The playoff format will be reverted to a season-long championship for 2026
For the last three seasons, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series has used a playoff format to determine the season championship. For 2026, they’re reverting to the season-long championship format.
The year-end points fund will remain at $1.2 million. However, additional late-season bonus programs are set to be announced at a later date.
Last week it was announced that FloSports had acquired the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. Lucas Oil will remain the entitlement sponsor of the division.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series acquired by FloSports
Rick Schwallie comments
“For the 2026 season, we are going to return to a traditional points format next year and go away from the Chase format,” Rick Schwallie stated from the banquet stage.
“We tried something. We wanted to elevate our program. We more than doubled our points fund in that time. In those three years, we had clients like Big River Steel and ARP that helped us doing that, and really we wouldn’t be here — over $1.2 million today (points fund) — if it wasn’t for that.”
“So I don’t look back on that as any sort of failure by any stretch of the imagination. I really think it was a success. It took us to new places, and a place that’s more lucrative for our race teams.”
“But I also think that we’re at a place where we tried different formats, different tweaks to that format. Here we are, three years later, we’re going to just return to a traditional format for next year and the points fund will remain the same.”
Devin Moran was recently crowned the 2025 series champion.
Kyle Larson says no championship format is coming to High Limit
