Eldora Speedway
‘Unicorn’ Hoffman checks off all the boxes for Spire
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Jeff Dickerson of Spire Motorsports and driver Nick Hoffman. (Zach Yost)
ROSSBURG, Ohio (Sept. 12) — Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson knows the exact moment Nick Hoffman became more than just another great race car driver in his eyes.
It happened during June’s Dream at Eldora Speedway, three months before Spire announced Thursday that Hoffman would become the cornerstone driver of its fledgling Dirt Late Model program in 2027.
Spire’s Carson Hocevar struggled, and Hoffman came to the NASCAR Cup driver’s aid as he wrestled with the oft-perplexing machines that are Dirt Late Models. Dickerson, within earshot, listened as Hoffman detailed what Hocevar was feeling and what he needed to do differently.
Dickerson already knew Hoffman was accomplished — both as a driver and fabricator through his own modified chassis business — with a sharp technical mind. What struck him was how Hoffman communicated: detailed yet digestible, technical yet comprehensible.
“Some of what we talk about at our place, certainly in the executive wing or whatever, is we’re teachers,” said Dickerson, whose Spire team owns three full-time NASCAR Cup entries, among other forms of motorsports. “Essentially, you’re teachers. So when you watch somebody teach, I feel like you can tell when somebody has that ability. You’re like, ‘Man, that’s special.’
“Nick obviously has the legitimacy to walk into any hauler and say, ‘Man, I think you should try this, this and this.’ When you hear that, your mind goes to a place of, let’s be honest, there’s only a few guys you want to do this with — from a Spire perspective.”
Three months later, Dickerson watched the qualities he recognized that afternoon carry Hoffman to the pinnacle of Dirt Late Model racing.
Two days after Spire introduced him as its driver, Hoffman triumphed in Saturday’s World 100, patiently preserving his tires — and then shifting into high gear to erase a 10-second deficit from laps 59-88 — all along a mud-splattered inside line that nobody seemingly attempted. His first Eldora crown jewel offered immediate confirmation that Spire had found the driver capable of building its program around for the long haul.
Dickerson had been searching for that exact archetype before that June day at Eldora.
When Spire debuted its first Dirt Late Model with Hocevar last December at the Gateway Dirt Nationals in St. Louis, Mo., Dickerson told DirtonDirt the eventual goal was a full-time national program in 2027. He just didn’t know who would drive it.
He knew what he wanted, though: someone who could “stand on the gas,” but also a driver who had established himself as a significant brand or possessed the tools to become one. Dickerson wanted someone “authentic and genuine,” comfortable representing Spire without becoming a corporate mouthpiece.
As it turns out, that driver first landed on Dickerson’s radar more than 15 years ago.
Hoffman and Spire nearly came together in 2010, when the then-18-year-old explored an agreement to join Spire’s fledgling management operation as a client. Spire had just launched its management group and landed eventual two-time NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Larson, open-wheel standout Kevin Swindell and the late Jason Leffler — all racers Hoffman knew at the time.
Hoffman was still trying to determine where his own career might take him. Part of that pursuit led to NASCAR.
He made three Craftsman Truck Series starts over the next two seasons for Missouri-based MB Motorsports, Mike Mittler’s shoestring organization that operated with only three full-time employees, including Hoffman’s father, Darrell, an engine builder.
The NASCAR path never led anywhere, sending Hoffman into the dirt-track career that ultimately made him the driver Dickerson wanted all these years later.
Hoffman built a juggernaut modified career, then translated his skillset to Dirt Late Model racing’s upper tier, elevating his game every season since landing his first full-time Late Model ride with Tye Twarog Racing in 2023. His victories totals since: five, eight, nine and, with more than two months left in 2026, his first double-figure win total at 10.
“It’s what he’s learned in those 10 years,” Dickerson said. “Like, you don’t do this deal without Nick Hoffman. He can handle the business side. He can handle the setup part of this. Honestly, he is one of the sharpest engineering minds in the sport. Again, he checks off every box. It’s a cliche to say it, but he’s truly a unicorn.”
Hoffman’s career since those early Mittler Brothers days has essentially been an education in every job Dickerson could possibly ask the cornerstone of a green-but-robust Dirt Late Model operation to perform.
Even now, while Scott Fegter — who will join Spire next year — handles much of the car-chief role on Hoffman’s Tye Twarog-owned No. 9, Hoffman spearheads the setup side.
