‘Disneyland may have relocated to South Dakota’ – National social influencer makes stop at Huset’s

The Huset’s High Bank Nationals concluded on Saturday night, the highest paying World of Outlaws sprint car event in history with David Gravel taking home $300,000 for his victory.

The event was circled on the calendar for thousands, and they showed up. It was announced on Saturday that the evening’s race was the largest since Tod Quiring bought the facility in 2020.

One of those in attendance was arguably one of the biggest sprint car social media influencers in the country. Chaz Thompson, who goes by ‘The Chaz’ on social media, made the trip to Brandon to take in the four-day spectacle, and he seemed impressed.

His home base is Dallas, but Thompson travels the country attending sprint car races throughout the summer, and hosts 30- and 60-minute podcasts throughout the year called ‘Long Live the Chaz,’ talking about his favorite sport. Because of his travels, he’ll be forgiven for his use of Sioux Falls over Brandon on a post Friday, but still, the spectacle and close racing wasn’t lost on him.

“Disneyland may have relocated to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at least if you’re a race fan,” he said in a social media post following Friday night’s preliminary feature race. “Ho…ly…smokes. Wow. The heat races tomorrow (Saturday), there’s one place to be: that’s Brandon, South Dakota.”

The start at Devil’s Bowl

The famed World of Outlaws raced their first race in 1978 at Devil’s Bowl Speedway outside of Dallas. The 39-year-old Thompson obviously wasn’t born yet when the Outlaws launched, but Devil’s Bowl eventually became the spot where he fell in love with sprint car racing.

He eventually became a public address announcer at the track in Mesquite, working for legendary track owner Lanny Edwards. But the track was gobbled up by urban growth and closed in 2023. He later parlayed the announcing career into developing and managing media efforts for other tracks in Texas and Oklahoma.

But things didn’t end well at Devil’s Bowl for Thompson.

“I ended on interesting terms,” he said. “There was a situation where a bunch of things happened at the track. Lanny died, and I tried to come in and make up for some stuff. I started speaking up against some of the behind-the-scenes stuff.”

Because of some feathers he ruffled in Texas, there was obvious push back. Unfazed, Thompson kept the opinions coming, and dabbled in world politics, world religion and the world banking system.

“I just started researching, and looking, and then I started speaking more than just racing, and that ended the partnership with the race track,” he said.

The experience at Devil’s Bowl clearly formed some opinions for Thompson, some on the race track, but many away from it.

“Most of my opinions of the motorsports world come from the business operational side,” he said. “I grew up as a fan, I think everyone does, but my opinions come from seeing how the business operates. And then applying that to the entire racing world, and seeing how that world gets manipulated, in my opinion.”

Opinions rooted in NASCAR

Thompson has often taken aim at NASCAR, arguably the premier racing circuit in the United States. 

Thompson’s first social media video was speaking out against NASCAR and, in his opinion, how the racing series has “manipulated the motorsports market in America.”

“In my opinion, they still do, to keep other forms of motorsports irrelevant so that they can garnish the entire economical system of financial support through business sponsorships and other corporate entities,” he said.

Feud with Kyle Larson

Thompson said he and NASCAR star Kyle Larson used to be friends. Larson is a two-time NASCAR champion and two-time Indianapolis 500 starter. The popular driver also makes many stops throughout the summer racing sprint cars, and that includes Huset’s. 

After talking about several subjects away from racing, such as world politics, religion, banking, and conspiracy theories, he also dabbled in music and played guitar on the streets of Los Angeles and Dallas. He later decided to switch his entire focus into racing. 

“I decided, (expletive) it. I’ll talk about racing,” he said. “Ain’t nobody going to hold me back now. I don’t have ties to anyone.”

In an October 2017 social media post, he made a video talking up the dirt track racer over the “rich NASCAR privileged people of the world.”

“It went viral instantly,” he said. “In the next couple of weeks, it got up to 7-8 million views.”

He said his experience in working in the media helped enable him to produce the videos. But a video about NASCAR driver Cole Trickle struck a nerve. He said Trickle, and other NASCAR drivers, were overrated.

