DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Exclusive details on the new World of Outlaws Safety Team | Daily 2-6-2024

High Limit is trying to improve the fan experience and people are pissed. We'll dive in, plus I've got exclusive details on the new World of Outlaws Safety Team and their plans for 2024, and we'll talk Anthony Macri, Lucas at East Bay, DIRTcar Nationals and more. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, February 6th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

When you do what I do with a show like this, you end up either seeing, or getting sent all the news items. Some things you end up running with, while others are either not that important to talk about, or are seemingly innocuous. Yesterday, when I saw the High Limit fan fest announcement, I didn't figure this was something that would be worth talking about on my show. Giveaways, driver playlists, some time for fans to head to the pits, it all sounds great, but not usually something I'm going to cover here. That was until I starting seeing the reactions. And wow are they negative. For some context here, High Limit is planning on opening the pits to everyone for a 20 to 30 minute period following qualifying and before opening ceremonies. Usually this type of an open pit area is reserved until after the program is complete, but High Limit is experimenting here. In looking at their plan, no doubt there are going to be challenges. Getting potentially a few thousand people from the grandstands, to the pits, and back in 30 minutes could prove to be a tough ask. And after qualifying, the crews are going to be deep into making adjustments to get their cars ready for heat races. Having fans crowded around cars during that period could make that more difficult. So yes, I see and understand all the points that have been brought up. Here is where I'm going to counter though. High Limit has promised something different. They have promised innovation. You can't do that unless you are willing to go against convention. This whole thing could absolutely be a major flop the first few times they try it. And if it is, they'll just scrap it. That's not hard to do. But I think if you are Brad Sweet and Kyle Larson and Kendra Jacobs and Mike Hess, you have to be prepared to blow the whole model up and try some stuff. One of two things will happen when they venture outside the box. They will either discover why this hasn't been done much before and revert back, or they will break new ground and find new things that work. If they take the same playbook that has been run across the sport for decades, they are going to end up with the same product and the same results. A saying I like a lot is "if you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done." Maybe before we completely lose our minds on the internet, we give them some rope to try and fail at some things. If they touch the hot plate and get burned, then so be it. But you can't blame them for trying to push things.

And speaking of sprint car innovation, we know that High Limit will bring the MedStar Safety Team with them to all of their races in 2024, and that safety continues to be a major focus. We talked just yesterday about the onboard fire supression systems required by both national tours. Carson Macedo's crash at Knoxville last year was one that a lot of people were talking about and pointing to, and improvements always need to be sought after. But High Limit isn't alone in making moves for this season. Yesterday, the DIRTcar Nationals Twitter account posted an image of this truck that is on the property at Volusia this week, and will be at all World of Outlaws events in 2024. I reached out to WRG to get some details on it, and was provided with a bunch of info on their plans. In the past, the Outlaw officials' safety buggies were stocked with tools and equipment, like compact fire fighting systems. Specifically the Enforcer 10 that looks like this. Officials were already wearing safety gear themselves, like firesuits, and going through safety training. But they are stepping up efforts starting at Volusia with this truck at the center. In addition to the buggies, this new truck will carry the Enforcer 30 system that can produce 600 gallons of fire fighting foam, plus additional extinguishers. It will also have a med board, an Amkus battery powered cutter (for cutting bars and metal), plus it will be fully supplied for basic medical life-support. And on top of all World Racing Group employed officials now being required to take the SFI short track safety course, the Outlaws have hired a retired paramedic out of Texas who has 30 years of experience and who will be dedicated to the sprint car series specifically. All of this is great news, and I'm very much glad to see both series not only making safety a priority, but investing resources into improvements. I'm sure this will be well received at Volusia this week and all season.

Alright, moving on. One of the sprint car drivers who I was often asked about this offseason in connection with a possible High Limit run was Anthony Macri. We haven't heard much about or from this team lately, but they were never in the conversation for joining a series. The expectation all along has been that they would stay and pick and choose, and thanks to their schedule release yesterday, that's been confirmed. The 39M will start the season this week and run Volusia with the Outlaws, and East Bay and Golden Isles with High Limit. From there, it's a mix of shows all season between Central PA, the World of Outlaws, and High Limit, with a few others thrown in as well including some weekly midwest shows. I count 30 Outlaw shows, and 31 with High Limit. The Concrete Kid was a significant topic of conversation last year after he departed his family's 39M a few hours before the Eldora Million was set to start, and he spent much of the rest of the year splitting time between Bernie's Indy Race Parts 71 and the Clauson Marshall 7BC when Tyler Courtney was injured. Whatever happened between the two sides though did eventually get worked out, with Macri rejoining the team in October. In 2022, the 39M was one of the best teams in the country, racking up 23 wins in 93 starts, and they were off to a similar pace last year before things went sideways. After the split, neither side was really the same, with Macri himself going winless through the rest of the year, and the 39M only winning once with Lance Dewease in the seat. We'll get to see this week how quickly the 39M can get back up to speed, with action starting on Wednesday.

As expected, the Monday show at East Bay for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series was rained out. The night's action wasn't cancelled though, and has instead been postponed in a different way than I've seen before. Instead of re-running the program all together at a later date, they are chopping the night up and are going to run the pieces of it through the rest of the week. So after tonight's action is complete, they will then run qualifying for the makeup show. After Wednesday, it will be heat races and the B-Mains. And after Thursday is done, they will run the 25 lap feature. There are definitely some criticisms of this plan floating around, so we'll see how it works out. East Bay a year ago turned into a Rocket Chassis party, with the whole week going to drivers and teams running Rocket cars, including Tyler Erb, Ashton Winger, and Ryan Gustin early, and then the final two nights went to Hudson O'Neal. This came after Rocket had basically been shut out of the win column to start 2023. Things haven't quite been the same though this year, and we've seen plenty of speed from the Rocket cars, including multiple house car wins already and some podium sweeps. Hot laps are scheduled today for 5:30 PM ET, and tonight's show is $5000 to win. Don't be surprised if a team or two sits out some of these early East Bay nights, as not al of them are for points. If you are near the track, FloRacing has live coverage.

At Volusia on Monday, they had 113 UMP modifieds signed in, and we had a six pack of feature winners on the night. Brian Ruhlman, Mitch Thomas, Tyler Nicely, Tim Ward, David Stremme, and Will Krup all picked up gator trophies. Today at DIRTcar Nationals, they'll do it all over again with another six modified features, but in between we'll have sprint car practice sprinkled in. The World of Outlaws teams will get three hot lap sessions through the night to get things dialed in before racing starts on Wednesday. DIRTVision will have live coverage for those of you watching from afar.

That's it for today's Daily. If you want to hear even more from me, check out Winged Nation today. It's their first show of the year, and me and Brad Doty are joining Steve Post and Erin Evernham to talk the start of the sprint car season. You can find Winged Nation on Facebook and YouTube.

Hope you guys have a great Tuesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!