January 14, 2025 | By Spence Smithback, World of Outlaws Late Model Series PR

Daniel Hilsabeck Prepared to Finish What He Started in World of Outlaws Return

CONCORD, N.C. — In his return to the World of Outlaws Late Models trail in 2025, Daniel Hilsabeck is ready to prove that you can’t keep a good man down.

The Earlham, IA native’s plans on making 2024 his rookie year with The Most Powerful Late Models on The Planet were derailed after he broke his wrist in a crash at Brownstown Speedway in June.

Hilsabeck underwent surgery and spent two months on the sidelines recovering, and now has his sights set on bouncing back in 2025 and contending for the Rookie of the Year Award.

“I feel like we’ve got some stuff figured out with our race car, I got some stuff figured out with me,” Hilsabeck said. “How I need to be driving, what we need to be doing to the race car, what we need to be doing preparation-wise to race at a national level. I feel way more confident this year than I did last year, I know that.”

While Hilsabeck has not made a World of Outlaws appearance since the accident, he did make some scattered starts across the Midwest last fall to get reacclimated with his machine in advance of the new year. The No. 22 team didn’t take long to find their footing, as Hilsabeck racked up four top 10s with the MLRA in addition to a sixth-place run during the Late Model Knoxville Nationals in September.

That momentum has Hilsabeck riding high entering the new season, which will contain plenty of visits to tracks he’s looking forward to returning to after missing out in 2024.

“I’ve never raced at Smoky Mountain, we went there and practiced one night but I’ve never raced there, so that’ll be interesting to go to,” Hilsabeck said. “I always like going to the two Kansas tracks, Humboldt and 81. I’ve heard great things about the North Dakota tracks. I’ve never been up there, but every time I’ve raced a Modified up in northwest Minnesota, those were always really good tracks, and it’s kind of that same area.”

Before Hilsabeck travels north this summer, he’ll head south to Florida to get the season started at Volusia Speedway Park with DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals (Jan. 22-25) and Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals (Feb. 13-15). While Hilsabeck admits he struggled in his first trip to the “World’s Fastest Half Mile” last year, he learned plenty of lessons that he believes will help him contend with Late Model racing’s best this time around.

“It’s a whole different type of dirt,” Hilsabeck said. “The shape isn’t a whole lot like Knoxville, but you kind of drive it the same. You carry a lot of speed and you’ve got to be able to turn without slowing down. The dirt threw me for a loop last year. It was rubbered down in the black and I was trying to run up in the brown dirt up high and I got freight-trained on the bottom in the Heat Race. Went from third to sixth or something and didn’t make the show. Back home, that black would be slick, but it rubbered fast enough that I didn’t keep up with the surface. The dirt is definitely different down in Florida, but that’s something that you’ve got to experience before you know what to do.”

Hilsabeck and the rest of the World of Outlaws Late Models will kick off 2025 with six nights of racing at Volusia Speedway Park with DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals (Jan. 22-25) and Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals (Feb. 13-15). To find ticket information for both events, click here.

If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap of the 2025 World of Outlaws Late Models season live on DIRTVision.