“From a team standpoint, I play the crew chief role,” Hoffman said. “Scott does a great job as the car chief, making sure nothing falls off and everything is prepared perfectly. Then I can come in and handle the setup. I get to see it from both angles — the crew chief’s side and the driver sitting in the seat.
“I probably look at how the car drives around the racetrack and how to overcome things a little differently than some guys do.”
That’s what Dickerson believes is Hoffman’s specialty.
“There are guys that can stand on the gas. Then there are guys that know how to do X, Y or Z,” he said. “You very rarely find somebody that can do all those things, and they’re a great teacher, and they’re comfortable in their own skin, and they can go talk to sponsors or your CFO or your team.”
Dickerson has seen firsthand how difficult it is to juggle some of those responsibilities — at a sustainably high level, no less.
Years ago, he worked with accomplished open-wheel racer and chassis builder Dan Drinan. Dickerson remembers watching Drinan race and sensing that the mechanical side of his brain never stopped working.
“When we ran the midget, I always felt like he’d be driving around thinking about what he should have done to the car instead of just driving the car, right?” Dickerson said. “He was a great race car driver, and I learned so much from him. Certainly how to focus at the racetrack and how to — we’re here to compete. I loved that kind of us-against-the-world mentality we had there. But it’s hard to do those things.
“So you look at a guy like Nick, who’s essentially doing all that and doing all that well at the top level of this sport. I’m sure there are others. But I just don’t know who. I know Nick does that, and I’m watching every week and just being like, ‘I cannot believe that this guy is doing all of this.’ ”
For Dirt Late Model fans who know Spire primarily as the NASCAR organization whose name appears on three Cup Series cars, its roots help explain why a racer such as Hoffman fits so naturally there.
Spire Motorsports is only one piece of the company Dickerson and former co-owner T.J. Puchyr have built.
The pair launched Spire Sports + Entertainment in 2010, initially working in driver, team and sponsor representation. Dickerson came to that business after his own years as an Indianapolis-area dirt racer and mechanic. He remains a dirt racer at heart, following open-wheel racing and, increasingly, Dirt Late Models on FloRacing and DIRTVision.
Dickerson eventually moved into driver development, where evaluating racers and finding opportunities for them became his profession. Among those he helped was Larson, whom Dickerson helped shepherd from dirt-track phenom toward NASCAR and Chip Ganassi Racing.
Spire eventually went from representing race teams to owning one. Spire Motorsports debuted as a single-car NASCAR Cup Series organization in 2019 and has since grown into a three-car Cup operation along with a top-tier Craftsman Truck Series program. But its growth into NASCAR’s highest levels didn’t remove the dirt-track backgrounds of the people building it.
Dickerson estimates roughly one-quarter of Spire Motorsports’ approximately 170 employees came from some form of dirt racing. He figures almost everyone in the building follows Dirt Late Models, sprint cars or another dirt discipline.
In December, Spire formalized its expansion back toward those forms of racing with Spire Ascent, a grassroots-focused operation that now includes programs in High Limit Sprint Car racing, USAC Sprint Cars and Silver Crown, pavement Late Models and ARCA, along with its burgeoning Dirt Late Model effort. To Dickerson, Spire entering Dirt Late Model racing isn’t NASCAR reaching down into another discipline. It’s pure-hearted racers expanding into another kind of racing.
“We’re trying to tear down the walls of our shop and the World 100 because our shop is full of people who came up from Dirt Late Models or sprint cars, or whatever,” Dickerson said. “Even our engineers have come up through these things. It’s the DNA of our place. … When Nick walks through our shop, he knows half the place already.”
One particularly familiar face will be Steve Dixon, better known as “Cooter,” whom Spire has tabbed to manage the Dirt Late Model program and whom the Hoffmans have known for more than two decades.
Dixon has considerable experience in the discipline, including working on Brandon Overton’s team during his historic 31-victory season in 2021 and previously crewing for World 100 winner Shane Clanton.
Dickerson wants outsiders to understand that Spire is taking its Dirt Late Model program seriously, surrounding Hoffman with the resources and personnel necessary to contend nationally. And despite everything Spire can offer beyond dirt racing, Dickerson doesn’t consider the program merely a steppingstone to NASCAR.
“This is the majors,” Dickerson said of Dirt Late Model racing. “This is like NASCAR. It’s like High Limit — that is the majors. It’s not like guys are coming into this wanting to do something else. This is a career goal and a dream come true. This is also like a dream come true. Younger me might be like, ‘What am I doing with a Dirt Late Model?’ You guys are watching my dreams come true. This is another chapter in it.”
