This Week in Monster Truck Racing - January 30-February 1, 2026

=== This Week in Monster Truck Racing ===

* Kevin Crocker wins first bracket in Indianapolis!

** Jon Zimmer Jr dominates Providence

*** Wild racing at the Blizzard Bash in Salisbury

CURRENT STANDINGS and WEEKEND RESULTS (PDF): https://tinyurl.com/mtroc260203

BLOG POST RECAP: https://www.mtroc.com/blog

===== WEEKEND RECAP FOR JANUARY 30^th – FEBRUARY 1^st, 2026 =====

Lots of news this weekend. We’re off to a great start for racing here in 2026!

Kevin Crocker stunned the field in Indianapolis with his first Monster Jam Stadium Series win! He beat out the best that Stadium East has to offer including reigning tour champ Tristan England. Colt Stephens also scored a big win by taking the Sunday Indianapolis event and shaking off some bad racing luck from the past few weeks.

In Anaheim, the Stadium West series switched up their track to SoCal style but saw familiar faces in the finals with Tyler Menninga and Bari Musawwir picking up wins. The racing was super close both nights with plenty of photo-finishes.

The Metal Shop brought a huge field of 7 trucks to Salisbury, Maryland for their Blizzard Bash and had them racing on a tight U-turn track that featured a 10-foot finish line jump! Jordan Fisher and Greg Winchenbach each picked up a win and runner-up across the three events. This event also saw the return of former Grave Digger driver Brandon Vinson behind the wheel of Bad Company.

On the Arena Tour, Jon Zimmer Jr dominated in Providence, winning 11 of 12 heats and moving up to 2^nd overall in the Open Championship. Blake Granger also stole the show in Fargo, winning both events and continuing to lead his series points series plus lead the world in wins (16) and points (6785). This weekend also saw Charlie Pauken III pick up his 1^st Monster Jam racing win and second of his career.

Jacob Ladwig has now won 3 consecutive races on the All Star Tour and is beginning to climb back in the series points series. On the Toughest Tour, it took a blown engine to slow down David Olfert who won for the 4^th time in 9 races in Youngstown.

Josh Baumgartner has had Bigfoot into the final round in 5 consecutive events now and won once with the Kicker Nationals in Amarillo. Travis Groth in Monster Moose took the first two.

We also saw Rob Poutre and Rod Schmidt win on a tiny concrete track in Rochester, Minnesota; Tim Manchester sweep a small three-truck Insanity event in New Mexico; Chris DeHoyos get good marks with Higher Education in Laurel, Mississippi; and Kurt Kraehmer showing off the Hall Brothers RAM power in a high flying holeshot final in Madison, Wisconsin.

Thank you to everyone who has helped us with reporting events this week: Ethan Pawlowski, James Martin, Nathan Winchenbach, Jordan Fisher, Brian Manson, Josh Baumgartner, Tyler Groth, Phil Vicinanza, Bryan Wagner, Stanley Hernandez, Mark Werner, Tim Manchester, Lane Larkin, Joshua Johnson, Chris Yuhas, Nick Kraemer, Nick Davis, Sean Green, Travis Schweizer, Alex Steinhaus and everyone who posted videos and photos online especially YouTubers MonstertruckinatorTV, SMBG, and Zowoki!

===== CURRENT STANDINGS =====

RANK : DRIVER : PTS/AVG : SCORE : RACES/WINS

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1 ) Tyler Menninga - 3574/297.83 : 5+1=6 : 12/5

2 ) Jon Zimmer Jr - 4517/215.1 : 2+5=7 : 21/11

3 ) Coty Saucier - 3772/221.88 : 4+4=8 : 17/10

4 ) Blake Granger - 6785/188.47 : 1+9=10 : 36/16

5 ) Camden Murphy - 2545/282.78 : 11+2=13 : 9/4

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6 ) Weston Anderson - 3100/193.75 : 7+8=15 : 16/6

