CHILLICOTHE, Ohio  Race season has arrived in the Ohio Valley and the World of Outlaws Late Model Series is ready to invade the region for the first time in 2025.

A regular stop on the tour since 1989, Atomic Speedway will host the Series for two nights of action Friday and Saturday as part of the Fireball 50.

Action gets underway on Friday night with a 35-lap, $12,000-to-win, main event before a 50-lap, $15,000-to-win feature caps off the program on Saturday night.

In addition to the Late Models, the program will also include Modifieds on Friday and Sport Mods and Legend Cars on Saturday.

THE BOBBY & RYAN SHOW

The 2025 season is only eight races old, but every driver not named Bobby Pierce and Ryan Gustin knows exactly who they have to beat if they want to contend for the championship in the fall.

With two wins apiece, Pierce and Gustin stand as the only two current title contenders to reach victory lane with the Outlaws this year. They also sit 1-2 in multiple key metrics, including Heat Race wins and feature laps led.

If history is anything to go by, the next chapter in their battle will be written at the front of the pack this weekend.

The last three World of Outlaws races at Atomic were won by either Pierce or Gustin, and they are the only Series regulars to win an Outlaw race at the track since Tim McCreadie took the checkers in 2006.

Gustin took a few nights to get the hang of Atomic, as he missed the top 10 in his first four Outlaw starts there. Something clicked last August though, as The Reaper picked up back-to-back podiums with a third on Friday and a win on Saturday. Pierce has been impeccable at the track from the start, as hes collected two wins and no finishes worse than fourth in World of Outlaws competition.

ON THE UPSWING

Following a strong end to the 2024 season, Brian Shirley rolled into 2025 looking for more race-winning speed. Instead, he got the exact opposite in the opening weeks of the year.

A disastrous Speedweeks buried him in the standings and left him with a shop full of wrecked cars and blown engines. Smoky Mountain Speedway wasnt much better, as Squirrel never found his footing and came home 21st. But when the tour traveled south to Swainsboro Raceway, the Bob Cullen Racing team began to show signs of life.

After using a provisional to start Fridays feature, Shirley moved up 11 spots in 35 laps to finish 13th. Saturday saw Shirleys best early-night speed in months, as he qualified sixth in his group, finished second in his heat race to make his first redraw of 2025 and spent the first half of the feature running in the top 10. A flat left-rear tire may have knocked him down to 20th in the final order, but the No. 3s clearly had speed.

The next two weeks present a golden opportunity for Shirley to show what hes capable of. He ended the night on the podium in his last three World of Outlaws starts at Atomic and has a DIRTcar Summer Nationals win in Chillicothe on his résumé from 2014. Then, hell head back to his home state for next weekends Illini 100 at Farmer City Raceway.

Shirleys decades-long track record there includes two wins each with the World of Outlaws, Hell Tour and MARS along with several more local and regional triumphs.

BREAKING THROUGH

As the only driver with seven top 10s in the first eight races, Nick Hoffman has arguably been the most consistent driver on tour so far in 2025. But solid finishes alone arent enough to win a World of Outlaws championship.

The season is still young, but up to this point Hoffman finds himself in the opposite scenario from a year ago.

In 2024, The Thrill from Mooresville won five times two more than champion Brandon Sheppard  but trailed Sheppard in top fives and top 10s. This time around, a lack of wins is his only deficit compared to the likes of Pierce and Gustin.

Atomic could be just the place for Hoffman to remove his goose egg from the win column. Hes a two-time winner in regional action and owns three top fives in four World of Outlaws starts at the track.

ROOKIE RACE ROLLS ON

Theres a new driver on top of the MD3 Rookie of the Year Award battle entering Atomic, as a pair of top fives at Swainsboro were enough to vault Drake Troutman around Ethan Dotson and into fourth in the overall points table.

Troutman kicked his season into gear on the final night of Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals when he led several laps and finished second to Jonathan Davenport. Smoky Mountain didnt go his way with a 24th-place run, but Troutman quickly got back on track in Georgia.

On the other hand, Dotson got off to a hot start with two top fives in the first three Outlaw nights of the year at Volusia Speedway Park, but has struggled to replicate that speed in the weeks since.

While Dotson has yet to compete at Atomic in a Late Model, his Modified stat sheet is certainly impressive.

The Californian ran a three-race weekend with the Renegades of Dirt Tour in 2022 and finished first, first and third in the Features. Troutman was also in attendance that weekend, scoring a best finish of seventh.

Trailing that duo in the rookie standings are Jake Timm, Daniel Adam, Austin Smith and Dillon McCowan.

SCOUTING THE LOCALS

In addition to the World of Outlaws, this weekends event is co-sanctioned by the Valvoline American Late Model Iron Man Series, bringing the toughest Late Model competition in the region together to battle the nations best.

Theyll be led by reigning Series champion Rusty Schlenk, who finished top five at Atomic last June on his way to the title.

The three-time DIRTcar UMP Late Model national champion is already batting 1.000 in 2025, winning twice in two starts at Attica Raceway Park.

Other Buckeye State natives to keep an eye on include Rod Conley, who beat the Outlaws at Atomic in 2008 and finished top five at the track four times last year, as well as Adam Stricker, who came home fifth against the Outlaws in last years Fireball 50.