Every now and again, auto racing is refreshed with new, unforeseen winners basking in victory circle or upstarts coming along to challenge the status quo.

Some of this year’s following moments fit that bill: Brenden ‘Butterbean’ Queen’s first ARCA Menards Series win Feb. 15 at Daytona Int’l Speedway, Josh Berry’s first NASCAR Cup Series win March 16 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Ethan Dotson’s first World of Outlaws Late Model Series win April 11 at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway, Robert Shwartzman’s underdog Indianapolis 500 pole on May 19.

And after Thursday’s Kubota High Limit Racing event at Wisconsin’s 141 Speedway, you can not only add Travis Arenz to the list of 2025 memorable breakthroughs, but you can consider his improbable $26,000 victory as perhaps the biggest upset in Sprint Car racing history — among national tours, at least.

Put it this way: The 33-year-old never entered a nationally touring event before Thursday. He’s only ran two partial 410 seasons (18 races last year, 28 in 2023) and he had only won twice before in the 410 division. He embodies the true Weekend Warrior spirit where racing is merely a hobby and where he calls 141 Speedway home living 40 miles south of the track in Sheboygan Falls.

He’s a diesel mechanic who works 50 hours a week and has steadily and frugally climbed the short-track ranks — from 4-cylinders, sport mods and 360 Sprint Cars — just to put himself on the same draw sheet as the likes of former NASCAR Cup champ Kyle Larson, six-time national champ Brad Sweet and Rico Abreu, the second-winningest Sprint Car driver in the country right now.

“I started crying,” Arenz said after his win Thursday. “The first time I ever won a sport mod feature, I started tearing up. The first time I ever won in a Sprint Car feature in the 360, I started tearing up. It hit me. It hit me, like for real. I didn’t know what just happened.”

Arenz has made more financial sacrifices than he’s comfortable with, too. In After The Checkers with High Limit public relations specialist Brian Walker, he admitted he harbors some splurging-guilt in that “I went probably a little too far this offseason spending money on motors and this and that.”

The Wisconsin native shrugged his shoulders and dipped his head expressing those vulnerable sentiments.

“I’ve been eating a lot of Raman noodles lately,” Arenz added. “I owe someone a little Texas Roadhouse now.”

Ranking Travis Arenz's High Limit Win Among All-Time Sprint Car Upsets

So how does Arenz’s upset win Thursday compare among the all-time greatest upsets in Sprint Car racing? Even keeping recency bias in mind, it could be the biggest upset ever on the discipline's nationally touring stage.

Bill Brian Jr.’s win in August 1993 versus the World of Outlaws at Pennsylvania’s Lincoln Speedway rivals Arenz’s stunning High Limit victory.

At the time, Brian had one Sprint Car triumph at Susquehanna Speedway (now BAPS Motor Speedway two years prior). In a 2012 post on Facebook looking back on the victory, Lincoln Speedway wrote “many consider” Brian’s win that night as “the biggest upset in Outlaw history.”

Brian did go on to win 28 career Sprint Car races in Central Pennsylvania, which ranks just inside the top-100 of the nearly 700 different drivers who have won Sprint Car features in Central PA.

Other notable touring Sprint Car upsets over the years (all World of Outlaws-sanctioned; listed chronologically):

• Chuck Miller at California’s Silver Dollar Speedway in 1990: Miller was viewed as one of Cali’s stalwarts, but his split-field Gold Cup prelim win was considered as an upset at the time.
• Jason Statler at California’s Santa Maria Speedway in 1999: The 6-foot-5, 270-pound Statler passed Steve Kinser on lap 10 of 40 for his one and only World of Outlaws victory.
• Tony Bruce Jr. at Iowa’s 34 Raceway in 2008: The Kansas native won his one and only WoO feature that year.
• Travis Jacobson at Skagit Speedway in 2012: Jacobson led all 35 laps and held off Donny Schatz for the touring win at his home track. Before that, he had a best WoO finish of sixth.
• Dusty Zomer at the Dirt Track at Charlotte’s World Finals in 2015: The multi-time Knoxville Nationals feature starter has competed with the sport’s before, but his South Dakota skillset winning on the North Carolina dirt for his first WoO win was an unlikely one.
• Giovanni Scelzi at Williams Grove Speedway’s National Open in 2018: The 16-year-old Gio Scelzi always had a bright future, but his developing Cali-raised talents upending the Outlaws at tricky Williams Grove versus a 50-car National Open field was unexpected.
• T.J. Stutts at Williams Grove Speedway in 2024: Before last year, Stutts had four 410 wins in 20 years of racing the division. He did enjoy a career-best three-win season in 2024, but winning July’s Morgan Cup over eventual WoO champ David Gravel is a memorable upset.

To amplify Arenz’s victory Thursday, he had to rebound from slipping back to seventh, trust his instincts to surrender second and instead restart third on the bottom via the Choose Cone on the lap-14 restart, and hold off 10-time IRA champ Bill Balog (who has 14 career wins at 141).

“I saw the bottom taking rubber in the middle of one, off of two, and I knew I had to be there,” Arenz said. “If you can keep it right by the tires off two, there’s plenty of grip down the straightaways. We were perfect.”

Abreu and Larson starting deep in the field outside the top-20 and Sweet crashing during the contest definitely made Arenz’s path to victory more straightforward, but his common knowledge is what prevailed him.

“We have a lot of laps here, I’ve raced here in 4-cylinders, sports mods, I mean, I was a Joe Blow. No one knew (who I was),” Arenz said. “Now we’re doing this. Like, we had a really good car. It was really good. I could go top or bottom, but everyone kept leaving the bottom. I’m like, ‘There’s so much grip. Slow it down, keep it steady, keep the car underneath you, and phew, we’ll be alright.’”

Two elements of Thursday’s win will endure with Arenz as he forever looks back on what could be the biggest upset in Sprint Car racing history. One is the ovation he received upon celebrating in victory lane.

“Usually, I don’t have that many cheers,” Arenz said. “When I heard everyone cheering, I was like, ‘Wow.’”

And two is the financial windfall. Twenty-six-thousand goes a long way.

“Well, I’m not in debt as much anymore,” Arenz said.