A national touring series director can never be totally certain how a big change to their circuit will be perceived by racers and teams. So naturally, when the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series recently announced that its 2026 Georgia-Florida Speedweeks events will occur after NASCAR’s Daytona 500 in late February and early March for the first time ever, Rick Schwallie was anxious to hear the feedback.

The tour’s director couldn’t have been more pleased with the opinions offered by competitors.

“I feel like the reaction’s been totally positive,” Schwallie said in the immediate aftermath of the news going public on May 21. “I haven’t had really anything that I’ve seen that was anything but positive about it.”

That was a relief for Schwallie, who was well aware that the Speedweeks announcement represented a major shift in not only how the Lucas Oil Series does business but also Dirt Late Model tradition. Speedweeks for the dirt crowd has always been the days and weeks — and, in recent years, month — leading into the Daytona 500, but Schwallie and Co. are going a new direction with a revamped schedule that includes 12 nights of action on Feb. 19-21 at All-Tech Raceway in Ellisville, Fla.; Feb. 24-28 at Ocala (Fla.) Speedway; and March 4-7 at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga.

There seemed to be no pushback on the move from Schwallie’s regulars, many of whom have been clamoring for a later start to the tour’s season that’s inched earlier and earlier on the calendar. This year, in fact, the circuit’s opener, at Golden Isles, was contested on Jan. 17 after rainouts the previous two nights.

“I think it’s awesome,” said Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., a three-time Lucas Oil Series champion. “I think it definitely is better. I applaud them for doing something different, and it was a great time to do it because Speedweeks was OK this year with the changes of the track (a five-night meet at Ocala replacing the long-running Winternationals at the closed East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla.), but it still didn't feel right. It still felt different.

“So if it’s going to be different, let’s go ahead and make it for the batter.”

Roger Sellers, who fields the Double Down Motorsports cars driven by Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, was a firm proponent of waiting until after the Daytona 500 to kick off the Lucas Oil Series campaign. He sees multiple positives in the scheduling.

“You know, I think we’re going way too early,” Sellers said. “We don’t have enough of an offseason now. It’s just barely able to get everything together before we hit out for Speedweeks. It’s always been pushing it, and it’s gotten worse and worse each year.

“Now we’ll have a little more time in December to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s. I’d rather let everybody enjoy their time with family and have time to prepare and be really, truly ready to go when we hit the track down there.”

Added Sellers: “And truly, the weather, I think, is going to be a big part. It’s going to be a lot better. We were sitting down there this year in about 38-degree weather at Golden Isles (in mid-January). I think it’s going to be better” in March.

Davenport noted that adding more time between the late-October end of the Lucas Oil Series season and the start of the next one will benefit manufacturers as well.

“I talked a few people at Speedweeks this year, and it’s so hard for our vendors to get things turned around with as much stuff as we need to race through Speedweeks,” Davenport said. “It don’t matter if it’s for the tires or the wheels or the actual car frames, the shocks, whatever, every little nut bolt, whatever. I mean, they’re working to put out so much stuff, and they’re out for Christmas, they’re out for New Year’s, they're out for the PRI show (in December), so they're basically out three weeks there, and it takes that time before it starts to get everything, you know, loaded up and ready, really.

“Everybody wants to try to have new, fresh stuff from the beginning of the year, and I think we went through this deal where we were so accustomed to doing it right after PRI because you have to wait and see if you’re on any deals with anybody. You got to wait and see if you’re changing chassis, changing shock companies, changing springs, whatever, and then it’s like you got to turn right around, and where we used to have a couple months to prepare (for Speedweeks), now you’ve got a week to prepare. Starting so early (in January), it makes it tough to get everything you need, so this will help.”

Of course, the Lucas Oil Series running post-Daytona 500 events doesn’t mean the traditional Speedweeks dates in January and February will go unfilled. There will still be plenty of racing options, including the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series’s pair of visits to Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla. (Sunshine Nationals Jan. 22-24 and DIRTcar Nationals Feb. 9-14), Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series shows on Jan. 30-31 at Needmore Speedway in Norman Park, Ga., and the unsanctioned Winter Freeze on Feb. 6-7 at Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Ga.

