3/20/2026
TOMS - Touring Outlaw Modified Series
Christian wins 2026 TOMS opener, Day wins night two
ARDMORE, OK- The Touring Outlaw Modified Series (TOMS) kicked off its 2026 season with two nights of racing March 20 and 21, at Southern Oklahoma Speedway, in Ardmore, Oklahoma.
There were 44 cars checked to races with the TOMS on night one of the double-header.
Gary Christian (Broken Bow, Oklahoma) and his No. 58X car started on the pole and led all 25 laps to claim the win on the opening night.
The 25-lap feature race had two cautions (lap two and lap five) as Troy Taylor (Midlothian, Texas) and Dillion Pike (Waxahachie, Texas) got together in the middle of turns 3 and 4 as both cars spun and came to a rest on the track.
Three laps later, Wesley Veal (Princeton, Texas) and Matthew Day spun in turn 4, drawing the caution flag.
The race went green for the next 20 laps as Christian was able to stretch his lead while navigating lap traffic and ended up winning by 7.82 seconds.
Christian’s fastest lap was on lap six with a time of 18.659 seconds according to My Race Pass timing.
“It felt pretty good. I didn’t really know where to be at,” Christian said standing in victory lane. “I kind of just kept looking out of the corner of my eye for someone’s nose. I just tried to get through lap traffic the best I could.”
“It takes a lot of pressure off when you can win one early in the year,” he said. “You can just have a lot more fun with it.”
Bo Day (Greenville, Texas) was the second-place finisher, while Matthew Day (Farmersville, Texas) was third. Dean Abbey (Boyd, Texas) finished fourth and Kale Westover (Altus, Oklahoma) rounded out the top five.
Abbey was the biggest mover, up 13 spots from his 17th starting spot, while M. Day moved up nine spots from 12th.
Earlier in the night the TOMS raced two B-Mains, which were won by Shane Hartline (Ivanhoe, Texas) and Taylor.
Heat race winners for night one included:
Heat 1- Colby Smith- Greenville, Texas
Heat 2- Rodney Sanders- Happy, Texas
Heat 3- Gary Christian- Broken Bow, Oklahoma
Heat 4- Bo Day- Greenville, Texas
Heat 5- Jeff Taylor- Locust Grove, Arkansas
Full results can be found at the following link.
https://www.myracepass.com/events/603399/media-results
Night two at Southern Oklahoma Speedway saw Matthew Day win his first career TOMS feature race.
The first 10 laps of Saturday’s feature race went green with Ryan Veal (Princeton, Texas) leading the first seven laps. Christian gained the top spot on lap nine before a caution from a Jason Sartain (Royce City, Texas) spin in turn 4 brought out the caution.
Day took the lead with 12 laps remaining before a spin by Rusty Trevathan (Wylie, Texas) brought out a caution with two laps remaining.
With an impending green-white-checker finish coming, Day was able to jump out to the lead and claim the win.
“I’ve had a couple outlaw wins, but nothing with the TOMS,” Day said on his first win with the series. “It’s definitely a cool deal to get and especially against the talent level that we had here. 44 cars at this level and probably 12 guys could win it any given night, and we drove up through the field. I wish Gary (Christian) wouldn’t have broken. I’d like to see if I had anything for him, but sometimes that’s the way it goes.”
Abbey was the second place finisher behind Day, while Hartline finished third. Chris Henigan (Marshall, Texas) was fourth and Colby Smith rounded out the top five.
Hartline was the biggest mover driving his car up 15 spots to third, Henigan and Jeff Taylor each moved up 15 spots as well for a fourth and seventh place finish, respectively.
Christian had the fastest lap of the race on lap seven with a lap time of 18.474 seconds before something malfunction on his racecar on lap 18 and he had to pull to the infield.
B Feature 1 winner- Colby Smith
B Feature 2 winner- Matthew Day
Heat 1- Mitchell Clement (Bonham, Texas)
Heat 2- Jason Sartain (Royce City, Texas)
Heat 3- Jason Langford (Palestine, Texas)
Heat 4- Kale Westover (Altus, Oklahoma)
Heat 5- Ryan Veal (Princeton, Texas)
Full results from the second night can be found at the following link.
https://www.myracepass.com/events/603402/media-results
The TOMS series will be back in action Saturday, April 4, at RPM Speedway, in Crandall, Texas, weather permitting.
Article Credit: Brant Thurmond/Double T Media
Submitted By: Brant thurmond
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