Larson took exception to it.

“He came on and called me a (expletive) idiot and a joke,” Thompson said. “We used to be buddies. When he said that, I was like OK, ‘If you want to talk shit mother (expletive), you’re only where you’re at because you’ve got a lot of money as well. You got opportunities that these other guys didn’t.’ That’s what started it. People like to say I’m just a Larson-hater. No. It’s like Rambo First Blood. Yea, I’ve been out here killing him for years, but he’s the one who started the shit. I was just trying to get something to eat.”

Getting something to eat

Thompson has a large following in the sprint car world, but the glamour isn’t necessarily there. 

In 2019 after toiling with a local racing podcast in Dallas for a year that wasn’t making a ton of money, he took all of his belongings and put them in a storage area at his grandmother’s Dallas home. He hit the road from there.

“I knew I wouldn’t have a house, or have the security, but I would at least be able to go out there and become a bigger brand and make bigger things happen and get out of this little Texas bubble,” he said. “I really don’t have a lot of money. Most of the time sponsors help, or being able to stay on people’s couches or spare rooms. That’s huge, especially throughout the week when there’s no racing happening.”

His content usually brings in $1,000-$1,500 per month, sometimes more, sometimes less during the offseason. In Brandon last week, he stayed on a friend’s spare couch for three of the nights, a hotel on the other. 

“That’s just kind of how it works,” he said.

He also saves a little money with his car, a Mitsubishi Lancer that was gifted to him when his mother died. The car just turned over 485,000 miles.

Relishing in disagreement?

Obviously, for as opinionated as he is, there’s some negativity that comes his way. 

His views on NASCAR, Kyle Larson, and the High Limit Racing Series have drawn the ire of many.  

“When things went south with the track (Devil’s Bowl), it was very devastating," he said. “I kind of lost everything because it was my life. But I was very hard core in my beliefs. I thought a lot of things were being manipulated. So when that went south, I learned how to be OK with public embarrassment.”

It was after that disappointment when he headed to California to take a crack at music, playing guitar on the beaches of Los Angeles, and also Hollywood Boulevard. 

“That kind of popped my cherry as far as public performance or embarrassment," he said. “I saw it as a training session into the world I have today.”

He said when he researched world leaders, or anyone on the stage or camera, he realized people aren’t always going to agree, or disagree with them. He referenced Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama as world leaders who were hated even though what they actually said “wasn’t that bad.”

“You don’t even have to get hyped up, or have strong opinions,” he said. “You just have to say anything in front of enough people, and some are going to like or dislike you. I know no matter what I say, some people are going to be mad at me, and some people are going to not like me, so I might as well say whatever the (expletive) I think. Instead of being judged for a fake version of me, at least I’ll be judged for a real one. Having people who don’t like you is more natural than anything.”

The envy of many

Thompson’s financial battle is long-standing. He actually turned his final $5 into $2,000 in one stint in Las Vegas. He was living out of his car, and wondered where his next meal would come from before he went on his casino run.

But it’s worked out, and his fame in the sprint car world is evident. He has 38,000 followers alone on Facebook, which is tagged at the top of his page as “Telling the truth one video at a time.” Since 2017, he’s had more than 187 million views on X.

He nearly gave it all up four years ago when he was close to marriage. But the relationship ended.

“I could’ve just swallowed my tongue and been a bitch husband for the rest of my life,” he said. “But she’s fine. It just didn’t work out. I dunno, I think human beings, almost sometimes, a house, a car payment, a mortgage is somewhat the hidden prison the world has put on us as well. Like, what’s life supposed to be?”

After the split with his fiancee, Thompson followed a similar script from a year’s past and put all of his belongings in a storage unit and hit the road again in 2026, making stops at race tracks around the country and posting popular social media content along the way.

“It’s fun,” he said of his current lifestyle. “But it’s never 100 percent easy.”

At the very least, it seems his visit to Brandon and Huset’s Speedway has been worth the risk for Thompson.

“This track, the time, the effort, the money put into the racing surface, it is unbelievable how good it is,” he said.