7 ) Donald Epidendio - 2325/232.5 : 13+3=16 : 10/6

8 ) Bari Musawwir - 2544/195.69 : 12+7=19 : 13/1

9 ) Alex Bardin - 3849/153.96 : 3+18=21 : 25/6

10) Bill Payne - 2856/168.00 : 9+13=22 : 17/6

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11) Brandon Arthur - 3035/159.74 : 8+15=23 : 19/8

12) David Olfert - 1830/203.33 : 22+6=28 : 9/4

13) Zack Garner - 2053/186.64 : 18+10=28 : 11/0

14) Jimmy Creten - 2068/172.33 : 16+12=28 : 12/8

15) Ryan Anderson - 1957/177.91 : 20+11=31 : 11/1

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16) Armando Castro - 2801/116.71 : 10+29=39 : 24/2

17) Colt Stephens - 1890/145.38 : 21+20=41 : 13/3

18) Fernando Martinez - 2136/118.67 : 14+27=41 : 18/3

19) Tim Hall Jr - 3171/109.34 : 6+35=41 : 29/6

20) Charlie Pauken - 2107/117.06 : 15+28=43 : 18/1

===== BIGGEST IMPROVEMENTS =====

+23 – Chris Koehler (Mayhem) – 39^th

+21 – Josh Baumgartner (Bigfoot) – 44^th

+11 – Travis Groth (Monster Moose) – 34^th

+9 – Tristan England (JBC DIGatron) – 25^th

+9 – Adam Anderson (Grave Digger) – 42^nd

+8 – Jon Zimmer Sr (Zombie) – 29^th

+7 – Colt Stephens (ThunderROARus) – 17^th

+7 – Fernando Martinez (El Toro Loco) – 18^th 

===== NEWLY RANKED =====

36^th - Kevin Crocker (Megalodon)

48^th - Greg Winchenbach (Crushstation)

61^st - Matt Pagliarulo (Jester)

69^th - Eric Swanson (Obsessed)

76^th - Chris Whatley (Mississippi Nightmare)

82^nd - Zach Winchenbach (Lumberjack)

84^th - Elliott Miller (High Tide)

94^th - Ryan Dieterich (Outlaw Wrangler)

===== ALEXANDRIA, LA =====

This Extreme Nationals event did not include side-by-side racing and so points were not awarded

===== AMARILLO, TX =====

1/30 Fri Ngt: TRAVIS GROTH [Monster Moose] defeated Josh Baumgartner [Bigfoot]

1/31 Sat Aft: TRAVIS GROTH [Monster Moose] defeated Josh Baumgartner [Bigfoot]

1/31 Sat Ngt: JOSH BAUMGARTNER [Bigfoot] defeated Eric Swanson [The Veteran]

The Kicker Nationals had three sell-out events in Amarillo as fans saw six fast trucks in competition on the Chicago-Style track. Travis Groth in Monster Moose took the first two brackets and gained 11 spots in the rankings. Josh Baumgartner in Bigfoot made the finals all three nights and gained a huge 21 spots in the rankings, capping off the weekend with the Saturday night win. Baumgartner has been in the final round in his last 5 consecutive races this season and also his last 5 races in Amarillo.

===== ANAHEIM, CA =====

1/31 Sat Ngt: TYLER MENNINGA [Grave Digger] defeated Zack Garner [Wild Side]

2/1 Sun Aft: BARI MUSAWWIR [Zombie] defeated Dalton Widner [Shell Shock'ed]

The Monster Jam Stadium West switched up their track from St Louis Style to SoCal Style for their second trip to Anaheim and the change seemed to suit Tyler Menninga well as he won the Saturday event after posting two quarter-final round loses in his most-recent visit to the Big A.

On Saturday, Menninga advanced past Bari Musawwir in the semi-finals by a slim one-tenth of a second on his way to victory. The racing on Sunday got even closer and this time Menninga came up on the losing end as Dalton Widner eliminated Digger in the semi-finals by 25-thousandths! For Widner it would be his first trip to the final round this season, but he’ll have to wait a bit longer for his first win as Bari Musawwir came out on top to claim his own first win of the season.