That began in earnest at Gateway. Dickerson had attended Dirt Late Model races before and followed the sport, but he hadn’t come through the discipline himself and didn’t quite know what to expect from his first Gateway Dirt Nationals experience as a car owner.
Whatever he expected, the Dome surpassed it. He marveled at the atmosphere, the connection between drivers and fans and the skill required to manhandle Dirt Late Models around the temporary fifth-mile oval. Dickerson left hooked.
But Spire’s presence at Gateway represented considerably more than a NASCAR organization dabbling in Dirt Late Model racing with one of its Cup drivers. It was Spire introducing itself to the Dirt Late Model landscape.
“We also wanted to use that event to kind of showcase who we are and what we’re about,” Dickerson said then. “We want to show the community and certainly all the drivers, it’s just like, ‘Hey, we’re pretty serious about this. And this might be worth your while to come drive here.’”
But there were points over the ensuing months when that timetable wasn’t guaranteed to materialize as envisioned. Spire could acquire equipment and assemble the infrastructure necessary to field a national-caliber Dirt Late Model operation.
Finding someone Dickerson believed could become its foundation was different. And Hoffman wasn’t the only possibility.
Spire had a handful of undisclosed drivers on its radar — all consistent fixtures among Dirt Late Model racing’s top 10 over the last several seasons. But the process remained murky because Dickerson wasn’t interested in filling the seat simply because 2027 was approaching.
There were plenty of drivers who could win races. Finding someone who checked Spire’s other boxes was considerably harder. Then came the Dream, when Hocevar — still learning Dirt Late Model racing and Eldora — and Hoffman, his friend, further connected.
“A lot of that spiraled from Carson and me being buddies,” Hoffman said. “I’ve known him for a long time, so I did it as a buddy thing.
“There are things you can do to the race car to make it easier to drive around the racetrack, and then he can hustle it from there and learn how hard he can drive it. I was trying to help with the race car setup, too.”
Hoffman smiled.
“Jeff apparently picked up on that,” he said.
While Spire believes Hoffman can take its Dirt Late Model program to the top of the sport, Spire can offer Hoffman opportunities that haven’t been available to him for years, too — including the chance to make select NASCAR’s Truck Series starts, and maybe even more.
“Even with (High Limit driver) Gio (Scelzi), right? Or any of these guys. Sometimes I joke about it with Gio: ‘Yeah, sure, if I lose a bet, we’ll put you in a truck,’ ” Dickerson said. “But the fact of the matter is, if it’s something that’s important to Gio and/or Nick, to pop in a truck, well, we just happen to have them.
“The thing I would probably try to remind those two guys is it’s a bit of a pay cut to go run a truck compared to a Dirt Late Model or even a sprint car these days. But if they want to experience it, I want them to get a taste of it if that’s something they want to do.
“If they want to see, ‘Hey, maybe I can go do all this,’ then let’s — you know what I’m saying? We’re here to make dreams.”
A more immediate question is which tour Hoffman and Spire will follow in 2027.
The team plans to open the season at Central Arizona Raceway's Wild West Shootout in January, but whether Hoffman pursues the World of Outlaws Late Model Series for a fifth consecutive season or moves to the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series remains undecided.
Dickerson told DirtonDirt last December that he envisioned following the Lucas Oil tour. That was before Hoffman became the driver around whom the operation would be built. Now Dickerson has largely put the decision in Hoffman’s control.
“That is still up in the air. He’s put it in my hands,” Hoffman said. “I’m not going to put pressure on him. He’s basically put the pressure on me of, ‘Whatever you wanna do.’ Now we’re sitting at 50-50. There’s benefits to both series. I told (WoO series director) Steve Francis the other day, I took every single racetrack that we went to this year and I rated them with stars. Which races were five-star races all the way down to one-star races because we went to some of those.
“I’m tired of spending my days at bad racetracks. There’s quite a few of them. Both series, you’re gonna get that. I just wanna spend quality nights at racetracks at places I run good, too. I’m going to make that decision myself, whether it’s sponsors — whoever has involvement in that. NOS Energy Drink is back with me. I’m excited to continue that partnership.”
Dickerson hardly tried to hide his excitement Thursday. Wearing a wide smile whenever the conversation turned to Hoffman, he repeatedly came back to two descriptions of his new driver: “a unicorn” and, more simply, “our guy.”
“You could say,” Dickerson said, “we got our guy.”
