The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series kicks off its 2025 campaign this weekend on Jan. 17-19 at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga., sending the national tour into a season that boasts a record points fund and purse payouts.

For the third straight year the Big River Steel Chase for the Championship will lock in four drivers for a five-race battle for the title, which offers a series-record $250,000 prize.

Our series primer takes a look at the drivers most likely to hit the road with the tour and assesses the best and worst case scenarios for each of them (drivers listed alphabetically):

Garrett Alberson

Hometown: Las Cruces, N.M.

Age: 35

Team: Roberts Motorsports

Series history: Fourth year on tour (career-best sixth in points in ’24; Rookie of the Year in ’22; one career win)

Best case: After flirting with a Big Four berth during a 2024 season highlighted by his first-ever Lucas Oil Series triumph, the native Southwesterner now living in Dubuque, Iowa, becomes a multiple-race winner and increases his consistency enough to lock into a Chase spot. He falls short of the title but establishes career-highs in all major categories.

Worst case: Alberson wins only once and falls from Big Four contention before Labor Day weekend, snuffing out the momentum he gained in 2024.

Notable: Alberson’s elusive first Lucas Oil triumph came Aug. 23, 2024, at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway in his 163rd career start on the tour since 2013. Including the victory, he has 10 podium finishes over his last 26 features.

Max Blair

Hometown: Centerville, Pa.

Age: 35

Team: Centerline Motorsports

Series history: Third year on tour (matched career-best ninth in points in 2024; Rookie of the Year in ’23)

Best case: Paired with the same team — Brad Spochacz’s effort — in consecutive years for the first time in his four seasons of national touring, Blair settles in and continues an upward trajectory with a campaign that includes his first-ever full-field Lucas Oil Series victory and more than a dozen top-five finishes to stay on the edge of the Big Four battle.

Worst case: Following a second straight dismal Speedweeks in Lucas Oil competition, Blair finds himself sitting better in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series standings and decides to make the switch to the rival national circuit that he ran in 2022 (finishing third in points).

Notable: Blair is still looking for his first full-field triumph in 112 career Lucas Oil Series starts, but he does own a semifeature checkered flag on June 23, 2023, at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa.

Jonathan Davenport

Hometown: Blairsville, Ga.

Age: 41

Team: Double L Motorsports

Series history: Tenth year on tour (third in points in 2024; champion in 2015, ’18, ’19; 77 career wins)

Best case: Cracking double figures in victories for the first time since 2019, Davenport grabs a Big Four spot for the third consecutive year and this time earns his first championship under the playoff format, joining Jimmy Owens and Earl Pearson Jr. as four-time Lucas Oil titlists. He puts a cherry on top of his season by clinching the points crown with a $100,000 victory in the Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, his first triumph in the crown jewel event.

Worst case: Davenport opts to bypass running the Lucas Oil Series as a regular, preferring to maintain a pick-and-choose independent schedule like he did most recently in 2022.

Notable: Since finishing seventh in the points standings during his rookie Lucas Oil Series season in 2012, Davenport has placed outside the top three in points just once in his eight other full-year runs on the tour. That came in 2023 when he finished fourth in the single-race Big Four playoff.

Dan Ebert

Hometown: Lake Shore, Minn.

Age: 37

Team: Collins Brothers Towing

Series history: First year on tour (has never entered a series event)

Best case: Transferring his success in open-wheel modified action to the full-fender division, Ebert impresses with a handful of top-five finishes en route to earning Rookie of the Year honors with a points finish just outside the top 10.

Worst case: The jump directly into national touring with limited Dirt Late Model experience proves too steep a challenge, prompting the team to pull off the circuit in the spring and spend the remainder of the season running regionally in anticipation of another Lucas Oil attempt in 2026. 

Notable: A former snowmobile racer who medaled at the ESPN-aired Winter X Games in 2009 and has traveled on the United States Modified Touring Series the last four years, Ebert has roughly 30 career Dirt Late Model starts. His handful of Late Model victories includes September 2020’s $5,087 Dick Johanneck King of Dirt Special in WISSOTA action at I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls, Minn., and his last start in the class came in July 2022.

Carson Ferguson

Hometown: Lincolnton, N.C.

