season is the first in which the Alabama Gang 100 will feature two full-field, points-paying World of Outlaws races.
First up on Friday, April 24, will be a 40-lap, $12,000-to-win, main event to kick off the weekend. Then on Saturday, April 25, approximately 30 minutes after the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series takes the checkered flag at the big track, the World of Outlaws will take to the dirt for night two, which pays $25,000 to the winner of the 60-lap Feature.
THE BATTLE RAGES
The 2026 season is already 16 races old, but the points lead is still changing hands by the night.
Nick Hoffman and Bobby Pierce remain knotted up at the top of the standings, with two points separating them entering Talladega. The duo maintained their position at the top of the class last time out at Farmer City, as Pierce won the Saturday finale while Hoffman remained steady with two more podium finishes.
Strong showings out of both drivers at the Illini 100 were to be expected given their past success on the Illinois bullrings, but history gives the edge to Pierce on the Alabama clay. The “Smooth Operator” won last year’s Alabama Gang 100, was leading the 2023 edition until a broken wheel took him out of contention, and ran fourth in his most recent visit last month with the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series.
On the other hand, Hoffman will likely need to improve on his past Talladega results to maintain the points lead, as he finished sixth and eighth in his two prior Alabama Gang 100 starts.
ON THE RISE
Regardless of what part of the country he’s in, Daulton Wilson has continued to impress in recent weeks.
“Big Perm” put the Series on notice at East Alabama Motor Speedway at the end of March, leading most of the race before getting passed by Hoffman in the closing laps. Two weeks later on the vastly different Farmer City surface, the No. 58v was among the best cars on the property, collecting a pair of fourth-place finishes.
Those efforts have Wilson up to fourth in the standings with a shot at getting to third this weekend, as Tim McCreadie sits only 19 points ahead. Talladega could be a wild card for Wilson, as his only previous start in 2022 ended with a crash while running 11th.
HITTING STRIDE
Trailing Wilson in the MD3 Rookie of the Year chase is Trey Mills, who has several reasons of his own to look forward to Talladega.
The 17-year-old Floridian has been right in the thick of the field night in and night out as of late. Following a rocky start during Speedweeks, he’s finished 12th or better in his last seven starts dating back to Smoky Mountain Speedway on March 14, and three of his last five have been top 10s. That has Mills on the cusp of the top 10 in points, with 80 markers separating Dennis Erb Jr. in 10th and Mills in 11th.
The “Hornet’s Nest” is one place Mills has circled on the World of Outlaws schedule as somewhere he expects to be fast. His resume there is commendable, dating back to a fourth-place run with the Iron-Man Series in 2023 in his first Talladega start.
Since then, he finished third in a split-field preliminary Feature on Alabama Gang 100 weekend in 2024, earned a top 10 in the main event in 2025 and swept a twin-feature night with the Southern Thunder Super Dirt Series last summer.
HERE COMES CARSON
There are always plenty of familiar faces from the NASCAR world on the grounds when the World of Outlaws come to Talladega, and this year, one of them will be behind the wheel.
NASCAR Cup Series driver Carson Hocevar is set to wheel a Spire Motorsports-fielded Late Model this weekend as he looks to make his first World of Outlaws feature start. It marks his first appearance with the series since 2022, when he drove a Niece Motorsports machine at World of Outlaws World Finals.
Hocevar has made other scattered dirt Late Model outings at the Dirt Late Model Dream and the Gateway Dirt Nationals, with his best night to date coming in last year’s trip to “The Dome.” In the Spire dirt late model program’s first weekend of operation, Hocevar raced his way through the 123-car field and into the Saturday Feature, ultimately coming home 10th.
Hocevar won’t be the first NASCAR star to cross the street and take a crack at the Alabama Gang 100. Kyle Larson drove the K&L Rumley Enterprises No. 6 to eighth in 2023, and finished sixth in his prelim feature in 2024 before rain washed out the remainder of the event.
SOUTHERN STALWARTS
The Alabama Gang 100 has had a knack for bringing out the best in the regional racers in attendance.
Two years ago, Alabama’s own Dylan Knowles won his first national-level race in his prelim Feature, while fellow Alabama driver Sam Seawright finished third in the other race that night. Then in last year’s finale, Cory Hedgecock started on the pole and led the first 13 laps before Pierce drove on to win, with Zack Mitchell and Jadon Frame also scoring top fives.
Plenty of them have announced their plans to join the World of Outlaws again this weekend, including Seawright, Luke Morey, Mario Gresham, Dillard Hatchett and more.
