BARBERVILLE, Fla. — The curtain rises on the 35th season of American Sprint Car Series racing this weekend at one of the fastest and most historic race tracks drivers will contest all year – Volusia Speedway Park.
The half-mile oval hosts the kickoff to Florida’s largest dirt track racing events with three consecutive nights of racing in the 55th Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals, Thursday–Saturday, Jan. 29–31.
Thursday and Friday’s main events will go 25 laps and award $3,000 to the winner, while the finale on Saturday will go 30 laps with a $12,000 winner’s share.
In addition to the main event purse, the top three finishers in the week-long Big Gator Championship points will receive a cash bonus — $2,000 to the champion, $1,000 to the runner-up and $500 to third place. The iconic DIRTcar Nationals Big Gator trophy will also be awarded to the points champion.
Points toward the overall American Sprint Car Series championship standings will be awarded to each driver based on rank in the final DIRTcar Nationals points standings.
All three races will count as a single event toward the standings, meaning the Big Gator champion will earn 150 points, runner-up will earn 142 points, third place receives 135 points and so on, according to the ASCS Feature points scale.
DRIVE FOR SEVEN
After locking up his sixth American Sprint Car Series championship last November, Sam Hafertepe Jr. begins his quest for a seventh national points title this weekend.
Hafertepe, 40, of Sunnyvale, Texas, won 11 features on the national circuit last year and comes into Volusia as the odds-on favorite for the points championship. During the season opener last January, he was one of only three drivers to start all three main events and produced the best average finish among them at 7.0, which included a podium finish on opening night.
Hafertepe also stands as the most experienced driver on the full-time roster with over 50 feature starts at the Florida oval — his first coming almost 20 years ago in February 2006.
TITLE CHASERS
Several drivers that followed the American Sprint Car Series circuit in 2025 will return to the full-time roster in 2026, starting with the first races this weekend. Currently, the list includes Hafertepe, Matt Covington, Kyler Johnson, Austyn Gossel, Ryder Laplante, Terry Easum and Brogan Carder.
Covington, of Glenpool, Okla., was the second of three full-timers in 2025 to start all three main events at Volusia, with a best finish of ninth on opening night. He finished runner-up to Hafertepe in the 2025 standings and will likely be a contender for his first national championship in 2026.
Laplante started Saturday’s main event at Volusia one year ago and finished 18th. Johnson, Gossel, Easum and Carder are all looking for their first main event start at the track.
Additionally, 2024 series champion Seth Bergman is set to make his Volusia debut this weekend and has indicated his plans to follow the national schedule full-time in 2026.
The Snohomish, Wash.-native made 15 appearances with the series last year, notching one win at Electric City Speedway in Montana.
SUNSHINE RETURNS
After six months out of the seat, Tyler Courtney returns to sprint car racing this weekend aboard the Clauson Marshall Racing No. 7bc.
Courtney, 31, was hospitalized after a violent crash at Eldora Speedway last July and underwent spinal fusion surgery to repair his broken T7 vertebrae. After months of recovery and rehabilitation, Courtney is set to return to action at Volusia, making his first start with the American Sprint Car Series since his triumph at Knoxville Raceway’s 360 Knoxville Nationals in 2024.
The two-time United States Auto Club champion has had success at Volusia in the past, notching 13 top-10s, three top-fives and one memorable Feature win with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars in a last-corner pass on Rico Abreu during DIRTcar Nationals in 2024.
OUTLAW INBOUND
The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series has a lone representative installing a 360 c.i. engine to compete with the American Sprint Car Series this weekend and get some early track time before World of Outlaws action begins next week.
Cole Macedo, of Lemoore, Calif., made his Volusia debut with the 360s one year ago and produced finishes of seventh, second, and fourth in the finale Saturday night.
This weekend, the 25-year-old is back behind the wheel of the TwoC Racing No. 2C, owned by 2000 American Sprint Car Series champion Wayne Johnson, before starting his second full season on the national 410 sprint car circuit.
410 INVADERS
Multiple other 410 sprint car regulars are projected to join the 360 field this weekend, including standouts Brian Brown and Brock Zearfoss.
Brown is a familiar face to 360 sprint car fans as a 21-time American Sprint Car Series feature winner. One year ago, the 47-year-old came within one spot of his first series victory since 2023 and his first career win at Volusia with a runner-up finish to Justin Peck.
The following week, he posted finishes of sixth, 13th, 11th, and 15th with the World of Outlaws.
Zearfoss will make his first American Sprint Car Series appearances since 2020 in his self-owned No. 3z. The 35-year-old has made over 30 starts in 410 competition at Volusia with a best finish of seventh with the All-Star Circuit of Champions in 2023.
