OHSWEKEN, Ontario — A quick but jam-packed swing through the Northeast is set to begin for the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series.
After competing in Eldora Speedway’s Kings Royal, the series is headed north of the border. Ontario’s Ohsweken Speedway is the destination on Tuesday-Wednesday, July 21-22, for the Federated Auto Parts Six Nations Showdown.
The opener boasts a $15,000-to-win purse before a $20,000-to-win/$1,500-to-start finale. The World of Outlaws made a popular return to Canada last year and is back to make the “neighbors to the north” happy once again in 2026.
Then, it’s back into the United States for the lone New York weekend of the year. Weedsport Speedway welcomes The Greatest Show on Dirt on Saturday-Sunday, July 25-26, for the Empire State Challenge. Sunday’s tilt serves up a $20,000-to-win/$1,500-to-start purse.
THE MAN TO BEAT
Recent history points overwhelmingly to David Gravel being the man to beat this week.
There’s a legitimate shot the two-time and defending Series champion could sweep all four races. Let’s look at Ohsweken first.
Gravel and Big Game Motorsports broke out the broom last year and swept both nights when the tour returned to Canada. Over at Weedsport, Gravel has been nearly perfect since jumping in Tod Quiring’s No. 2. They’ve raced at the New York track five times, won four of them, and came home runner-up in the one they didn’t top.
Add it all up, and Gravel and the Big Game crew have won six of the seven races they’ve contested at the two facilities and boast a nearly perfect 1.14 average finish.
Gravel enters the week with a 122-point advantage atop the standings as he looks to capture a third consecutive championship. The stats say that lead could grow even more this week.
NOT IF, BUT WIN
There may be no sprint car driver the world is cheering for more to win than Garet Williamson. The Columbia, Mo., native has done everything but win over the last couple months as he and Fischer Motorsports have cemented themselves as one of the most consistent cars on tour.
It began with a podium at Plymouth Dirt Track. Then, the next night at Angell Park Speedway, Williamson was leading until being passed late and a part failure leaving him with a DNF. He had a shot to win the finale at Cedar Lake Speedway to close out June before finishing third. Wilmot Raceway saw him lead the most laps before Sheldon Haudenschild stole the win.
The latest and largest heartbreak came at the Kings Royal when Williamson led the most laps only to get passed for the top spot with three laps to go and slip to fifth.
The Fischer Motorsports No. 23 has been in the top 10 in 15 of the last 18 Series races, and it feels like Williamson is bound for a breakthrough win that may lead to several more trips to Victory Lane once the elusive first one is out of the way.
Last year at Ohsweken, Williamson set Simpson Quick Time before finishing seventh on the final night. His first trip to Weedsport in 2025 led to an 11th-place result.
SLIP FROM THE SLUMP
This week might serve Donny Schatz and CJB Motorsports the perfect chance to slip out of a recent slump they’ve hit.
Right when it looked like the 10-time series champion was warming up after a pair of podiums against a stacked field at Huset’s Speedway in June, Schatz hit a rough patch. Since then, he’s finished no better than eighth.
But the Fargo, N.D., legend has always been known for finding speed when tracks slick off and slow down, and there may be no tracks on the schedule known more for doing exactly that than Ohsweken and Weedsport.
Schatz’s four Ohsweken victories are the most in Series history. He’s also got 10 podiums in 14 tries there. His Weedsport résumé is nearly as impressive with a trio of checkered flags and six top fives in nine attempts.
DOUBLE DOWN
No track was kinder to Jason Sides during his driving career than Ohsweken Speedway. “Double Down” won three of the first four World of Outlaws races contested at the three-eighths mile and might’ve claimed all four if it wasn’t for a little misfortune when he started on the pole of the other.
Sides is still on the World of Outlaws tour these days but as the car owner and crew chief of his No. 7s. The notes he accumulated from his Ohsweken success paid off when the tour returned a year ago with Chris Windom piloting the Sides ride to a pair of top-10 finishes, including a fifth-place run on the final night.
Windom and Sides head back to Ohsweken in search of similar speed as Windom continues to hunt for his first World of Outlaws win. His sophomore season has yielded a trio of top fives and 13 top 10s so far. He’s fresh off a Kings Royal top 10.
NASCAR NAMES
The midweek trip to Ohsweken has attracted a unique field, including a trio of drivers with NASCAR ties.
Ryan Newman has done plenty in his racing career, but a World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car race is absent from his résumé. That’s set to change as the 2008 Daytona 500 champion is teamed with Glenn Styres to make his series debut in Canada.
Christopher Bell’s first sprint car starts of the year will come Tuesday and Wednesday at Ohsweken. It won’t be “CBell’s” first trip to the track. The current driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 in the NASCAR Cup Series won the Northern Summer Nationals at Ohsweken in 2019.
NASCAR Truck Series full-timer Stewart Friesen has Ohsweken on his schedule and will wheel a Styres entry as a teammate to Ryan Newman. The Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, native beat the World of Outlaws at the “Big O” in 2015.
