The World of Outlaws Late Model Series will make an inaugural stop at Hendry County Motorsports Park in Clewiston, Florida, for the first-ever Swamp Cabbage 100 on Feb. 20-21, 2026. It will be the first national Late Model race in Hendry County history at what is billed as the southernmost dirt track in the United States, extending the series’ Florida slate following the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park and representing a venue expansion for the series.

Practice for the two-day program is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, as teams use the session to prepare for back-to-back main events: a 40-lap feature on Friday paying $12,000 to the winner and a 60-lap main on Saturday with a $20,000 top prize. Hendry County Motorsports Park will also host 4.6 Ford Crown Vics both nights, and organizers characterize the weekend as a significant purse opportunity for Late Model competitors.

Many entrants arrive with limited experience on Hendry’s surface, and Tristan Chamberlain posted the fastest lap in a recent test and is cited as a dark-horse contender, while local rookie Eli Johnson will provide hometown interest. The stop also arrives with series storylines: Nick Hoffman comes to Hendry off a six-night Volusia stretch that produced three wins, five top-five finishes and a 3.1 average finish, a run that earned him his first Late Model Big Gator and a 27-point lead in the standings; Bobby Pierce remains Hoffman’s closest rival. The World of Outlaws and the Hendry County Tourism Development Council have partnered to create a week of entertainment around the event and to build a larger festival atmosphere for the inaugural weekend.

Larry Wight of Phoenix, N.Y., ended a six-year winless stretch at Volusia Speedway Park by winning the 50-lap Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals feature. Wight took the lead from Stewart Friesen on a Lap 26 restart and earned $7,500 for the victory, his fifth DIRTcar Nationals win and his first at Volusia since Feb. 14, 2020. The triumph was Wight’s 13th career Super DIRTcar Series victory, moving him past Frank Cozze into sole possession of 22nd on the series’ all-time wins list.

Wight said he reverted to a basic setup on his 2021 Bicknell chassis and credited an “old faithful” motor and a balanced car that let him run multiple lines before committing to the top and pulling away. Justin Stone led the opening laps until a mistake and subsequent cautions shuffled the running order, while pole-sitter Peter Britten fell back early.

Stewart Friesen finished second and Mat Williamson third. Williamson set a new Volusia track record with a 16.695-second lap and clinched his third Big Gator trophy in four years, which ties him with Wight for the most Big Gator trophies all-time. Matt Sheppard finished fourth and Felix Roy fifth.

Three split-field 20-lap main events at Volusia Speedway Park produced three different winners Wednesday during the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals: Michael Leach, Nick Hoffman and Tyler Erb. At the midpoint of the week, those results reset the leaderboard, kept the championship chase open and set up a high-stakes finish for the final three nights, which were set to be sanctioned by the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.

Leach started on the pole for his split-field feature, retook the lead from outside polesitter Ryan Gustin on lap two and, after a late restart with three laps remaining, pulled away to score the win. Daulton Wilson passed Gustin for second with two laps to go and closed the gap to Leach but ran out of time. It was Leach’s first Super Late Model victory at Volusia and his first Super Late Model win in his second full-time season after relocating from Montana to the Longhorn Chassis headquarters in North Carolina.

Hoffman converted his Wednesday Gator triumph into a World of Outlaws Late Model Series feature victory later in the week, completing back-to-back wins. Driving the NOS Energy Drink No. 9, he took the lead on the opening lap when Bilstein Pole winner Chris Madden slid up exiting Turn 2, survived two cautions and finished more than five seconds ahead of the field. Tim McCreadie recovered from 22nd to finish second, earning FOX Factory Hard Charger honors in his 500th World of Outlaws feature start; Bobby Pierce was third, Tyler Erb fourth and Madden fifth. Hoffman entered the night as the series points leader and left still atop the standings by eight points over McCreadie, while also assuming the Big Gator points lead by 21 markers after Cody Overton recorded a DNF. The World of Outlaws–sanctioned nights were slated to pay $12,000-to-win on Thursday and Friday and $20,000-to-win on Saturday, escalating the purses and competitive stakes for the finale.

David Gravel, 33, of Watertown, Connecticut, entered the 2026 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series season as the two-time defending champion (2024, 2025) in the Big Game No. 2 and will attempt a historic three-peat at Volusia Speedway Park’s Bike Week Jamboree on March 1–2. A three-peat in the World of Outlaws has previously been accomplished only by Steve Kinser, Donny Schatz and Brad Sweet.

Team accounts list 62 wins, 155 podiums, 229 top-five finishes and 309 top-10s in 354 Features; another account lists slightly lower totals — 62 wins, 153 podiums, 227 top fives and 307 top-10s across 351 Features. Those differing tallies reflect variations in source reporting but consistently show the program’s sustained success since Gravel joined.

Big Game opened the 2026 season in strong form, posting the quickest time in their qualifying flight on each of the three nights at the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals and earning two podiums at the event. Team owner Tod Quiring and a largely steady core staff provide continuity: Cody Jacobs has been Big Game’s crew chief since 2020, Zach Patterson the tire specialist since 2022, Pete Stephens returned as car chief, and Luke Vaughn was promoted to a full-time role for 2026 after joining late in 2025. Gravel credited that organizational continuity for fueling the back-to-back titles and named Michael Kofoid, Carson Macedo, Logan Schuchart and Sheldon Haudenschild as key challengers for the season.

