By T.J. Buffenbarger
(November 3, 2025) — The 2026 Kubota High Limit Sprint Car Series 2026 schedule was released on Monday featuring 66 race dates with four of them listed as “to be announced” later.
Here are my takeaways from the first draft of the High Limit Schedule.
• The two biggest surprises on the schedule that stood out to me were the two-night show at Kokomo Speedway in Kokomo, Indiana on May 8-9 and the Rayce Rudeen Foundation event being held at Big Sky Speedway in Billings, Montana.
Two nights of winged sprint car racing in May along with a third date on Wednesday, September 23rd in the middle of non-wing sprint car country is gutsy. The Kokomo event takes place the weekend before activities begin at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the Indy 500 and in the High Limit release indicated will honor the late Byran Clauson that weekend.
The Rayce Rudeen foundation event is known for going to places that typically don’t hold major sprint car races. Having a Rudeen event take place in Billings, Montana in June is great for the sprint car fans in that part of the country having a bigger sprint car event in the middle of summer rather than towards the end of August and September.
On the surface, the single trip to Montana with a week off before and after looks odd on the schedule from a travel standpoint, but keep in mind the Dirt Cup at Skagit typically takes place around that same time. One would think this scheduling is placed to encourage teams to make the trip to Washington state for that event.
• May and June could be the biggest logistical challenge on the tour outside of the cross-country trip from Washington State to Pennsylvania in September that has become a staple of the High Limit tour.
The series will go from Texas Motor Speedway to Kokomo Speedway (946 Miles), then to Grandview Speedway for a mid-week show (674 Miles) before two nights at Port Royal Speedway, then back to Lawrenceburg Speedway the following Friday (477 Miles) before going to Butler Motor Speedway the following night (258 Miles) and having a day to travel to Davenport, Iowa (345 Miles) to kick off what could be 10 nights of racing in 14 days if TBA’s are filled with race dates.
May and the first half of June will be the key stretch in determining the High Limit Series champion next year. After this brutal stretch of races, the Kings Royal and Knoxville Nationals take place, which do not pay High Limit points and allow those drivers to race for the win and top prize money rather than point race.
• While 66 races do not seem like that many when you think of the 100 or so major race teams do each season, the High Limit schedule is compressed and has some very busy stretches every month.
The good news is logistically the races are packaged well. The west coast trip is an efficient stretch over the month of August and first week of September and other three night trips sprinkled throughout the schedule.
The mid-week races make the trips more worthwhile but also creates stretches for the teams that are going to show their ability to manage logistics and preparation.
To offset that there are large gaps in the schedule as well at the start of July and early August leading into the Kings Royal and Knoxville Nationals. This should provide those teams with some tune-up opportunities at Knoxville and some time off should they choose to use it.