Age: 24

Team: Paylor Motorsports

Series history: Second year on tour (16th in points in 2024)

Best case: Building on the experience he gained chasing the Lucas Oil Series upon replacing Tim McCreadie as the driver for Paylor Motorsports in March 2024, Ferguson becomes a winner on the tour for the first time and logs more than a half-dozen top-five finishes on his way to a top-10 finish in the points standings.

Worst case: Growing pains continue in his sophomore season on tour as he not only falls short of reaching victory lane but also doesn’t earn a podium finish or a top-10 spot in the final points standings.

Notable: Ferguson, whose lone top-five finish in a full-field Lucas Oil event came in last October’s 30-lap Pittsburgher preliminary feature at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway in Imperial, Pa., racked up the seventh-most points on the series last year from March 22 at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway through Oct. 19’s DTWC at Eldora.

Clay Harris

Hometown: Jupiter, Fla.

Age: 23

Team: Clay Harris Racing

Series history: Second year on tour (13th in points in 2024)

Best case: Better equipped for national traveling in 2025, Harris starts the campaign strong with contending runs during Speedweeks and carries the momentum into the regular season. He clicks off at least five top-five finishes and hangs around the battle for a top-10 placing in the points standings.

Worst case: The grind of learning Super Late Model racing on the fly with a national tour becomes too trying, forcing Harris to back away from the series to regroup when it becomes apparent that bettering last year’s 13th-place points result might not be in the cards.

Notable: Harris’s two career top-five finishes on the Lucas Oil Series were earned last year in his home state — a second at Ocala Speedway and fifth at All-Tech Raceway — while eight of his 13 DNQs came before he was eligible for provisionals following the Show-Me 100 weekend.

Cory Lawler

Hometown: Hanover, Pa.

Age: 23

Team: Lawler Racing

Series history: Second year on tour (17th in points in 2024)

Best case: Showing improvement after a rookie season of hard knocks on the road, Lawler makes it through a second full year on the circuit and tallies his first heat victory and top-10 finish.

Worst case: Lawler continues to struggle, prompting his family-operated team to scale back to regional action in search of morale-boosting success.

Notable: Lawler travels the circuit alongside his father Pancho, a veteran racer and speed shop owner. He has a Lucas Oil career-best full-field finish of 16th at last year’s Firecracker 100 at Lernerville Speedway

Mike Marlar

Hometown: Winfield, Tenn.

Age: 46

Team: Skyline Motorsports

Series history: Third year on tour (career-best seventh in points in 2024; 21 career wins)

Best case: Shaking off a frustrating, bad-luck ’24 campaign, Marlar recaptures his 2018 World of Outlaws championship-winning form with a season highlighted by at least five series victories (after just two last year) and a spot in the Big Four.

Worst case: A rough start to ’25 during the Wild West Shootout at Vado Speedway Park indicates the black cloud that hung over him for much of last season hasn’t fully dissipated, resulting in another rough year that leaves him out of the Lucas Oil playoffs.

Notable: Marlar closed 2024 on an upswing, recording six podium finishes, including a triumph in the Jackson 100 at Brownstown Speedway, over his final 12 races.

Tim McCreadie

Hometown: Watertown, N.Y.

Age: 50

Team: Briggs Transport Racing

Series history: 10th year on tour (fourth in points in 2024; champion in 2021 and ’22; 36 career wins)

Best case: Finally comfortable again in Rocket Chassis and buoyed by a close affiliation with the manufacturer’s house car team that he drove for in 2024, McCreadie enjoys a resurgent season piloting his buddy Boom Briggs’s equipment. He threatens to reach his career-high in Lucas Oil wins (seven in 2020) and puts himself in the Big Four playoffs for the second consecutive year.

Worst case: McCreadie and Briggs made a post-Speedweeks decision to chase the World of Outlaws schedule, identifying the tour with which T-Mac launched his Dirt Late Model career (and won the championship in 2006) as a better opportunity to make money and expand Rocket Chassis’s reach.

Notable: McCreadie’s 17 top-five finishes in 2024 marked just the third time in his nine years as a Lucas Oil regular that he failed to record at least 20 top-fives. He previously fell short in 2016 (16) and ’18 (14).

