Back in the Roth Motorsports No. 83 and its Toyota Racing Development powerplant, Buddy Kofoid will chase the World of Outlaws championship next season.
And make no mistake, that is the goal.
Having joined the team in June and also winning twice last season in the Greatest Show on Dirt, Kofoid feels legitimately poised to make some noise in one of the most tenured cars in discipline history.
“Those six months I ran at the end of last year help a lot and obviously my relationship with Toyota goes a long way,” Kofoid told Sportsnaut this week. “They have supported Roth for a while now and I’m grateful that they trust me to develop this engine program.”
That is really the most interesting part of all this.
Kofoid is one of prized Toyota factory supported drivers, having powered him to two USAC National Midget championships with Keith Kunz Motorsports in 2021 and 2022. They have also dabbled in pavement short track racing together and even flirted with the idea of going NASCAR racing in some capacity.
Right now, the Toyota TRD 410 engine looks ready for a championship run and Kofoid is the guy the team and manufacturer believes can validate their development gains over the past year. Kofoid certainly believes the whole Roth package this year can be amongst the elite in the division.
“It is really all there,” Kofoid said of the engine. “There were just a couple of things that came up last year and (Toyota) responded with some new designs to solve them.
“Really, in the couple years since they’ve started this, and before I started driving them. they have come a long way and it’s really dang close.
“For the most part, I feel like we are more than capable of doing it. It’s become a really reliable, powerful engine and it’s just a matter of fine tuning those small things and we’ll be right there.”
Kofoid knows it’s a tall task to topple established pairings like David Gravel at Big Game, Carson Macedo at Jason Johnson, Sheldon Haudenschild at Stenhouse-Marshall and Logan Schuchart at Shark but he will also tell you that he’s never entered anything with any other expectation but eventually becoming the best in it.
He has a degree of tempered expectations but he is also dreaming big too.
“It could go really well,” Kofoid said of the season. “I feel comfortable and it’s the best I have ever felt in a Sprint Car since I started.
“I owe that to Dylan (Buswell, crew chief), Dennis and Teresa Roth to provide what we need and get what we need. I want to win as much a I can and be in contention, have speed and be comfortable.
“I need to work on myself on half mile tracks. Be a contender in the big races and really learn to points race. Winning an Outlaws championship would be awesome but it’s damn tough. If we can just have speed at every track, be in contention day in and day out, have the chance to win races, win as much as we can, that would be ideal.”
The full commitment to World of Outlaws and the TRD 410 also means that any chance of Kofoid making a run at a NASCAR career are on hold but he also says nothing is forever. Kofoid, while also saying for years that he wanted to race on the Outlaws tour, has also spoken passionately about his affinity for Stock Car racing.
He has cited Dale Earnhardt Jr. as his favorite childhood racer so those dreams haven’t necessarily completely dissipated.
“I still have always wanted to do it,” Kofoid said. “I still want to do it. I’m still involved with Toyota so anything can happen.
“But I’m also very happy with Sprint Car racing right now and really enjoy being with Toyota and being part of this program in general. NASCAR is still on the bucket list. I’m still very passionate about that kind of racing too so it’s something you never say never about.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.