By T.J. Buffenbarger
(January 30, 2026) — Buddy Kofoid’s adventures during the winter of 2026/2027 were memorable on many different fronts from winning races in Australia to ending his winter racing endeavors due to illness that kept him out of the Chili Bowl nationals and the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic.
After being on the sidelines for the past month, Kofoid appeared on a World of Outlaws Zoom meeting with the media on Friday and appeared to be in good spirits, indicating he was back to being 100% healthy and ready to go back racing next week with the series at Volusia Speedway Park during the DIRTcar Nationals.
“I feel back to normal and a lot better,” said Kofoid. “I had some sort of bacterial, I don’t want to say infection, but parasite type thing. Long story short, found out it came from, most likely, some sort of water or ice or something like that, that I had while I was in Australia and that caused appendix inflammation and small bowel inflammation that they’re really worried about.
“I lost a decent amount of weight that I can’t afford to lose and just had no energy. I was trying to make Chili Bowl, honestly, and just didn’t get cleared in time to be able to justify racing Friday. I feel a lot better now and just spent three days at TPC in North Carolina working out all three days and felt good. I feel back to normal, putting the weight back on again.”
Acquiring that illness in Australia has not dampened Kofoid’s enthusiasm for racing down under during the American off season. Kofoid indicated he plans on coming back to Australia in 2026-2027 to compete with Trent Pigdon’s race team.
“I absolutely plan on going back,” said Kofoid when queried about his Australian plans. “So, it’s funny, I don’t even think we did our first race yet, and Trent Pigdon said, ‘Yeah, plan on it, I want to do it again next year’ and we hadn’t even run a race yet.”
Part of Kofoid’s success down under was familiarity in equipment and personal with crew chief Dylan Buswell and Nate Knotts making the trip with Kofoid to work on Pigdon’s equipment, which also was familiar to Kofoid and his crew members.
“Trent’s full on into it and in Toyota was also a massive help. They sent two engines for us. Trent bought one of our Roth cars that had one race on it and sent it down there,” said Kofoid. So really it was like a Roth car with Pigdon race team stickers on it. He is getting more cars now exactly like what we have and just racing when we want to race, and hopefully Toyota still wants to send motors down. I feel just as comfortable there as I do here.”
Kofoid managed to collect two feature victories and even a third-place finish during the early stages of his illness before sitting out. Kofoid hopes that success translates next year to fufill one of his goals of winning the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic, which is the Australan equivalent of the Knoxville Nationals.
“One of my goals is to always been to try and win the Classicand I feel like that team is the best opportunity that I’ve had to be able to do that.”
With the illness and international travel behind him, Kofoid is squarely focused on building on Roth Motorsports effort from 2025 where they finished second in the points standings and 13 feature victories that included Huset’s High Banked Nationals paying $250,00 to win, Huset’s Hustle paying $100,000 to win, and the Eagle Nationals paying $55,555 to win with High Limit Racing series.
“I feel like everyone uses the word excited, but I really am excited. You know, it’s especially, you know, coming off the year we had,” said Kofoid. “Just to get back with the people I enjoy being around with Roth Motorsports and racing sprint cars with the World of Outlaws is one of the best things, if not the best thing, I’ve ever been able to do. I’m just excited to continue that journey. Being considered a favorite to win a championship, it’s hard to not be excited. Hopefully we can just keep doing what we’re doing, I can get better, and we can make that next jump.”
Other notes…
• If it’s not broken, don’t fix it seems to be the theme with Kofoid and Roth Motorsports for 2026. Kofoid indicated during the media session the only changes the team made during the off season were the graphics on the cars and the trailer, and plan on utilizing the same kind of equipment that propelled them to a successful season in 2025.
• The ASCS National Tour is in action again Friday night at Volusia Speedway Park. Tyler Courtney will look to add another win to his remarkable comeback story following his victory Thursday night after being sidelined with serious injuries suffered in a crash at Eldora Speedway last July.
• Ryan Timms debuts the new look for the Liebig Motorsports entry for the 2026 season. One notable difference is the sponsorship of Iowa business mogul Dennis Albaugh present on the car.
The biggest opponent for Courtney and the other drivers might be the weather, as low temperatures near Volusia Speedway Park are supposed to dip down to 25 degrees on Saturday and remain in the upper 20’s for lows on Sunday and Monday.
• The final night of the Australian Sprintcar Title takes place on Saturday night. Jock Goodyer won the preliminary feature on Friday night after a great back and forth battle with Ryan Newton. Saturday’s winner will get the honor of donning the #1AU for the 2026/2027 season.
• The other short track open wheel racing division in competition on Saturday is the POWRi Southwest Ecotech Midgets Saturday night at Adobe Mountain Speedway in Glendale, Arizona.