Drake Troutman shared an update on what his plans will be for the rest of the 2026 season and it does not appear that he was able to secure a ride for the remainder of the World of Outlaws Late Models trip up north that ends next weekend at Deer Creek for the Gopher 50.
It was originally rumored by Dirt Behind the Scenes that Troutman would pair up with Jerry Foster, who runs the late model that he races in. The outlet shared, “It has long been rumored that Jerry Foster, the owner of the #5 modified that Drake often wheels had been gearing up to go late model racing with Drake tapped as the driver, and this certainly seems to bring a little credibility to those rumors. Interesting turn of events mid season.”
That rumor was confirmed by Troutman in an interview with FloRacing’s Kyle McFadden, “We are. But just to make something very, very clear, he didn’t call and beg me to come race for him. He was like, ‘We wanna come try this Late Model, if you wanna come drive it, I’d love to have you. If not, I know you already have a prior commitment. If you wanna keep doing that, I’ll find someone else to drive it. But I wanna give the Late Model a whirl.’”
“It’s something I gave a lot of thought about,” Troutman shared. “And then I started leaning in that direction a little bit. That’s where I couldn’t give G.R. the commitment. That’s where it was hard. G.R. and his family were great to me.”
Additionally, Troutman relayed that he might bring out his own family car to compete while Foster and he get their ducks in a row for this new team, ““I think [Foster will] let me drive my No. 7, but I’m not 100 percent positive. I think we’ll be back in a red-white-and-blue No. 7.”
However, the United Late Model Series announced that he would compete with them at Michaels Mercer Raceway Park in a John Johnson-owned car out of the Colton Flinner-CFR stable.
Troutman confirmed this and shared his own update, “We greatly appreciate the support from Colton Flinner and John Johnson for allowing me and my crew to run his backup car for the ULMS series July 4th weekend.”
“Depending on how the weekend goes there’s a possibility that we will attend Sharon speedway for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series July 11th and 12th,” he added. “Racing Colton’s backup car will allow the team and myself to get Jerry Foster’s late model team put together and be back racing in the national scene in hopes of the first of August.”
Troutman has fallen to 10th in the World of Outlaws Late Models points after he split with G.R. Smith and missed races at I-94 and River Cities Speedway. He was fifth before the split after Ogilvie on June 22nd. It is highly likely that he will fall to at least 15th before he is able to possibly compete with the Outlaws at Sharon Speedway on July 10th and 11th.
The series is at Nodak Speedway tonight. It will then head to Norman County Raceway on Tuesday, June 30th. Then Thursday, July 2nd kicks off the Gopher 50. The event includes two preliminary nights of racing on the 2nd and 3rd before the 50-lap finale on Saturday, July 4th. All three of those races are points paying races.
Following the conclusion of the series’ trip up north with the Gopher 50 it then heads to Stateline Speedway for the Rick Briggs Memorial on July 8th. That’s at least six races that Troutman could potentially miss before Sharon.
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