November 26, 2025

Foul forecast washes out Batesville

BATESVILLE, Ark. – Forecasts for too much rain and not enough drying time before the weekend have forced Batesville Motor Speedway to call off the March 20 and 21 Arkansas Spring Nationals.

The event will not be rescheduled.

BatesvilleMotorSpeedway

Not the fastest but still first, Taylor tops IMCA Stock Car J.D. Garrison Memorial

BATESVILLE, Ark. (May 20, 2023) – He didn’t have the fastest car but Saturday’s J.D. Garrison Memorial was just the right distance from Peyton Taylor’s point of view. Taylor led from lap nine to the finish of the 32-lap feature at Batesville Motor Speedway, ultimately beating Patrick Linn across the stripe by half a second. Along with a check for $3,200, the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car win was good for B & B Racing Chassis All-Star Invitational qualifying eligibility. “We got her done,” said Taylor, who had started third and passed Joe Payne for the point and battled back and forth with Randy Weaver much of the distance, running the top line in the first set of turns and middle to top in the second. “We were able to get out front and just maintain,” he continued. “Patrick Linn had the fastest car out there and if the race had been 35 laps, he would have won.” Linn made his way to second from 10th starting, Waver to third from eighth. T.J. Herndon and Payne completed [Read More]

Strickler paces IMCA Modifieds during Race For Hope 74 time trials

By Mike Spieker BATESVILLE, Ark. (Sept. 26) – A stout field of 91 IMCA Modifieds checked in at Batesville Motor Speedway for the first of five nights of action during the Race For Hope 74. Tuesday began with practice for all competitors and concluded with time trials, which set heat race lineups for the remainder of the week. Kyle Strickler of Mooresville, N.C., set the overall quick time with a lap of 16.913 seconds, averaging 79.82 mph around the high-banked, 3/8-mile clay oval. Strickler was the only driver to run a lap in the 16-second bracket. Chris Abelson of Sioux City, Iowa, was second quick with a time of 17.068. Both drivers have locked themselves into Saturday night’s $20,000 to win, minimum $2,000 to start main event by virtue of their top-two qualifying efforts. Wednesday through Friday’s program will feature 15 qualifying heat races with a nightly feature, where the top eight finishers will automatically transfer into Saturday’s main event. On Saturday, the night will be highlighted by the 74-lap, Race For Hope 74 feature. [Read More]

$50,000 to win World IMCA Stock Car Championship at Batesville Oct. 13-16

BATESVILLE, Ark. – The top-paying IMCA Sunoco Stock Car event in the world takes The Class Too Tough To Tame to Batesville Motor Speedway for the $50,000 to win World IMCA Stock Car Championship Oct. 13-16. Presented by IMCA-TV, the inaugural event will start 30 cars and boasts a main event purse of $125,000 with $15,000 paid to the runner-up, $10,000 for third, $5,000 for fourth, $3,000 for fifth and a minimum of $1,500 to start. The top two drivers from each of 15 heat races transfer to nightly ‘A’ features Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with the top nine from that race advancing to the Saturday main event. Third and fourth place drivers, fifth and sixth place drivers and seventh and eighth place drivers transfer to nightly ‘B,’ ‘C’ and ‘D’ features to race for points. The pit gate opens at 2 p.m. Wednesday and at 4:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. The grandstand opens at 5 p.m. and racing starts at 7:30 p.m. each night. Entry fees are $250 if paid by Oct. 1 or $350 after that [Read More]

Divisions

Taylor Heaton: Long Roads, Long Nights, and a New Beginning

By Ben Deatherage BAKER, Mont. (Nov. 25, 2025) — The highway out of Baker runs straight and lonely, a ribbon of asphalt cutting through open prairie and endless sky. It’s the kind of road where you measure distance not in miles, but in hours — the kind that every racer from eastern Montana knows by heart. Most weekends, Taylor Heaton and his family point their rig toward North Dakota, chasing laps across the badlands, putting in three-, four-, even five-hour hauls just to race. For Heaton, that long road is part of the deal. It’s where the thinking happens, where the nerves settle, where the excitement builds. It’s where the weekend begins. This is the landscape that shaped him — wide, rugged country where nothing comes easy and every mile matters. It’s where his family put down roots, where racing first sparked to life, and where that spark carried him from off-road machines to the no. 11H Sunoco IMCA Hobby Stock. Now, as he prepares for 2026, those same long miles are leading him into a [Read More]

Feature

Shane Butler: A Second Chance at Speed

By Ben Deatherage GLIDDEN, Iowa (Nov. 24, 2025) — The open country between Scranton and Glidden is quiet in the fall, corn stubble rolling out beneath a November sky that feels wider than the world. Out here, farm towns don’t hide their history. These towns were built by people who kept going no matter the obstacles, and in that way alone, they fit the life of Shane Butler. Butler returned to racing in 2025 after nearly four years away, climbing back into a Sunoco IMCA Hobby Stock at Boone Speedway. The comeback was more than a restart. It was a declaration that life had finally given him back the one thing he had lost — his health, his freedom, and the chance to chase the sport that runs in his family’s blood. The Road Back Butler had raced since he was 17, when his father Rodney built him his first Hobby Stock. Racing was a Butler family constant. His dad had raced Hobby Stock–type cars for three decades beginning in 1985, often carrying the number 37 [Read More]

Modified

Inaugural Texas Showdown Set for Jan. 7–10 at I-37

By Ben Deatherage PLEASANTON, Texas (Nov. 12, 2025) — The first-ever Texas Showdown will take center stage at I-37 Speedway January 7–10, 2026, featuring four consecutive nights of Speedway Motors IMCA-sanctioned action for the Friesen Performance IMCA Modifieds and Sunoco IMCA Stock Cars. A practice session on Tuesday, January 6 will precede the racing program, followed by a free BBQ gathering for all competitors and crews. Each night’s IMCA Modified feature will serve as a Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational qualifier, while the IMCA Stock Cars will race for B&B Racing Chassis All-Star Invitational qualifying status Thursday through Saturday. Drivers earning those wins will be added to the eligibility list to qualify for their respective All-Star Invitational events to be run at the 2026 Speedway Motors IMCA Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s. The IMCA Modifieds will race for escalating purses across all four nights: $1,000 to win Wednesday, $1,250 Thursday, $1,500 Friday, and $2,000 to win Saturday. The IMCA Stock Cars will chase $750 to win Wednesday, $1,000 Thursday and Friday, and $1,500 to win Saturday. Each [Read More]

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