When the call came in from Bill Lutz, Tom Gunner already knew exactly what kind of opportunity he was being handed.
Lutz – the small-tire veteran whose flat-black, screw-blown ‘68 Camaro tore through True 10.5 competition during the DI Winter Series this past winter – was looking for a driver. Not just for any race, either, but for the 2026 King of the South Invitational, May 21–24 at Shadyside Dragway in Shelby, North Carolina. Sixty-four cars. Invitation only. Twenty-eight by ten-and-a-half-inch non-W slicks. $75,000 to win over Memorial Day weekend in front of the kind of crowd that forced the fire marshal to close the gates last year.
The car: the yellow-and-black Bumblebee Camaro co-owned by Lutz and Jeff Miller, tuned by the same Patrick Miller / Bill Lutz duo, built with the same notoriously aggressive philosophy. Swing for the fences. Don’t apologize.
For Gunner, known to most of the drag racing world as “Jimmy Dale,” the math was simple.
“This is one of the most dangerous cars in the class, in the biggest small tire race in the country, with one of the most aggressive tuning operations in the sport,” Gunner says. “I’m grateful for the opportunity. I’m humbled by it. But I’m also a racer, and I’ll tell you straight up – I think we’ve got a real shot to win this thing. That car is a weapon. Bill Lutz and Patrick Miller don’t show up just to cover the spread.”
Before any of it could happen, the conversation had to start at home inside the Rob Koehler Racing camp.
Rob Kohler’s operation is one of the more interesting emerging programs in the sport right now. A strong Winter Series showing in Pro Mod with driver Kyle Dvorak put the team on a lot of people’s radar, and Jimmy Dale’s runs in the Stick Weld car – Kohler’s red Limited Drag Radial Camaro – carried that same momentum straight into the Radial Outlaws Racing Series. Two cars, two classes, one program building real heat.
For Jimmy Dale, the chance to step into Lutz’s Bumblebee for a weekend isn’t a departure from any of that. It’s an extension of it. Iron sharpens iron. More laps in fast cars against the best drivers in the country only makes him a better wheelman when he’s back in Stick Weld.
Koehler saw it the same way and gave the green light without flinching.
“Rob was the first call I made, and he didn’t even let me finish the sentence,” says Gunner. “He told me, ‘Go do it. Go represent. Bring something back you can use.’ That’s Rob. He’s building something real with Rob Koehler Racing. What Kyle Dvorak did in Pro Mod at the Winter Series, what we’re building in Stick Weld in Limited Drag Radial, and the fact that he was willing to cut me loose for a weekend to chase this opportunity tells you everything about how he approaches this. He gets it.”
The original plan had Street Outlaws fan-favorite Joe “Dominator” Woods in the Bumblebee for KOTS. Everything was in place. But when the window cracked for Jimmy Dale to take the seat, Dominator was all-in on stepping aside to make it happen.
Lutz, for his part, frames the whole thing in terms of where he thinks the sport ought to be putting its energy.
“The young, hungry guys who’ve actually earned the respect of the people who know, they need real shots in real equipment at real races. That’s how you build the next wave,” Lutz says. “Jimmy Dale’s been putting in the work. He’s been competitive in everything Rob’s put him in. Putting him in the Bumblebee at King of the South? That’s me trying to pour a little fuel on the fire.”
He’s blunt about the car, too.
“That thing wants to run. Patrick and I aren’t going to hold anything back. He’s going to feel exactly what we’ve been feeling in the ‘68 all winter. His job is to drive it. That’s all I need from him.”
To understand why this opportunity matters, you have to understand what Corey Stamper and the Buff family have built in Shelby.
The King of the South started as an idea and became, in remarkably short order, the race every small-tire driver in America wants on their résumé. Last year’s edition pulled in Ryan Martin, Kye Kelley, Lyle Barnett, Brad Edwards, Ryan Mitchell, Ryan Hendrickson, “Turbo John” Phillips, Shelby Lynn, and eventual winner Larry Larson. Race cars were pitted in the front yards of the houses on the property. By Saturday afternoon, the fire marshal closed the gates. Roughly 5,000 people on the grounds. Tailgates and barbecue grills covering Shadyside’s three-tier pit area like an NFL parking lot.
Stamper, who runs Spoold Media, summed up his vision for the race in DI’s own coverage: “We’ve merged worlds of fans that never would have been together. This is the biggest race I’ve ever been a part of in my life.”
When Larson – who came in as an alternate, and who builds, tunes, and drives his own ‘66 Chevy Nova – beat Lyle Barnett by .004 of a second in last year’s final to claim the $75,000, he was moved to tears. Both drivers are already locked in for 2026.
New for this year is the $10,000 “Knight of the South” 16-car invitational on even smaller 26×8.5 slicks.
It all sits under the Ronnie Buff Memorial Weekend banner. The Buff family has been stewarding Shadyside since 1982, when the late Ronnie Buff bought the track. His grandsons Seth and Zach Buff run the place now, and Seth used a telling word to describe last year’s experience: surreal. “I woke up and said, ‘This is unreal,’” he told DI.
Jimmy Dale was there last year running Lil Gangstas. He felt all of it.
“Last year was awesome to be a part of. Corey Stamper and the team at Shadyside have built something special. There’s nothing else on the schedule that feels quite like it,” Gunner says. “When you walk out of a race like that, you immediately want back in. The fact that I’m coming back in a car like Bumblebee, that part still doesn’t feel real.”
There’s one more piece that matters, and his name is Michael Poland – Gunner’s best friend and partner in the Lil Gangstas franchise, the guy who’s been at his side through every late night, every bad tow home, and every breakthrough. When Lutz’s call came in, Poland was the first name out of Jimmy Dale’s mouth. He’ll be in the corner at Shadyside the same way he’s always been. The Lil Gangstas connection isn’t a footnote, either. Barnett, the same guy who lost last year’s final by .004, races the class himself in his “Beer Money” Mustang.
King of the South takes place May 21–24 at Shadyside Dragway. The full 64-car field has officially been announced by Stamper, with Larson and Barnett garnering the first two invites. When Bumblebee rolls off the trailer with Gunner behind the wheel, it’ll be one of the most-watched cars on the property, and a real test of where this version of Jimmy Dale is right now.
He’s not pretending otherwise.
“I’m not going down there to be happy I got the call,” says Gunner. “I’m going down there to win the race.”
This story was originally published on April 7, 2026. 
The post JIMMY DALE GETS THE KEYS: TOM GUNNER STEPS INTO BILL LUTZ’S BUMBLEBEE CAMARO FOR KING OF THE SOUTH first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