Anthony Macri of Dillsburg, Pa., won the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals finale at Volusia Speedway Park, taking the $20,000 prize and the Big Gator trophy. He achieved the feat after a dramatic last-lap duel with defending champion David Gravel. Macri started fourth and moved past Brian Brown for the lead on lap seven. On the final circuit, Gravel executed a white-flag slide job, threading a diamond line through lapped traffic, and briefly challenged for the top spot before Macri reclaimed the lead and held it into Turn 3 for the checkered flag.

The victory was the eighth World of Outlaws win of Macri’s career, tying him with Jimmy Sills and Cody Darrah on the all-time list and making him the ninth different driver to win the Big Gator. The result capped a strong Volusia weekend for Macri, who had finished third and fourth on the first two nights of the meeting. David Gravel finished second, with Carson Macedo third, Buddy Kofoid fourth, and Brian Brown fifth.

The feature opened with a four-wide parade lap that included Brent Marks, Macri, Gravel, and Brown. Photographers captured close racing and several on-track skirmishes through the card, including battles involving Sheldon Haudenschild, Bill Balog, Sam Hafertepe Jr., Scotty Thiel, and Spencer Bayston. Images also showed Carson Macedo sliding under Brian Brown and Brenham Crouch’s car being removed from the track, underscoring a busy night of action at Volusia. The World of Outlaws will return to Volusia Speedway Park March 1–2 for the Bike Week Jamboree, keeping the series’ early-season momentum at the Florida venue.

Volusia Speedway Park will host the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals for six straight nights, February 9–14. The week mixes non-points cards and World of Outlaws Late Model Series (WoO) points-paying mains. There are two $7,000-to-win shows on the first two days, a split-field night with three $5,000 features on night three, and $12,000-to-win mains on February 12–13. But the main event is reserved for the final night, when racers will contest the $20,000-to-win Big Gator finale. AMSOIL USAC Sprint Cars join the opening nights, and the Super DIRTcar Series runs from February 11–14, creating a stacked week of touring-series competition.

This year’s entry list is expected to be among the season’s strongest, with established stars and in-form contenders entered for the WoO points events and the Big Gator finale. Brandon Sheppard, fresh off a Sunshine Nationals victory, leads the de facto WoO points entering Volusia ahead of Nick Hoffman, while two-time defending Volusia champion Bobby Pierce sits fifth, 18 points back. Hudson O’Neal has already posted three wins this year, and 2025 Big Gator champion Ricky Thornton Jr. arrives after two wins and a worst finish of sixth at Volusia last year. The list mixes veterans such as Dennis Erb Jr., Chris Madden, and Tim McCreadie with rising contenders and newcomers, including Daulton Wilson and Trey Mills.

The Big Gator trophy was first awarded to Dennis Erb Jr. in 2012 and remains the marquee prize at the finale and often foreshadows season momentum. Josh Richards used Volusia success to power an 18-win championship campaign in 2016, and Brandon Sheppard turned strong Volusia weeks into series championships and crown-jewel victories in 2019, 2020, and 2024. Scott Bloomquist and Shane Clanton similarly leveraged Volusia as a springboard, while Devin Moran and Ricky Thornton Jr. translated Volusia form into major wins in recent seasons. With six nights on tap, this year’s DIRTcar Nationals and the Big Gator finale will serve as both a standalone crown and an early indicator of which drivers could carry momentum through the WoO season.

Spencer Bayston won the season-opening 25-lap Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals feature at Volusia Speedway Park, driving the NOS Energy Drink No. 17 for Stenhouse Jr./Marshall Racing. Bayston started 10th and immediately picked off three cars on the opening circuit. He moved into fourth amid a mid-race stretch of chaos before sweeping around Anthony Macri on the outside on lap 16 to seize the lead and pull away. The victory marked his first sprint car win since August 4, 2023, when he bagged the Night Before the Ironman. The result handed Bayston his sixth career World of Outlaws checkered flag, and his first triumph at Volusia, where he left with a gator trophy.

Carson Macedo finished runner-up with Anthony Macri, Michael Kofoid, and Donny Schatz completing the top five. The 25-lap Feature opened the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series at Volusia and set an early competitive tone for the DIRTcar Nationals weekend. The way Bayston navigated traffic and capitalized on opportunities through the race underlined the strength of the Stenhouse Jr./Marshall Racing entry.

The victor described the result as validation after a rocky stretch in his career, and he credited team owners Richard and Jennifer Marshall, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and his partners for helping spark the turnaround. He said the win quieted doubts about his recent form and rewarded the team’s decision to sign him. The NOS Energy Drink sponsorship was part of the package that supported the effort, and the victory both ended Bayston’s win drought and created an early-season storyline for the series. The result highlighted a successful team effort and a personal milestone for Bayston as the World of Outlaws season began.