By Ben Deatherage
ROBINSON, Texas (Oct. 22, 2026) — After coming up just short of a national championship in 2025, Trevor Cogburn returned with unfinished business in 2026. The 21-year-old Robinson, Texas, racer captured his first Smiley’s Racing Products IMCA Southern SportMod national championship.
Cogburn also earned his first Texas State championship and repeated as Heart O’ Texas Speedway track champion, completing a season that began with a determination to settle the score after narrowly missing the national title the previous year.
His championship continued Texas’ dominance of the division, making Cogburn the 11th consecutive driver from the Lone Star State to capture the national title. Since the division began crowning national champions in 2005, Texas drivers have claimed 21 of the 22 championships, with Jesse Baldwin of New Mexico in 2015 the lone exception.
In 2025, Cogburn finished tied for the national points lead but lost the championship on a tiebreaker determined by the number of 40-point victories.
“We just decided to come back stronger this year and put on a show,” Cogburn said.
Driving the Waco Freightliner/Affiliated Auto Glass/Metro Elevator No. 601 IRP Race Car, Cogburn collected 18 feature victories in 40 starts, including eight wins at Heart O’ Texas Speedway and Cotton Bowl Speedway, plus two at Kennedale Speedway Park.
His strongest stretch came from June 5 through July 17, when he recorded 11 consecutive top-five finishes, winning seven times during that span. He also won six consecutive appearances at Cotton Bowl Speedway between June 6 and Aug. 8.
For Cogburn, some of the most memorable moments came during weekends when the team celebrated victories on consecutive nights.
“My hottest month was May and June,” Cogburn said. “We’d race Friday night at Waco, win, and then go to Cotton Bowl on Saturday and win. That happened for two straight weeks where that was constantly happening, and it was a happy moment for me and my family. All the hard work was paying off, and it was amazing that everything was clicking together the way it was.”
Although the team encountered challenges during the closing portion of the season, Cogburn remained focused on the championship that had escaped him a year earlier.
“This year was all pretty good until the end of July, and we stopped getting wins,” he said. “But in the end, we accomplished what we set out to accomplish, and it was all worth it.”
The championship continued a racing tradition that began with his grandfather, Royce Cogburn, who competed for approximately 25 years before stepping away from the sport around 2012.
His father, Chris Cogburn, began racing in the 1980s and spent approximately 30 years behind the wheel before retiring from competition in 2021 to concentrate on Trevor’s racing career.
Trevor began racing in 2017, competing in local junior divisions before advancing to the Southern SportMods in 2022. With his father concentrating on his racing program, Cogburn earned national Rookie of the Year honors during his first season in the division.
Four years later, the father-son combination celebrated a national championship, adding another accomplishment to the family’s racing history.
Feature Wins: 18
Total Top Fives: 34
Total Starts: 40
His Pit Crew: Father Chris Cogburn, brother Weston Cogburn, girlfriend Jaylee Jones, and uncle Chandler Simons
His Sponsors: HB Farms, Big Country Heating A/C, C3 Chicken Coops, Nasty Azz Motorsports, Tru Form Race Products by Jeff Shepperd, Tia Juanitas, Affiliated Auto Glass, Bear Wash, Hi Banks Ranch, The Beauty Trap, Tow King of Waco, Mike Ferri Photos, Metro Elevator, Toyota of Waco, La Fiesta Cantina, Bulletproof Tees, Connors Crushed Stone, Electrical Contractors of Texas, Waco Freightliner, IRP Race Cars, CRS Suspension, Fletcher Custom Engines, Mad Truck Collision, Trinity Auto Haus, Munn Racing, Lonestar Truck Group, Old West Cowboy Church, The Cattlemens Wife, 254 Seamless Gutters, Warnock Construction, Southwest Maintenance, Pizza Junction, Jaspers BBQ, H&D Equipment, X-Treme Graphics by J-Rod