With the Saturday win and semi-final finish on Sunday, Tyler Menninga was able to jump up past Coty Saucier to take over the #1 spot in the world rankings.

===== ATLANTA, GA =====

This Hot Wheels Live event did not include side-by-side racing and so points were not awarded

===== CHARLESTON, WV =====

This Hot Wheels Live event did not include side-by-side racing and so points were not awarded

===== FARGO, ND =====

1/31 Sat Aft: BLAKE GRANGER [Monster Mutt Dalmatian] defeated Matt Cody [Grave Digger]

2/1 Sun Aft: BLAKE GRANGER [Monster Mutt Dalmatian] defeated Alex Bardin [Earth Shaker]

Blake Granger leads in the world in points with 6785, a full 2268 points ahead of his closest rival. The Monster Mutt driver swept racing in Fargo to claim his 16^th racing win of the season, which is also best in the world.

===== INDIANAPOLIS, IN =====

1/31 Sat Ngt: KEVIN CROCKER [Megalodon] defeated Tristan England [JCB DIGatron]

2/1 Sun Aft: COLT STEPHENS [ThunderROARus] defeated Chris Koehler [Mayhem]

While the Stadium West tour got to see a different track style, the Monster Jam Stadium East tour got to see different faces on the podium. Saturday night saw a huge shocker as Kevin Crocker in Megalodon! That is his first career racing victory that we have on file. He advanced out of the first round only once during 24 races in last year, and his last time in the finals was driving King Krunch in Waco, Texas back in February of 2021.

Crocker beat out Jamie Sullivan cleanly in the first round, and then barely edged past Colt Stephens in the quarter-finals by a slim 1/100^th of a second! In the semi-finals, Adam Anderson rolled Grave Digger in the final turn, giving Crocker an easy final leg. In the finals against former World Finals Racing Champion Tristan England, Crocker ran a fast and clean race while England oversteering through the final turn and lost speed running up along the inside dirt mound. For Crocker, it was his first Stadium West event win of the season.

To show that it wasn’t a fluke, either, Crocker returned to the semi-finals on Sunday with wins over Jester and—for the second night in a row—Grave Digger, before falling to a red hot Chris Koehler in Mayhem. Koehler was running very strong on Sunday and got back to the Stadium finals for the first time since Jacksonville last March.

But this afternoon belonged to Colt Stephens in ThunderROARus. He has had some good racing passes in past weeks but either faced tough early-round opponents or suffered breakage like in Saint Louis. Everything finally came together for the second-generation driver and he picked up his first Stadium win of the season and 3^rd overall following two Arena wins in Mexico City.

===== LAKE CITY, FL =====

1/31 Sat Aft: JIMMY CRETEN [Bounty Hunter] defeated Dawn Creten [Scarlet Bandit]

1/31 Sat Ngt: We do not have results from this event

Jimmy Creten was the winningest driver in the sport last year with 40 wins and he’s up to 8 so far this year after winning the early event in Lake City, Florida. We are still searching for results from the nightcap.

===== LAS CRUCES, NM =====

1/31 Sat Aft: NO POINTS; This event did not meet the minimum of 4 trucks scheduled to compete

Tim Manchester swept all the events during the Insanity Tour’s stop in Las Cruces, New Mexico. In addition to being fast qualifier, he won the drag racing grudge match against Misfit and later beat him in the Chicago-style finals. However, with only 3 trucks scheduled to compete at this one, we cannot count it for points since we require a minimum of 4 scheduled trucks as a minimum.

