By T.J. Buffenbarger
(January 20, 2026) — Imagine loving the sport of auto racing so much that you wanted to leave behind a thank you note of sorts as you get into an advanced age. This summer Richard “Dick” Feiler, who most readers will know as the owner of the team Bobby Santos drives in various pavement sprint car series and the USAC Silver Crown Series, will do just that with the Race for the Million series for winged pavement sprint cars.
The series contested over four tracks with total prize money of $1,000,000 is a huge undertaking for someone that has been involved in motorsports as a fan and car owner. To make his vision become reality, Feiler enlisted the assistance of the highly successful Steve Lewis.
Lewis is best known for the Nine Racing midget car team that were dominant with the USAC National Midget Car Series for over two and a half decades and the creator of the Performance Racing Industry Trade Show and other successful business ventures.
Through a mutual friend, Lewis and Feiler were introduced and after a meeting in California agreed to direct the ambitious endeavor. For Lewis, the nature of Feiler desire to do this as a love letter of sorts to the sport he’s enjoyed since being a child was intriguing.
“This is a little different deal, because Dick kind of wants this is like a legacy, almost in some ways, like his thank you card to the sport,” said Lewis from his home in California. “I think, six or seven months ago, and Dick flew out from Florida, here to California, and we spent a day together. He’s a very interesting man, a gentleman, and had this idea. After hearing him I explained my goal is to take his idea and put it in a format that would work for him to be produced professionally.”
Promoting racing events is not new to Lewis as he is the brainchild behind midget racing events Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park with dual features that David Steele took home the largest payday in midget racing history, winning from the back of the season feature to collect a $50,000 bonus, and midget and sprint car doubleheaders in Florida that coincided with the PRI Show when it moved to Florida for a short period of time.
Lewis could not take this challenge on alone, so he has assembled an all star cast of people that have worked with him on a variety of different projects over the years to put together the Race for the Million series.
“Fortunately, we have a good team. Some of the people we have enlisted include Reed Morales who worked at PRI he was one of our salesmen, and he has a company called agency 133 and he represents a bunch of influencers. Todd Hayes, who worked at Oakley for years. They are sharp. Justin Carey, he worked at nine racing during our Toyota era, is going to be the race director. Then we got Misha Geisert on board. She’s amazing! The scary part for me was that I’ve been out of the scene here, and I called Misha, and I had fingers crossed, she could help and she took she took us on. She’s going to be the one that’s going to make damn sure that we get the proper social things and everything working well, all the marketing, and she knows all the people at Floracing, so she’s going to be a huge help.”
Lewis and his team reached out to multiple racing facilities, and in the end four of the most renowned pavement short tracks in the country signed up to host the events
“There were about six or seven tracks that we had in the mix that we thought filled that criteria and then we just started making phone calls,” said Lewis. “Some of the people said our idea isn’t going to work, but these four tracks said this is something we really want to do.”
In the end Lewis and his team landed Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida, home of the Snowball Derby and in a state with prominent pavement sprint car racing, hosts the opener on Friday April 10th. The remodeled Owosso Speedway in Ovid, Michigan takes on the second race during a mid-week date of Wednesday, June 3rd. The series remains in Michigan on Saturday July 25th at Berlin Raceway in Marne with twin features, and finishes at Colorado Speedway in Dacono, Colorado for the finale. The series has also taken on Floracing as their official streaming partner with all four races being shown live.
“We wanted to race at good facilities,” Lewis stated. “Facilities where there was passing potential, good concessions, and good layouts,” said Lewis on choosing which tracks to inquire about hosting the series.”
Another aspect of the Race for the Million series that made it desirable for Lewis and his team to take on was being able to mold the actual event the way he wanted, and correct some shortcomings Lewis feels permeates throughout short track racing combined with Feiler’s desire to give something to the drivers and teams he has worked with and against on the pavement side.
“He’s a great guy to work with and let us have pretty much an open canvas to work with,” said Lewis. “One of the things he wanted was to put back something monetarily so that these guys could race for a significantly higher purse. The other thing, and these were his words and were really music to my ears, he wants to put on a show. He wants to bring people to the racetrack and put on a show from the minute they walk in. We’re going to fan engagement, great opening ceremonies, and winner’s presentations. The program is going to move fast, and they’re going to get out of there by 9:15.”
“Our mission here is to do something for Dick that he wants to do philanthropically or just from his heart, so that our first mission. I have another little mission that is personal. The people that we have working with us are used to working with me at PRI we also feel that somewhere in all this craziness over the last 20 years, a short track guy in not everywhere, but a little bit somewhere, has lost the desire, the urge to put on an event that people want to come, new people want to come, younger people want to come. They work heavily off the back pit gate. They have 75 different classes, and that’s what they’re doing. “
The lofty goals for entertaining and customer service are not just limited to the race fans, and Lewis want competitors to feel like the event is special and things are organized when they arrive at the track.
“When the gates open, we want to have all the pit passes sold electronically, digitally. People come in. We want to park the rigs easily, we want to have the tire distribution worked out easily, and to have everything nicely done so the competitor feels like he’s important.”
With the team in place and the online entry form opening Tuesday afternoon, Lewis is excited to take on making Feiler’s vision come to life with his all-star team of people to put on the events.
“Everyone’s invested. We don’t have to have any high school football head coach, pep talks at halftime here, everyone on the team is self-ignited. And it’s fun to be around that.”
Other notes…
- The Methanol Meltdown scheduled to take place Friday and Saturday at Golden Isles Speedway for 360 and 410 sprint cars has been cancelled, leaving the first sprint car action to take place in the United States for 2026 at Volusia Speedway Park next week with the ASCS National Tour.
- Benic Enterprises is holding their annual open house on Saturday starting at 9:00 a.m. Various discounts on items and door prizes are on the list of things happening at their location in Marion, Indiana. Check out their Facebook page for more information.
- The Knoxville, Iowa Chamber of Commerce has created a website where residents can list properties that are available to rent during the Knoxville Nationals. Follow this link to check out available places to stay. I have used the chamber program in the past to find residents to stay with and still to this day reside with a local family while in Knoxville for the event.