Cade Dillard revealed on the XR All Gas, No Brakes podcast that he will no longer be following the World of Outlaws Late Model tour, but will instead follow his own pick and choose schedule. First, up will be XR Dominator event at Salina Highbanks Speedway in Pryor, Oklahoma that has $100,000 on the line.

Dillard explained the decision, “We kind of started the year off with intentions of following the Outlaws again, and just after some situations we’ve got put in and stuff we just elected to go back to a pick and choose schedule, race wherever we want. So naturally having the chance to go race for $100,000 on the modified that’s a big deal for us. We’re excited to go back and do that for sure.”

He added, “This schedule works out better for us, just racing wherever we want, where I’m located and stuff. A lot of times you get put in a bad situation when you’re committed to a schedule. And if you just kind of go to the races you want, the big races you want everything seems to go better like that.”

Dillard had previously announced on March 13th he would not be making the trip to Smoky Mountain to race with the World of Outlaws due to possible severe weather on his travel route as well as at the track.

When asked to provide more details about why he decided to forgo the race at Smoky Mountain, Dillard had some pointed comments for the World of Outlaws officiating body. He said, “Last year we got put in a lot of bad situations and I feel like not very smart decisions on the series part. And that was the main concern at the end of the year. They met with the drivers and everybody, and they agreed the drivers needed more say so and things, and would get with people. And agreed to not put us in situations to drive all across the country for one day shows and just stuff like that.”

“And already, right off the bat, we’ve kind of ended back up in those situations a couple of times in Florida and this comes up and it’s obvious that’s there’s no way we’re going to race Saturday. And putting your haulers and stuff in those situations of tornadoes and hail and all that. Whenever you support a series for as long as you do and I feel like it’s just kind of got a little too political. They don’t really take in to consideration the drivers or the crews and just a little more worried about the ticket money. And just makes it a little less interesting for me to support them,” he concluded.

Dillard would reiterated later in the interview, “Naturally, there was others that made the same decision that we did. It’s a shame it gets to that point. We’ve kind of devoted ourself to the series since about 2019. So I enjoy racing with them. I enjoy racing the series, but when things get to the point of just decisions not being very thought out and smart, like I said, it makes you wonder why you do it. Just seems to work better for us to go where we want to be at. If it’s obvious we’re about to drive 12-15 hours to a rain out we’re not going to go. That’s what we did last week.”

He also indicated that World of Outlaws officials attempted to convince drivers that they might get the race in on Saturday if they started early enough, but he said, “I think anybody with any sense looking knew that wasn’t going to happen.”

World of Outlaws Series Director Steve Francis explained the decision to race on Friday despite the weather looking bleak on Saturday. He told DirtonDirt.com, “I’ve been rained out last year at a 3 percent (chance of rain), and I’ve raced at 90 percent. But I still have the racer mentality in men. If we’d had two days in a row of 90 percent chance of rain like it showed earlier (for Saturday), yeah, it would have been a no-brainer at that point to make a decision. But with the way the (Saturday) forecast was changing … everything seems to be heading further and further south and later and later.”

He added, “We don’t want anybody in danger here or anything like that, and that’s our goal is to make sure it’s not, but you know we’ve also been caught in bad thunderstorms like that, and that’s our goal is to make sure it’s not, but you know we’ve also all been caught in bad thunderstorms or whatever that just pop up.”

“I hate it for everybody,” he said. “This race affects a lot of things for the season, for a lot of people. Every race does. Every race has its individual challenges, so we’ll go on and see what happens next.”

NEXT: Max Blair And Centerline Motorsports To Race With World Of Outlaws This Weekend