===== LAUREL, MS =====

1/31 Sat Aft: THOMAS KIMMONS [Evil Leprechaun] defeated Chris DeHoyos [Higher Education]

1/31 Sat Ngt: CHRIS DEHOYOS [Higher Education] defeated Chris Whatley [Sudden Impact]

Chris DeHoyos has been showing good speed as of late and has been in the finals in 3 of his last 5 events. On Saturday night in Laurel with the Monster TNT tour, he picked up his 2^nd win of the season over Chris Whatley in Sudden Impact. Thomas Kimmons in Evil Leprechaun which was the 2^nd win for the new truck identity.

===== MADISON, WI =====

1/31 Sat Ngt: KURT KRAEHMER [Ramdemption] defeated Brad Shippert [Against the Grain]

2/1 Sun Aft: NO POINTS; The bracket could not be scored

Monster of Destruction was back in Madison for some high-flying concrete holeshot racing including the big Hemi engines of the Hall Brothers. Kurt Kraehmer used the RAM power to good use and collected the Saturday racing win over Brad Shippert. The two were slated to run in the finals on Sunday, as well, but the final race could not be run due to Fire Marshall restrictions.

===== MILWAUKEE, WI =====

1/31 Sat Aft: CHARLIE PAUKEN III [Classroom Crusher] defeated Weston Anderson [Grave Digger]

1/31 Sat Ngt: WESTON ANDERSON [Grave Digger] defeated Fernando Martinez [El Toro Loco]

2/1 Sun Aft: FERNANDO MARTINEZ [El Toro Loco] defeated Mikayla Tulachka [Megalodon]

Chuckie Paukens picked up his first career Monster Jam win on Saturday in Milwaukee as the second-generation driver beat out series champion Weston Anderson in a close race. Anderson returned to the finals later that night to get a win for himself, as well, and end a four-race runner-up streak. Unfortunately for Anderson, his 7-race final round streak then ended in the first round on Sunday as he oversteered out of the final turn and lost out to Tony Ochs.

In the Sunday finals, we saw Mikayla Tulachka making her first final round appearance since exactly ONE YEAR ago (February 1^st, 2025) in Providence, Rhode Island, which she won. She got there cleanly, too, with wins over Brianna Mahon and Loghan Ashline.

Her opponent was supposed to be Tony Ochs in JCB DIGatron but the truck died at the line, putting Fernando Martinez back in the bracket and leading to him winning his 3^rd race of the season. That win and his 2^nd place finish the previous night moved Martinez up 7 spots in the rankings to join the Top 20.  

===== MOHAVE VALLEY, AZ =====

1/31 Sat Aft: We do not have results from this event

===== PENSACOLA, FL =====

1/31 Sat Aft: JACOB LADWIG [Rat Attack] defeated Brooke Pagliarulo [MissFire]

2/1 Sun Aft: JACOB LADWIG [Rat Attack] defeated Nick Pagliarulo [Kraken]

Jacob Ladwig appears to have found his stride on the Monster Mashers tour. The west coast star came east to run with the All Star Tour this winter and after some early round loses during the opening events, he has now won 3 in a row and 4 of the last 6 as he begins to battle back and chase current points leader Nick Pagliarulo.  

===== PROVIDENCE, RI =====

1/30 Fri Ngt: JON ZIMMER JR [Terminal Velocity] defeated Coty Saucier [Dragon]

1/31 Sat Aft: COTY SAUCIER [Dragon] defeated Jon Zimmer Jr [Terminal Velocity]

1/31 Sat Ngt: JON ZIMMER JR [Terminal Velocity] defeated Triton Robbins [Krazy Train]

2/1 Sun Aft: JON ZIMMER JR [Terminal Velocity] defeated Jon Zimmer Sr [Megalodon]

Jon Zimmer Jr lost only once in twelve heats in the Monster Jam Arena East weekend in Providence. He leaves the small state with a big 23 point lead in the season standings and also gained 2 spots in the rankings to jump ahead of tour rival and reigning Open Champion Coty Saucier. The 3 wins also now gives Zimmer 1 more win than Saucier, 11 to 10. The tour moves to the Steel City for four more races this weekend.

