DirtonDirt exclusive
Flo tour sets up clash of national touring's best
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Hudson O'Neal (71) and Bobby Pierce (32) battle at Spoon River. (mikerueferphotos.photoreflect.com)
It’s a never-ending debate among opinionated Dirt Late Model observers — especially on social media: which national tour has the stronger driver roster, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series or the World of Outlaws Late Model Series?
Fortunately, the Dirt Late Model schedule offers several crossover checkpoints each season by way of Georgia-Florida Speedweeks, Illinois Speedweek, Eldora Speedway’s crown jewels — the Dream and World 100 — and other marquee events that regularly bring both tours together.
But a true season-long points battle involving both the best of both tours? That’s rarely materialized, even through FloRacing Night in America’s first five seasons. In what’s shaping up to be a first, the top three returning drivers from both the 2025 Lucas Oil and World of Outlaws standings have all committed to chasing the FloRacing miniseries this season.
That means Devin Moran, Ricky Thornton Jr. and Hudson O’Neal representing Lucas Oil, while Bobby Pierce, Nick Hoffman and Ryan Gustin carry the WoO banner. That’s not counting five-time Outlaw champion Brandon Sheppard — now on the Lucas Oil tour — and 2022 WoO champ Dennis Erb Jr.
“This tour is very tough, but you got the best on both sides, Lucas and Outlaws,” said the 34-year-old Hoffman, who’s embarking on his first full FloRacing campaign this season. “I think this will, you know, really be a tell-tale of where we and everyone sits right now.”
It’s unfortunate only one of the opening three races of the 2026 FloRacing Series could get in during Illinois Speedweek, with Tuesday’s opener at La Salle Speedway and Thursday at Lincoln Speedway both falling victim to rain. Those postponed dates — La Salle rescheduled for Sept. 15 while Lincoln has yet to announce a makeup — could eventually disrupt the plans of one or more championship hopefuls. For now, though, all 12 drivers have committed to the series.
Hoffman, Moran and O’Neal especially add intrigue to this year’s miniseries picture. While Pierce, Thornton and Gustin were full-timers on the FloRacing circuit last year, Hoffman and Moran are both targeting the full schedule for the first time, while O’Neal aims to make up for a missed opportunity from a year ago.
O’Neal skipped two series races during the 2025 nine-event season, absences that ultimately cost him the title. Even with two fewer starts, he finished third in the standings and remained mathematically alive entering November’s tour finale Senoia (Ga.) Raceway.
“That was kind of a little bit of our reasoning this year,” O’Neal said of not missing any FloRacing events in 2026. “It kind of bit us in the butt that we didn't do it all. So, yeah, we'll try and tackle it this year, do all the Flo and Lucas Oil races and everything.”
A major reason O’Neal didn’t follow the full FloRacing schedule last season was timing. Jason Durham had only recently joined the team as crew chief in March 2025, leaving the group still trying to establish chemistry and organization through the spring and summer months.
“I think we're in a better spot this year than we were last year at this time,” O’Neal said. “Jason’s been here for a whole year and everything, so we have everything in order and I think we're in a better spot now than we were last year for sure.”
Moran, meanwhile, entered seven of the nine series events last season, skipping Fairbury Speedway ahead of the Prairie Dirt Classic and the September stop at Volunteer Speedway. For Moran and the Double Down Motorsports team, however, the 2026 schedule finally aligns in a way that makes pursuing the whole FloRacing tour more practical — provided they remain firmly in title contention by the fall stretch.
“Honestly, it's never really made much sense for us and on the business standpoint, I try to (manage everything) like if it was my own team, my own money,” Moran said. “So it never really made sense. But this year I feel like a lot of the races (on the FloRacing schedule) are pretty close and on the way to or from places. And yeah, just decent racetracks. So it kind of makes a little more sense this year.”
As for Hoffman, he’s eager to race more in his fourth year racing for Tye Twarog Racing of Coshocton, Ohio. The previous three seasons he took more of a mindful approach when building his schedule.
“Throughout the last couple of years, I didn't want to put too much on our plate,” Hoffman said. “We ran a lot of Flo races. It was just a matter of not being tied down to have to be at every one of them. This year, it makes sense for us. We're running good, everything's clicking right now. So, makes sense for us to keep digging and try and race as much as possible.”
Hoffman is currently leading the Outlaw standings by a mere three points over Pierce. In order to stay there in what’s shaping up to be a year-long duel with Pierce, he’d like to stay as sharp as ever.
“I feel like it'll help us on the Outlaw tour, too, using not these races to test, but it’ll always be in our primary objective,” Hoffman said. “If you get off one night here, you can definitely try something that you typically wouldn't end on the Outlaw side. So, yeah, for me, it's just trying to race more. That's the only way we're going to get better overall. And all these racetracks, I pretty much like anyway. So, I'm thinking just, you know, at the end of the day, it makes sense as a business standpoint to try and race more and make a little bit of income and stay on the road.
“We have plenty of equipment. (Twarog) always gave me anything I needed, and he's always left it up to me. Like, if I said tomorrow I didn't want to run this whole Flo deal, he’d be like, ‘Whatever, you do what you want.’… I ain't gonna run 120 races a year. I got enough stuff going on at home running a (modified) chassis business and everything else also. I want to run at least 60-70 races, and I feel like that's what it takes to be competitive.”
Of all the tracks on the FloRacing Series schedule, the tour’s debut at predominant open-wheel facility, Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Ill., excites Hoffman most.
“It gets like gnarly curbed-up, super slick across the racetrack. I'm excited for that place,” Hoffman said. “I think it could be a decent Late Model track and race well. But I know if you're going to run the bottom there, it's going to be super slippery and very slow. And if you hammer the curb, it's going to be pretty treacherous. Places like that will be fun.”