But the key word for Lucas Oil Series teams is “options” — they can choose to extend their time away from home for Speedweeks by entering some, or all, of the other races, or they can take more time to prepare for the Lucas Oil events even if they run December’s Gateway Dirt Nationals in St. Louis, Mo., and/or the Wild West Shootout at Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park (set for Jan. 10-18, 2026).

“I think it’ll be a good thing for anybody like us who run Vado and Speedweeks, maybe give us a little bit more time between the two,” said fourth-year Lucas Oil Series regular Garrett Alberson of Las Cruces, N.M. “This year it was a little hectic (traveling). From Vado’s last night (on a Sunday) to practice (on a Tuesday) at Golden Isles, we only had like one full day of driving in between. So, like, nothing can go wrong, you know what I mean? You almost couldn’t have any blowouts (on the hauler) or any kind of problems, so it was a a little stressful. So, yeah, to get rid of that part, we’re happy about that.”

Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., is another driver who typically begins his season at the Wild West Shootout before heading to Speedweeks, so he’s in favor of pushing the first Lucas Oil green flag later in February. 

“A lot of guys don't go to the Dome (December’s Gateway Dirt Nationals), but we go and then New Mexico right after that,” Sheppard said. “So it’s go, go, go, and this definitely helps that out.”

Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz., the defending Lucas Oil Series champion and current points leader, remarked that the tour’s later start “gives me a little bit more time outside of the Late Model in January to do stuff,” including the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals that he likes to tackle. He also likes cutting down the usual post-Speedweeks hiatus for the series, which could go well over a month before racing again if the late-March events at Atomic Speedway in Alma, Ohio, and Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway fall to bad weather as they often do.

“A lot of people forget, like, on the Lucas side, that next month (after Speedweeks), we only race once anyway, so it’s kind of, we’ve always just kind of planned it,” Thornton said. “You work all December, go to Speedweeks, and then depending on if Atomic and Brownstown races, you race those, but if not, you still got another month break after that … and if we’re not racing, we’re really not making a whole of money. So with (the Lucas Oil races) moving back, it’ll make that a little bit easier.”

Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga., had a unique view of the change.

“I was happy to see it because now I can run Screven,” Overton said with a smile, acknowledging his love for his home state track where Feb. 7’s Winter Freeze finale will pay $25,000-to-win. “I seen Screven for $25,000, and I was like, ‘Hell yeah.’

“And then maybe we won’t get Brunswick rained out, so, yeah, it’s looking good for me,” he added. “I think we were down there way too early anyway, really, you know, so I think it’ll be better. If you want to race (more than the Lucas Oil shows), you can go race, and if you don’t want to go, you can wait till Lucas starts or wait till Screven starts or wait till Volusia or whatever.”

Anthony Burroughs, Overton’s Riggs Motorsports Longhorn Factory team crew chief, echoed his driver’s thoughts.

“I do compliment (Lucas Oil officials) because it does make it, if you want the offseason to be longer, it gives you that opportunity for it to be longer,” Burroughs said. “And if you want to race (more events), you can still race. And so we’ll race.”

Indeed, Burroughs surmised that he’d want to race most, if not all, the Speedweeks events leading up to the Lucas Oil swing.

“This the only way we make a living, so the more we can race, the better,” Burroughs said. “So it’s actually going to make our Speedweeks longer because we'll still go do the Volusia weekends, the other races.

“Like this year we went down and tested before Christmas, which was kind of monotonous. Now this will allow us to go to Volusia and race, and then we can use the first part of those next two weeks to test and then race (Needmore and Screven) and then go back to Volusia and race (before the Lucas Oil shows) So, yeah, I think it’s good.

“So, I mean, I can’t see where you got any negatives,” he continued. “The people that don’t want to race (early), they don’t have to, they can just run Lucas. It gives you a lot of time at home, and a lot of people have families so they can be with them more. So, I mean, all around, I think it’s a win-win for everybody.”

Alberson mused that he’s “curious to see how the fans will maybe react to it, because it does seem like when they had them races after the 500 the last time (Golden Isles had a doubleheader with the High Limit Sprint Car Series the weekend after the 500 in 2024), it had a really odd feel to it, like everybody was kind of already over all the races.”

“But,” Alberson continued, “if there’s no (Lucas Oil) racing before (the 2026 swing), who knows, you know what I mean? We’ll just be starting out after the 500, so everybody will be ready to race.”