===== ROCHESTER, MN =====

1/31 Sat Aft: ROD SCHMIDT [Redneck Rampage] defeated Rob Poutre [Carolina Crusher]

1/31 Sat Ngt: ROB POUTRE [Carolina Crusher] defeated Stanley Hernandez [Werewolf]

If you like the niche excitement of monster trucks racing in small, oddly-shaped arenas then Rochester, Minnesota had exactly what you were looking for. Harkening back to the likes of Roberts Municipal Stadium and the Assembly Hall in Champaign, the Monster X Tour drivers went full-throttle on a concrete hole-shot track at the Mayo Civic Center. Rob Poutre does not driver regularly anymore, but he was a top racer with the 2X Live tour and he continues to win races whenever he fills in. He took the Carolina Crusher truck to a win and runner-up finish in Rochester, losing out only to veteran Rod Schmidt on Saturday when Schmidt stuck Poutre in the slower right-hand lane.

===== SALISBURY, MD =====

1/30 Fri Ngt: JORDAN FISHER [Air Mail] defeated Greg Winchenbach [Crushstation]

1/31 Sat Aft: GREG WINCHENBACH [Crushstation] defeated Cory Snyder [Toxic]

1/31 Sat Ngt: RYAN DISHAROON [Shaker] defeated Jordan Fisher [Air Mail]

The Metal Shop’s Blizzard Bash in Salisbury featured one of the wildest tracks that the Wicomico Civic Center has ever seen! The square-shaped floor let the trucks run on a short J-turn course that featured a huge 10-foot finish line jump. Not to mention that the bracket featured 7 top trucks from the east coast including the return of former Monster Jam World Finals champion Brandon Vinson behind the wheel of Bad Company!

Friday night racing went to Jordan Fisher in Air Mail. He out-turned Vinson in the semi-finals and made probably the best turn of the night in the finals to beat Greg Winchenbach in Crushstation.

Fisher lost out in the semi-finals on Saturday when the rear axle broke and prevented him for making the charge over the final jump while racing Cory Snyder in Toxic. Snyder then also faced Crushstation in the final round, and while both drivers oversteered in the final turn while trying to keep the trucks apart, Snyder’s put him into the turning pole while Winchenbach was able to continue on for the win.

On Saturday night, Snyder got revenge and knocked out the Monstah Lobstah in the first round, but then lost to eventual winner Ryan Disharoon in Shaker.

Be sure to check out Monstetruckinator TV on YouTube later this week to see video from all three events!

===== YOUNGSTOWN, OH =====

1/30 Fri Ngt: DAVID OLFERT [Dirt Crew Dozer] defeated Jared Smith [Maximus]

1/31 Sat Aft: JERRY BECK [Dirt Crew] defeated David Olfert [Dirt Crew Dozer]

Last but not least this week is the Toughest Tour, who returned to the small floor in Youngstown, Ohio. David Olfert continues to be the top racer on tour as he picked up another win on Friday. He was looking for the sweep on Saturday against the boss but the engine on his Dozer gave out right on the starting line, ending his race and night prematurely, and giving the 2-time and defending tour champion Jerry Beck his first win of the season.

===== EVENTS THIS WEEKEND =====

Batesville, MS (SC Monster Truck Madness Day of Destruction)

Battle Creek, MI (Monster Truck Wars)

Budapest, Hungary (Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live: Glow-n-Fire Event)

Denver, CO (Monster Jam Arena Series West)

Houston, TX (Monster Jam Stadium Series West)

Marietta, GA (All Star Monster Truck Tour)

Marion, OH (Monster Truck Wars)

Minneapolis, MN (Monster Jam Stadium Series East)

Pittsburgh, PA (Monster Jam Arena Series East)

Stockton, CA (Monster X Tour)

Wauchope, Australia (Mayhem Thrills and Stunt Show)

West Monroe, LA (Monster X Tour)

Winnipeg, MB (RAM Motorsports Spectacular)