Scotty Thiel, Greg Wheeler Motorsports Partner for Rookie World of Outlaws Tour in 2026
Photo by Emily Schwanke
CONCORD, N.C.—“The Big Wheel” is rolling to The Greatest Show on Dirt.
Scotty Thiel has teamed with Greg Wheeler Motorsports for a rookie run with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series in 2026. The Sheboygan, WI native joins Ashton Torgerson as the second driver committed to chasing Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year honors.
The move completes a lifelong goal for Thiel. He’s carved out a successful path for himself in the sport that includes the 2024 Interstate Racing Association (IRA) championship, and now he’s ready to make the final step to competing with the nation’s best Sprint Car drivers every week.
“At the end of this year, I started talking with Greg,” Thiel explained. “He didn’t really have any plans set for this coming season but mentioned doing a lot of races and maybe picking and choosing. I’m at the point in my life where I don’t really want to do that, just race to race. I want to race with a purpose and achieve a goal of racing full-time with the World of Outlaws.
“He was building up equipment over the years it seemed like, and the way that he laid it out to me, how we could run this thing kind of allowed me to build a package that I’m comfortable with.”
Thiel enters his maiden voyage with the World of Outlaws on the heels of a strong 2025. He topped seven main events in 40 nights of action, including four with IRA. A trio of his wins were at tracks on the 2026 World of Outlaws calendar: Plymouth Dirt Track, Angell Park Speedway, and Eldora Speedway.
Greg Wheeler Motorsports (GWM) had its own solid year in 2025 with Max Guilford behind the wheel of the No. 16C. They won three races together with IRA and finished fifth in points.
Now, Thiel and GWM are ready to join forces and see what they can do with The Greatest Show on Dirt. Thiel has worked hard to get to this point, and he intends to make the most of it.
“I didn’t think I’d ever be in this position with a program that is really able to go do this,” Thiel said. “I’m very grateful and excited for that. It’s going to be a stretch to get everything put together here, but we only have four races we have to worry about right away, and then we have a little break again, so we’ll be okay. I’m just really looking forward to the opportunity and just being able to use this leverage to build the program even more and racing with the best.”
Thiel and the Greg Wheeler Motorsports team kick off the 2026 World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car season at Volusia Speedway Park’s Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals on Feb. 4-7 in Barberville, FL. For tickets, CLICK HERE.
For the complete 2026 schedule, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap of the campaign live on DIRTVision.
Our Partners
.png)
