Cody Overton will make his third full season campaign with the World of Outlaws in 2026, but this time he’ll be an owner as well as a driver.

Following the conclusion of the 2025 World of Outlaws season, Overton’s car owner Dave Steine decided to scale back his role in the operation and has given the reigns to Overton. Cody explained to WorldofOutlaws.com, “Dave, he’s still going to help a little bit, just kind of back scaled.”

“I had to kind of take it all over and start doing it myself running as my own team, so that’s going to be a big change for this year,” he said. “He’ll still direct me and help me, look out after me, I guess. It’s just going to be a lot different, I suppose. I’ve got to start nickel and diming more, but for the last two years I’ve been with him, I’ve kind of ran it like it was my own. I watched what I spent, I didn’t just go spend reckless money because it wasn’t mine.”

Overton also shared that he’s bringing some new people on board to help him with the operation, “There are a lot of new people coming on board, and then another one that’s been with me a long time, Bruce Kane, he’s coming back on board. We’re going to kind of team together, so it’ll be like my racing and then Bruce Kane’s racing. That’ll be a big deal, he’s going to be a really, really big part of my racing.”

“And then also Allen Murray, he’s supposed to come on and help. So I think there will be a lot of new names on it, honestly,” Overton added.

As for his prospects for the 2026 season, Overton is highly optimistic, “I think it’s going to be a lot better this year. I feel like I’ve got way more experience now and really know what’s going on. That was the big deal, I just didn’t want to give up another year. I just wanted one more year because I really want to win one bad. I really feel like this maybe will be the year, so hopefully it all works out.”

Overton had a solid start in 2025 with the Outlaws. He finished 3rd and 11th during the Sunshine Nationals and then 10th, 18th, and 28th in the DIRTcar Nationals. He continued to perform solidly following Speedweeks with a 15th at Smoky Mountain and a 10th at Swainsboro. Overton went on to finish 8th in the points with 6 top 5s and 20 top 10s.

Additionally, he shared that he will return to his traditional #97 instead of the #2 that he’s ran albeit it might be conditional on how he performs during Speedweeks, “I think we’re going to go back to the 97, see how it goes. But I told [Steine], if I go to Speedweeks and I suck, I’m going to change it back to the 2 as fast as I can.”

Overton’s announcement comes in the wake of a December 10th post he made on Facebook where he stated, “Big things are happening in 2026, and we’re searching for new partners to be part of the journey! We’re gearing up for another year with the World of Outlaws Late Model series and a packed schedule of races across the country.”

“Support of any kind—funding, parts, or resources—is greatly valued. Every partner will receive full exposure on all of our social media platforms, merchandise, car/trailer wraps, as well as many TV & PayPerView broadcasts,” he added.

Additionally, a rumor from Justin Fiedler at Dirtrackr indicated that Overton would take over the car. He said at the beginning of December, “One rumbling I’ve heard is that Overton could take over that two team as car owner. Dave Steine had been mulling an end to team ownership.”

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