Nick Hoffman had the best year of his career with the World of Outlaws Late Models in 2026 and he is looking to better it in 2027, but he and his team will have their work cut out for them as he moves to Spire Motorsports from Tye Twarog Racing.
Hoffman’s year with the Outlaws included nine wins, a record-setting 42 Top 5s, and 49 Top 10s. He started off red hot with two wins at Volusia Speedway Park and another at Hendry County Motorsports Park during Speedweeks. At the end of March, he returned to Victory Lane at East Alabama Motor Speedway. He would go on to win at Mississippi Thunder Speedway in the beginning of May and then pocketed over $100,000 at Mansfield Speedway at the end of the month.
After winning the World 100 at Eldora Speedway in September, he swept the weekend at Federated Auto Parts I-55 Raceway Park. Finally, he concluded the season with his first ever win during World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
Nick Hoffman. Photo by Emily Schwanke.
During the 2026 World of Outlaws Awards Celebration, Hoffman discussed the work he and his team have on their table as they make the move to Spire Motorsports, “We’re not even close at this point. Wish we were on the same page. It’s just trying to build a completely new race team. I wouldn’t have this opportunity if it wasn’t for Tye and everything he gave me, but going into next year it’s an unbelievable opportunity for me. Basically, have everything handed to me just like Tye did and have to build a team from scratch.”
“It’s going to be fun,” he continued. “I’m going to put a lot of pressure on [Car Chief] Scott [Fegter]. He’s got to build quite a few race cars in a short amount of time.”
Nick Hoffman. Photo by Event Horizon Photography.
To that point, he will not be competing in a new car when he makes his debut with Spire Motorsports during the Gateway Dirt Nationals at the beginning of December. He will compete in one of the Spire Motorsports’ Longhorns that Carson Hocevar competed in earlier this year.
Hoffman shared, “Coming up for the Dome, I’m just basically taking one of Carson Hocevar’s cars and preparing it for myself.”
After the Dome, Hoffman shared what the team has planned to start the beginning of 2027, “We get to to go to the Wild West Shootout for the first time this year. I think we ended up running 91, 92 races this year, which is the most I’ve ran in my Late Model career. I think it shows with how much success we’ve had.”
Nick Hoffman. Photo by Emily Schwanke.
Hoffman did not share whether he will return to the Outlaws or make the switch to the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. When he announced that he would join Spire Motorsports ahead of his World 100 win at Eldora Speedway, he shared that his decision would be dictated by the schedule for both series.
“Well, that’s still up in the air. And [Jeff Dickerson] has put it in my hands. I’m not going to put any pressure on him. He’s basically put the pressure on me of like, ‘Whatever you want to do.’”
“Right now, we’re sitting at 50/50. There’s benefits to both series,” he continued. “I told Steve Francis this the other day: I took every single race track that we went to this year and I rated them with stars. And which races were five stars all the way down to one-star races ’cause we went to some of those. I’m tired of spending my days at bad race tracks. There is quite a few. Both series you’re going to get that, but I just want to spend quality night at races tracks at places I know I run good at and stuff like that too.”
Nick Hoffman. Photo by Emily Schwanke
“So, still got to make that decision myself,” he said. “Whether it’s sponsors, whoever has, involvement in that. NOS Energy Drink is going back with me. So I’m excited to continue that partnership. I know there was a lot of questioning that. [General Manager of NOS Energy Drink] Lauren Albano has done a lot for me in our five-year endeavor here and she’s sticking with us.”
“As far as Outlaws or Lucas, it’s still up in the air,” he concluded.
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