Dan Holtz Hopes to Make Southwest Tour History at Tucson Speedway

The Spears SRL Southwest Tour Series is headed back to Tucson Speedway. for only the third time in its’ 23-year history. But in NASCAR Southwest Tour history, the “Tour” visited the track a total of 16 times. In those years, there was never a repeat winner. The JM ENVIRONMENTAL, INC. “Wild West Shootout – Heatseeker 127” will pay $10,000 to the winner, where there will be only one driver with a chance of a repeat victory at the facility. That man is “Hollywood” Dan Holtz. Holtz won the event in 2016, adding to his NASCAR Southwest Tour Series win at Mesa Marin Raceway (CA) in the “Star Nursery.com 200 in 2003. This weekend, Holtz will try to do what seventeen other competitors have failed to do since the first event in 1998.

The list of previous winners includes some of the best in the business. Those winners include NASCAR stars Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Ron Hornaday Jr., and Rick Carelli. A collection of Super Late Model standouts were also on the list from throughout the country. Those winners included Garrett Evans, MK Kanke, Ron Eaton, Jim Inglebright, Steve Portenga, Bryan Germone, Jim Pettit II, Derrick Gilchrist, Tom Sweatman, Joe Benedetti, Eddie McKean, and Bob Lyon. Pettit was the last victor in 2004. Holtz won with the SRL in 2016 with Johnny VanDoorn being credited with the victory in the SRL portion of the 2017 event.

Holtz, a two-time Mesa Marin Super Late Model track champion, made his only NASCAR Southwest Tour Series start at Tucson in 2003, finishing fifth. The Pacific Palisades, CA driver is normally a fan of the half-mile tracks, but Tucson is the exception to the rule, for the 62-year-old chauffeur.

“I just so happen to love Tucson about as much as any track I’ve ever been to”, Holtz explained. “I’ve had a lot of success there over the years, and it’s always been very good to me. It’s very hard for me to imagine a better way for me to spend a Saturday night than racing a Super Late Model at Tucson. I can’t wait to get there, unload, and get back on that racetrack having the time of my life. We are all pretty fortunate to be able to do what we do, and I feel like I’ve already won just by the fact that I get to go there and compete.”

Holtz will now have the opportunity to make history, becoming the first Southwest Tour driver to repeat at Tucson. Can he do it? Over 20 Super Late Model competitors will stand in his way, hoping to send the 62-year-old racer empty-handed.

Celebrating its twenty third season in 2023, the SPEARS Southwest Tour Series is a regional stock car series competing on paved ovals in the southwestern portion of the U.S. “The SPEARS Southwest Tour Series…Where the Champions Race”.