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This is the same view the rest of the field had of Kody Swanson at the end of the Race for the Million event Wednesday at Owosso Speedway. (T.J. Buffenbarger Photo)

T.J.’s Takeaways from the Race for the Million Event at Owosso

Kody Swanson and Sea Biscuit steal the show again, Willison’s improvement, and a great event despite the program dragging are all covered in this edition of T.J.’s Takeaways.

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Kasey Jedrzejek. (T.J. Buffenbarger Photo)

Great Lakes Edition: Darin Naida Teams Up With Ed Neumeister Racing for 2026

The uncertainty over where Darin Naida would end up for the 2026 season ended on Monday when the new was released that Naida would drive for Ed Neumeister Racing.

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T.J.’s Notebook: Cummins Goes From Hunter to Hunted on USAC Sprint Car Trail for 2026

After a record setting 2025 season on the USAC National Sprint Car tour, Kyle Cummins is looking forward to the challenge of going from the hunter to being hunted by the rest of the field coming into the 2026 season.

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Max Guilford in Greg Wheeler's entry in 2025 at Butler Motor Speedway. (John Berglund Photo)

Great Lakes Edition: Greg Wheeler Embarks on New Adventure at World of Outlaws Car Owner

After being involved with sprint car racing as a driver and owner for five decades, Gregg Wheeler is about to embark on his biggest adventure yet taking on the entire World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series with driver Scotty Thiel.

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T.J.’s Notebook: Big Game Motorsports Adds Manpower to Help Achieve Lofty Goals for 2026

David Gravel and Big Game Motorsports have high expectations coming into the 2026 season and made one change to the race team that was unexpected to try and help achieve them.

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T.J.’s Notebook: Illness Will Not Deter Kofoid From Returning to Australia in 2027

Even a unusual illness has not impacted Buddy Kofoid’s drive twin the biggest events in sprint car racing on two different continents.

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Justin Peck (#26) racing with Tyler Courtney (#7) Saturday at Butler Motor Speedway during the Mace Thomas Classic with the High Limit Sprint Car Series. (T.J. Buffenbarger Photo)

T.J.’s Notebook: Storylines Going into the ASCS National Tour Opener at Volusia

T.J. goes into storylines to follow as the ASCS National Tour opens their season to kick off sprint car racing in the United States for the 2026 season.

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T.J.’s Notebook: Breaking Down the Format for the Classic

The Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic is often referred to as the Knoxville Nationals for Australian Sprintcar Racing. Much like the Nationals, the Classic offers a tricky format that can trip up drivers if they have a misstep on their preliminary night…

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Jimmy McCune (#88) racing with Jason Blonde (#42) Sunday at Owosso Speedway. (T.J. Buffenbarger Photo)

T.J.’s Notebook: Lewis Tabbed to Make Feiler’s Vision Become Reality

Imagine loving the sport of auto racing so much that you wanted to leave behind a thank you note of sorts as you get into an advanced age. This summer Dick Feiler, who most readers will know as the owner of the entry Bobby Santos drives in various pavement sprint car series and the USAC Silver Crown Series, will do just that with the Race for the Million series for winged pavement sprint cars.

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T.J.’s Takeaways from the 40th Chili Bowl Nationals Finale

Axsom brilliant move to take the fight to Larson in the feature, Swindell Speedlabs reaches super team status, and victory laps are all covered in this edition of the takeaways.

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Logan Seavey in victory lane Friday night at the Chili Bowl Nationals. (Serena Dalhamer Photo)

T.J.’s Takeaways from Friday Night Program at the Chili Bowl Nationals

After a feature event Friday night at the Chili Bowl Nationals that made me struggle to find adjectives to describe how good the racing was, I could probably write 3,000 words on various takeaways from a thrilling night it was from start to finish.

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Brian Ruhlman (#49), Dustin Daggett (#85), and Jared Horstman (#17) racing three wide Friday at Tri-City Motor Speedway. (Jim Denhamer Photo)

T.J.’s Takeaways About the GLSS Switch to American Racer

Amid one of the busier winter stretches in our sport major news about tires has been a hot topic over the past several days capped off with Friday’s news of the Great Lakes Super Sprints switching to American Racer.

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T.J.’s Notebook: RaceSaver Looks to Break the Mold by Producing Their Own Alternate Tire

When RaceSaver president Roger Hadan was getting feedback from his race teams for ideas to improve the experience with the grassroots level sprint car division, one consistent source of frustration for teams was the cost of consumables for a race night, and in particular tires.

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T.J.’s Takeaways from Wednesday at the Chili Bowl Nationals

T.J. believes you shouldn’t sleep on Emerson Axsom for the Chili Bowl finale, life being more interesting with T-Mez in contention, and how the rest of the week will be hard pressed to be as good as the feature we witnessed on Wednesday night at the Chili Bowl Nationals.

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T.J.’s Takeaways from Tuesday Night at the 40th Chili Bowl Nationals

Blake Hahn creating a moment that made me start the entire takeaways column from scratch, Matt Seymour and Hank Davis are still very good, Jett Barnes impresses, and it’s great having Bondio back in the building, and several contenders find misfortune on the second night of action at the Chili Bowl Nationals.

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