Chris Simpson, who finished second in the MLRA points standings in 2023 and 2024, recently shared what his plans are for the 2026 racing season.

At the beginning of the month, Simpson appeared on The Dirt Parlor Podcast and shared, “My plan this year is to race 45 to 55 races. There’s a lot of races right around us.” At the time he was shared he was going to compete with the World of Outlaws at Independence and Fountain City or Mississippi Thunder Speedway. He finished 28th at Independence on April 28th. At Mississippi Thunder Speedway he finished 26th on Thursday night and 24th on Saturday night. He failed to make the show on Friday night finishing 8th in his Last Chance Qualifier.

He was also planning to compete in Illinois Speedweek, “The next week we can do La Salle, Spoon, Lincoln, Farmer City, Fairbury.” Unfortunately, the FloRacing Night in America races at La Salle and Lincoln were rained out as was the Lucas Oil race at Farmer City. Simpson did race at Fairbury where he finished 9th in his B-Main.

This weekend he plans to be at Eagle Raceway with the Lucas Oil series, “Then the following week we’re planning on going to Eagle for all the Lucas stuff. So, yeah, as long as I don’t get burned out. I told Chad [Simondsen, his crew chief,] earlier, I said, ‘Yeah, that all sounds good, but if we don’t want to go, we just won’t go.’ I’m like, ‘It’s not a big deal to us.’ So that’s the good thing about not racing points. 

As for why he won’t be chasing a series, he explained, “I missed a lot of kids stuff following the MLRA stuff and I definitely don’t want to do that. So we’ll just kind of hit and miss. If we get burned out or tear something up or run out of beer in the cooler we’ll just come home for a day and restock it and go back out.”

As for what some of the other 45 to 55 races look like, Simpson shared he would be competing in the first week of the Hell Tour, “We haven’t really announced it yet, but I’m going to go race the first week of Summer Nationals with [Zach Reeder] and his stuff. So that’s something I’ve never done that I’ve always wanted to do it. And it’s that I really couldn’t do it, it’s just I don’t have the crew help to do it. It’s just me and Chad.”

Simpson has attempted to compete at 7 events so far in 2026. His best finish came at Lucas Oil Speedway for the 13th annual MLRA Spring Nationals in the middle of April, where he finished 9th. And while he’s never done a full week on the Hell Tour, he’s had success with the series. In 2022 he showed up to Davenport Speedway and took home the $5,000 check. A few days later he rolled into Fairbury and pocked $10,000.

The Summer Nationals kicks off its grueling schedule in less than a month on June 9th at the Brownstown Bullring. After that the series makes stops at Kankakee County Speedway, Peoria Speedway, Tri-City Speedway, Fairbury Speedway, and Sycamore Speedway.

NEXT: Bobby Pierce Wins 50th World Of Outlaws Race At Georgetown in Visit Delaware 51