Devin Moran

Hometown: Dresden, Ohio

Age: 30

Team: Double Down Motorsports

Series history: Fifth year on tour (matched career-best second in points in 2024; 14 career wins)

Best case: Moran takes the next step in his burgeoning career, becoming a double-digit Lucas Oil feature winner, clinching a Big Four spot and carrying his consistency into the playoffs to capture the points title for the first time. He becomes the second driver to win the championship following back-to-back runner-up finishes in the standings, joining Tim McCreadie (2021).

Worst case: Moran sees his victory total slip and sheds just enough consistency to shut him out of the Big Four playoff after a hotly contested battle for the final slot.

Notable: After four of the first eight Lucas Oil victories of Moran’s career came during Speedweeks, he failed to win a series feature during the stretch last year but went on to nearly double his career total with a personal-best six triumphs.

Hudson O’Neal

Hometown: Martinsville, Ind.

Age: 24

Team: SSI Motorsports

Series history: Seventh year on tour (Fifth in points in 2024; champion in 2023; 26 career wins)

Best case: Rebounding from an eventful, ride-swapping 2024 season, O’Neal regains his rhythm back with SSI Motorsports as he exceeds his single-season career-high win total of six (2021), locks into the Big Four playoffs and earns his second championship in three years.

Worst case: O’Neal takes too much time to gain his stride following the off-season departure of crew chief Anthony Burroughs, leaving him with only a handful of victories and without a spot in the playoffs.

Notable: After replacing as Ricky Thornton Jr. as the SSI Motorsports driver in early July, O’Neal won in his second and third Lucas Oil starts (at Nebraska’s Eagle Raceway and Iowa’s Shelby County Speedway) but went winless in his final 16 features of 2024. He had just two podium finishes (both thirds) over that span. 

Brandon Overton

Hometown: Evans, Ga.

Age: 33

Team: Riggs Motorsports/Longhorn Factory Team

Series history: Second year on tour (did not run series in 2024; sixth in points in ’23; 16 career victories)

Best case: Roaring back into national touring series action as the Longhorn Factory Team driver with veteran crew chief Anthony Burroughs turning the wrenches, Overton shines with a season that sees him approach double figures in wins as he handily locks into the Big Four playoffs. He goes on to clinch his first national touring series championship with a $100,000 victory in the DTWC at Eldora.

Worst case: Overton experiences too many lackluster finishes at unfamiliar tracks, preventing him from making the playoffs.

Notable: Seven of Overton’s 16 career Lucas Oil victories have come during Speedweeks, including five at Golden Isles. Four more of his series triumphs are races paying $50,000-to-win.

Jimmy Owens

Hometown: Newport, Tenn.

Age: 52

Team: Koehler Motorsports

Series history: Sixteenth year on tour (10th in 2024 points standings; champion in 2011, ’12, ’13, ’20; 81 career wins)

Best case: Owens claims multiple victories for the first time since 2022 and remains in contention for a Big Four playoff berth until the final weeks of the regular season.

Worst case: After a slow start to 2025, Owens decides to either follow the World of Outlaws tour or focus on a pick-and-choose schedule.

Notable: With fellow four-time champion Earl Pearson Jr. no longer racing regularly, Owens stands as the elder statesman of the Lucas Oil circuit. He’s the winningest active driver (81) as well as the racer with the most full seasons of duty on the tour.

Ross Robinson

Hometown: Georgetown, Del.

Age: 34

Team: Dutchstar Motorsports

Series history: Fourth year on tour (12th in points in 2024; career-best 10th in points in ’22)

Best case: Robinson finally realizes his dream with a first-ever Lucas Oil Series victory at his hometown’s Georgetown Speedway on April 25, triggering a tear-soaked victory lane. He surpasses his career-high total of five top-five finishes (achieved last year) and finishes 10th in the points standings.

Worst case: Robinson struggles to find consistency and on the road and makes the decision to pull back from far-flung traveling in favor of a regional schedule.

Notable: After only two top-five runs in his first 99 series starts came in semifeatures at Muskingum County Speedway (fourth in 2022, third in ’23), Robinson collected five top-fives (three full-field, two semis) in 46 races during the 2024 season.

Brandon Sheppard

Hometown: New Berlin, Ill.

