It\u2019s January. But, for one weekend that precedes a month-long break, the World of Outlaws Late Model Series will get its start to the 2020 season at the Battle at the Border this weekend.<\/p>\n
The Outlaws will get one day of practice on Thursday (which will not be broadcasted on DirtVision) to get a warm-up ahead of the early start to the year.<\/p>\n
Then, they\u2019ll take to New Mexico\u2019s Vado Speedway Park for the first three races of the 2020 year.<\/p>\n
The January 3 date is the earliest to start a World of Outlaws Late Model tour, beating out a February 3 start to the 2004 season.<\/p>\n
This one has the potential to be one of the best yet, too.<\/p>\n
Starting with defending champion Brandon Sheppard<\/strong>, we\u2019ll get our first look at all of the contenders for the 2020 season this weekend.<\/p>\n Sheppard is coming off a historic season with the World of Outlaws, winning 18 features in 2019 \u2013 a stat that ties the all-time record. He also moved up to third on the all-time wins list in the process.<\/p>\n Although, he\u2019ll have a plethora of drivers gunning for him.<\/p>\n Three of them will all come out of the same camp.<\/p>\n Scott Bloomquist and a pair of others are joining forces to compete full-time in the 2020 World of Outlaws season.<\/p>\n Bloomquist won the 2004 series championship and looks to compete for the title in 2020 as well.<\/p>\n With the teammates he has, there\u2019s a good chance that \u201cTeam Zero\u201d will be hoisting a trophy at the end of the year.<\/p>\n Aside from himself, Scott Bloomquist Racing includes 2019 series Rookie of the Year Ricky Weiss <\/strong>as well as Chris Madden <\/strong>\u2013 who sits in the top 10 of the all-time wins list.<\/p>\n Madden ended his 2019 tour on an absolute tear. He averaged a 3.72 finish over his final 25 races according to WorldofOutlaws.com.<\/p>\n They\u2019ll have some outside competition kicking it against them, too, but that\u2019s a usual occurrence when the Outlaws head to a new track.<\/p>\n New Mexico\u2019s own Jake Gallardo <\/strong>will have a few sets of eyes on him as he goes toe to toe with the national touring stars for three days.<\/p>\n Gallardo won the track championship at Vado last season by winning 10 out of the 11 feature events of the year. It\u2019s tough to dominate much more than that.<\/p>\n He\u2019s taking the opportunity to race against the Outlaws as a big one.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s awesome to race against them,\u201d Gallardo told WorldofOutlaws.com. \u201cWe are so used to racing the Modifieds, and we race against the fastest guys in those. So now we get a chance to race against the big guys in our Late Model. It\u2019s exciting. Since I\u2019ve been running Late Models, we\u2019ve never had a chance to run against the big guys. We\u2019ve never been able to travel far enough to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n