WES BUCK REFLECTS ON THE ENERGY BEHIND THE 2025 WSOPM AND HOW THE DI WINTER SERIES SETS THE STAGE FOR SOMETHING BIGGER

BY KAYLA ZADEL

PHOTOGRAPHS BY LUKE NIEUWHOF

From the moment racers arrived in Bradenton for the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals, through the competitive U. S. Street Nationals, to the pinnacle of the WSOPM, the DI Winter Series delivered unprecedented moments, fierce rivalries, and unforgettable storylines. Each event built momentum, transforming the series into something bigger than anyone initially imagined.

As champagne sprayed in the winner’ s circle, money rained like confetti, and racers packed up, thinking about their next moves, Buck knew that this was the beginning of a new dawn— an era where racers are the center point of the story, they become household names and are treated like stars.

Following what’ s quickly becoming tradition, Wes Buck, DI Winter Series promoter and founder of Drag IllustrateD, sat down for an in-depth conversation that not only focuses on the WSOPM but also encapsulates the DI Winter Series.

In years past, we’ ve focused on sharing the emotional highs after the final round at the WSOPM. However, it’ s rare to discuss the lows. Take us through your emotions. It was like the biggest adrenaline dump because I liken this whole ordeal to putting on a wedding quite often because it’ s just this huge buildup. It’ s such a big undertaking, and then one day, it’ s over. There was almost a touch of sadness that I felt in the moments following the win.

Just having Stevie Jackson and Steve King in the final, for me, ticked a lot of boxes. We’ ve got a doorslammer icon, a guy who’ s been doing a fantastic job engaging fans on social media, and we’ ve got an underdog story and a car with the name [ Savage ] on the side of it— there are all these different layers to it. I’ m like, I’ m OK with whatever happens here. This is fantastic. We couldn’ t ask for more.

Then, it was a badass drag race— Stevie pops

a blower in the lights, Steve King gets the win, the crowd and his crew are going crazy. Chad Wright is halfway down the track running after him, cheering; it just reminded me of how we do things differently. There’ s just an energy, and if you haven’ t been to one of these events, you’ ve not seen drag racing the way we do it.

The electricity and the energy at the World Series of Pro Mod, specifically that final round, feels like a heavyweight prize fight. It’ s just the enthusiasm and the buy-in from all the people are unlike anything I’ ve ever felt.

It only takes me about the short walk from the starting line over toward the winner’ s circle to kind of start processing that it’ s over, and I’ ve got to turn it back up to 11 and pour my heart out in the winner’ s circle and make sure that Steve King and all of our other winners have an experience that’ s unlike anything they’ ve ever had at a drag race. I pay a lot of attention to that type of thing, and I really want that to be a core memory. We take pictures, chug beers, and soak each other in champagne.

Then, the second stage of grief starts on the walk to the motorhome. It’ s not a very far walk, but it’ s like the second stage of grief of going,‘ All right, it’ s really over now.’ The work begins tearing things down— it’ s an undertaking, but it happens fast.

I think you could have called me the Monday after the World Series and asked if I wanted to do it again, run it back, and I’ d say,‘ Yeah, let’ s go. Let’ s do it one more time.’ I’ m so proud of the show these guys and gals put on. I’ m so proud of our team, the track team and everybody.

We are not very far removed from all of this being notes on a cocktail napkin. It is so weird and so surreal to see the things that I talked about, and we talked about in our group to see so many of them come to fruition and be a real tangible thing that’ s impactful in our sport; it’ s just like the ultimate reward. So, when the lights dim and the curtain goes down, it’ s sad. I’ m still sad.

Does thinking ahead to the 2025-26 Winter Series help fill that void because now you can focus on it? One hundred percent— the work for the 2025- 26 Winter Series has already started. I felt like there were a couple of weeks of being mindful of the buzz and all of the momentum. We created a lot of content, stayed in the headlines, and got Steve on every podcast and show we possibly could. It felt like we took a couple of weeks to properly close out the event and kind of set the stage for next year.

Here we are now, and we are already in the throes of planning the 2025-26 season. Whether it’ s sponsorship development, furthering some of those relationships, talking to racers or tracks, and various people to get their feedback.

I’ ve had a tremendous number of conversations with fans who are giving me their feedback on various things and what they want to see more of or what they want to change, and for me, that’ s the fun part of all of it. As much as I enjoy the events themselves, what I love to do is build things, and I like starting the process of cooking up all the ideas, coming up with what we’ re gonna do next, how we’ re gonna evolve this thing, what the next few years look like. That’ s probably my favorite part of it. I really can’ t wait to run it back and do it again.

Looking at the Winter Series as a whole— the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals, the U. S. Street Nationals, and then the World Series of Pro Mod— can you give me a few sentences on each one of how it had its own personality? I think the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals was just a great kickoff point. There are so many things about that event that I loved. It’ s a challenging time of year with PRI going on and some big

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