PEVELY, Mo. — The arrival of fall means the last leg of the season goes green this weekend.
Nine races remain for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision in 2026 on the road to Dave Smith Motors World of Outlaws World Finals. The first two will take the series to the Midwest for the last time this year for a doubleheader at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park.
The series has raced at the third-mile facility 13 times in the past, but it’s been more than a decade since the last September visit in 2013. This weekend’s King of the Arch begins with a 40-lap, $12,000-to-win, clash on Friday, Sept. 25, ahead of a signature 55-lapper at I-55 for $20,000 on Saturday, Sept. 26.
The World of Outlaws will be joined by the MARS Modified Championship both nights.
GOT HIS GLOBE
No matter what Nick Hoffman does with the rest of his dirt Late Model career, he’ll forever hold one elusive title – World 100 champion.
For the Belleville, Ill., native, there’s no better place for him to make his first World of Outlaws start since the biggest night of his career than at one of his home tracks. Pevely was one of several St. Louis-area tracks where Hoffman grew up watching his dad, Darrell, race, before returning years later as a driver himself.
Hoffman still has a mathematical chance at delivering Tye Twarog a championship in his final season in his No. 9 car, but he’ll need point leader Bobby Pierce to have issues down the stretch. Hoffman trails Pierce by 112 markers, meaning he would need to beat Pierce by about seven positions per night to close the gap.
Even if a championship doesn’t come to fruition this year, Hoffman is still determined to win as many more races as he can before his time with Twarog ends in November. If he can earn one this weekend, it would be his first Late Model win at Pevely to go along with his pair of DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals triumphs.
CLOSING IN
Pierce’s game plan for the fall is simple – if he keeps doing what he’s been doing all season, a third World of Outlaws title will be his.
A record-breaking 20 wins and a 3.58 average finish have made the No. 32 the class of the field once again in 2026, and he still has nine races left to continue rewriting the record books. Nothing is a given in Late Model racing, though, as proven by Pierce’s expired engine at Eldora Speedway that left him failing to qualify for the World 100 for the first time in his career.
The “Smooth Operator” collected plenty of local and regional wins at I-55 early in his career before adding a World of Outlaws victory to the tally last year.
HEARTACHE MEDICATION
Ryan Gustin is heading to Pevely on a mission to bounce back from the one that got away.
After starting on the pole and leading the first 88 laps of the World 100, a broken driveshaft ended the Marshalltown, Iowa, native’s chances of a career-defining victory.
That heartbreak was the latest chapter of what’s largely been a frustrating season that has only yielded one World of Outlaws win through 45 races, Gustin’s lowest total in five years.
There’s still time to turn things around and finish on a high note, particularly next weekend at Boothill Speedway, where Gustin won in each of the last two years.
The “Reaper” had speed at Pevely in 2025 as well, finishing third on Friday and sixth on Saturday, and won a MARS Late Model Championship race there in 2015.
PEVELY PROWESS
Dennis Erb Jr. is the only current Outlaw with more than one I-55 victory.
The Carpentersville, Ill., native has been making regular trips to Pevely for almost 30 years and scored wins at the regional level in both Northern Allstars and MARS competition. Erb went to victory lane with the World of Outlaws first in 2012 before pulling off a weekend sweep in 2022 on his way to the championship.
That makes Pevely one of only two tracks where Erb owns more than one World of Outlaws win, the other being Volusia Speedway Park.
Erb was having his best night of the season last time out at Shelby County Speedway, as he led his first laps of 2026 before a blown engine ended his chance at his first win of the year. He enters Pevely ninth in the standings, 19 points behind Trey Mills in the battle for eighth.
WINNING WAYS
The World of Outlaws roster didn’t slow down in the three weekends between series races, and several of them have collected the trophy at tracks across the country.
Seven different Outlaws have won nine races since the tour left Shelby County on Aug. 29. Hoffman’s World 100 triumph tops the list, although it wasn’t his only Eldora win of the week. He also won one of the split-field features at the Baltes Classic on Sept. 6, and the other one was topped by Tristan Chamberlain for the 19-year-old’s biggest win to date.
Other recent wins ahead of the King of the Arch include Pierce’s $20,000 Cotton Pickin’ 100 score at Magnolia Motor Speedway, Ryan Gustin’s Weiner Nationals triumph at Moberly Motorsports Park, a Labor Day weekend sweep at Portsmouth Raceway Park for Tyler Erb, a home-state win for Tim McCreadie at Outlaw Speedway and a Northern Allstars win for Trey Mills in his Brownstown Speedway debut.
