The World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision is debuting at Modoc Speedway this weekend, and no one has been looking forward to the occasion for longer than John Henderson.
The 3/8-mile dirt track, located about 30 minutes north of Henderson’s hometown of North Augusta, SC, is where his love of dirt Late Model racing blossomed. That passion led him to get behind the wheel himself before eventually launching a nationally touring race team, ASD Motorsports, and hiring Ethan Dotson to take it on the road with the World of Outlaws.
Either from the grandstands or the driver’s seat, Henderson has seen every iteration of Modoc firsthand since it opened in 1984. The future of dirt racing in the Augusta area came into question when the track closed at the end of the 2021 season, but when local businessman Ronnie Powell purchased the property and commenced a large-scale renovation, Henderson knew something special was in the works.
The process took time, but his visits to Modoc earlier this season for some of their regional Late Model events confirmed to Henderson that the result was worth the wait. Nearly every inch of the facility has been updated in some form, and the track will get its first chance to shine under the national spotlight this weekend.
“It’s a world of difference,” Henderson said. “Ronnie’s worked his butt off and done a bunch of stuff to it. I really think it’ll be really, really good. Just facility-wise, he’s done a lot, racetrack-wise, he’s done a lot. He’s only raced a handful of times [in 2026], so he’s still trying to figure out the track some. Ethan ran a race there earlier this year, I think he started like 16th and almost passed for the lead there with a few laps to go and ended up finishing third.
“It was just super racey, and the old Modoc was just really filthy red dirt, typical south racetrack that usually wasn’t really wide when it started slowing down. Now, with that gray dirt he’s got in there, it’s definitely got some opportunity to race on it. It ought to be a good show, and it’s definitely better facility-wise and racetrack-wise than what it’s ever been.”
This weekend’s Modoc 100 may seem like a new event to those unfamiliar with racing at Modoc, but it has a legacy stretching back decades. The Modoc 100 was known as one of the biggest Crate Late Model races in the region for many years, often attracting Super Late Model regulars to come battle Modoc’s rising stars. The event’s revival as part of the World of Outlaws schedule brings back countless memories for those who are part of that history, including Henderson.
“When I raced there early on in my career, it was mostly FASTRAK races, Crate races,” Henderson said. “That was when me and Jonathan [Davenport], Brandon [Overton], we were all starting. I remember racing there with Jonathan and Brandon in what used to be the Modoc 100, the Jack Starrette Memorial. It was a Crate race, but [Chris] Madden, any big name from the south was there and raced there. To see it get a national-touring race, it kind of comes full circle with all that used to happen there and the people that started their racing career around here.”
A lot has changed for Henderson since those early days of the event. His primary role in racing has transitioned from a regional driver to a World of Outlaws team owner, while still making sporadic starts in his No. 2X when his schedule allows. Since Dotson came on board in May 2024, the Bakersfield, CA native has become the face of Henderson’s ASD operation and taken the team to Victory Lane in each of their first two seasons as World of Outlaws regulars. Henderson has had plenty to take pride in over the past two and a half years, but he recognizes that there’s still room to grow.
“We’ve learned a lot together,” Henderson said. “When we first started, we won quite a few races right out the gate and were doing pretty good. When you get on that touring series, people always say they’re ready to run a tour until they go do it, and then reality sets in. We made it and we did OK, I’m not disappointed with what we did, we won a race each year. But there’s a huge learning curve, and we had to learn that together. I tried to be more assertive the first year, and this year, I’ve tried to back off and let him make some of his own decisions. Some of it’s been good, some of it’s been bad, but I’m not saying I would have made a different decision.
“It’s been good for us to learn together, just because we’re a lot alike and we don’t get upset with each other. We can have a hard conversation and still know that our hearts are in the right place, which is hard to do. Being able to have that relationship and seeing him grow as a driver, now I feel like if our car’s decent, then he’s as good as anybody in the field. We’ve just got to work on our stuff and work on our program to get it to be competitive with the 32, the 9 and a couple others. We’ve been through spurts where we showed speed and were consistent and then we fell off. Right here, we fell off in the past few weeks, but we’ve also been trying some new stuff with a new motor package and a new car, just trying to do stuff to get better. When you try new stuff, it can either go good or it can go bad.”
Ahead of the final five race nights of the season, the ASD team finds themselves sixth in the World of Outlaws standings, up four spots from their 10th-place finish a year ago. With two of those nights taking place 28 miles from the race shop, Henderson sees it as a perfect opportunity to wrap up 2026 on a high note in front of their home crowd while looking ahead to further improvement in 2027.
“You may not see it all on the racetrack, but it’s been leaps and bounds,” Henderson said of his team’s progression in their sophomore World of Outlaws campaign. “We’ve finally got an established crew that’s been with us for several months, and I think everybody’s coming back next year. Having an established crew, everybody knows how everybody works. It’s not just Ethan, I mean, Ethan’s gotten better on the racetrack; his racecraft’s gotten better, but our crew being consistent, learning each other and then learning Ethan.
“This week, we’re going back to our standard package that we’ve been running, like when we won the race [at Shelby County Speedway on Aug. 29]. I hope that we can go right back where we were when we had some speed then, getting away from some of that experimental stuff. Just having the same crew so we can go back to that, go back to where we were and get back in our box makes it so much easier. Just being prepared for next year, we’re already working on stuff for next year like parts, pieces and everything so that we’re not starting from scratch. The past two years, we’ve kind of started from scratch at the beginning. It’s been good to have an established crew and Ethan and his racecraft getting better. I hope it really starts to show next year, and we can figure out how to get in that top three and just keep improving like we have this year.”
Dotson and the rest of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision will be in action at Modoc Speedway in the Modoc 100 on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 23-24. Tickets will be available at the gate.
Want to watch the World of Outlaws? Stream every race live on DIRTVision.