Age: 31

Team: Rocket1 Racing

Series history: Fourth year on tour (did not run series in 2023-24; career-best second in points in ’22; 30 career victories)

Best case: Making a triumphant return to the Rocket Chassis house car team, Sheppard easily surpasses his series single-season high of five victories (2018, ’20, ’22) en route to locking into the Big Four playoffs and capturing the championship. He joins Scott Bloomquist, Josh Richards and Tim McCreadie as drivers to win both WoO and Lucas Oil titles.

Worst case: The magic of Sheppard’s previous stint with Rocket1 doesn’t rekindle soon enough for a full season of wild success, leaving on the outside looking in for the Big Four playoffs.

Notable: While three drivers have won the WoO and Lucas Oil titles, Sheppard has an opportunity to match Josh Richards in claiming the rival tour championships in back-to-back seasons. Richards accomplished the feat in 2016 (WoO with his father Mark’s Rocket1 team) and ’17 (Lucas Oil with Best Performance Motorsports).

Brenden Smith

Hometown: Dade City, Fla.

Age: 19

Team: Smith Speed Solutions

Series history: Second year on tour (15th in 2024 points)

Best case: Smith shows improvement in his second year of Super Late Model touring, earning his first Lucas Oil Series heat win and registering multiple top-10 finishes while making a one- or two-position jump in the points standings.

Worst case: Struggles to find speed lead the family-operated team to pull back to regional racing to reload.

Notable: Smith registered a career-best Lucas Oil finish of ninth on July 19, 2024, at Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, S.D., a race that also represented one of his two single-digit feature starts of the season.

Ricky Thornton Jr.

Hometown: Chandler, Ariz.

Age: 34

Team: Koehler Motorsports

Series history: Fifth year on tour (champion in 2024; Rookie of the Year in ’21; 35 career victories)

Best case: Teamed with Koehler Motorsports from the start of the season after hastily joining the North Carolina-based operation in mid-July last year, Thornton clicks on all cylinders for the entire schedule. He blasts past a dozen victories to again lead all drivers in the category, takes a bonus points-fueled lead into the Big Four playoffs and emerges with his second straight championship, joining Earl Pearson Jr., Scott Bloomquist, Jimmy Owens, Jonathan Davenport and Tim McCreadie as back-to-back tour titlists.

Worst case: Thornton qualifies for the Big Four playoffs but doesn’t reach double figures in victories and falls short of defending his championship.

Notable: Thornton won four times in first three tours of duty on the Lucas Oil Series. He’s captured a combined 31 full-field features over the past two seasons.

Drake Troutman

Hometown: Hyndman, Pa.

Age: 19

Team: Team 22 Inc.

Series history: Second year on tour (11th in points in 2024 Rookie of the Year season)

Best case: Racing with more resources thanks to joining G.R. Smith’s team for the 2025 season, Troutman breaks through for his first-ever full-field Lucas Oil triumph and flirts with double-digits in top-fives. He improves to place inside the top 10 in the points standings.

Worst case: After getting off to a better start during Speedweeks with the World of Outlaws, Troutman and Smith decide to switch to the WoO tour so the Pennsylvanian can chase Rookie of the Year honors.

Notable: Troutman won a Lucas Oil semifeature on June 21, 2024, at Lernerville Speedway, but his best full-field finish among five top-fives last season was a sterling third-place run (from the 23rd starting spot) in the North-South 100 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky.

Daulton Wilson

Hometown: Fayetteville, N.C.

Age: 27

Team: Rattliff Racing

Series history: Fourth year on tour (eighth in points in 2024; career-best seventh in points in ’23)

Best case: Wilson realizes the success he envisioned but didn’t achieve after his elusive first-ever Lucas Oil win last February, reaching victory lane multiple times and contending for a Big Four points berth for much of the season.

Worst case: Getting over the hump to become a regular winner remains difficult for Wilson, who continues knocking on the door but can’t find the secret to consistent up-front results and finishes the season at the back of the top 10 in the points standings.

Notable: After Wilson led the final 35 laps of Feb. 10, 2024’s 50-lap Winternationals finale at East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla., for his long-awaited breakthrough Lucas Oil triumph, he led only a single circuit over the remainder of the campaign: the first lap of Sept. 20’s preliminary feature at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway.