DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Wait, what's happening with the ASCS? | Daily 2-21-2024

The 2024 national midget season is still a ways off, but we'll update you today on who's planning full time runs. Plus an update on James McFadden's visa status and his High Limit season, and we'll talk about what's been developing with the 360 ASCS and it's murky future. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, February 21st, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

I'll start today's show off by addressing the current situation around the American Sprint Car Series. I was hoping to wait until things were a little more clear, but I've been getting a ton of messages about this, so let's talk about it. Rumors are flying at the moment about the future of the 360 national series and all the connected regional tours. The 2024 national schedule is slated to kick off March 1st and 2nd at South Texas Race Ranch in Corpus Christi, but things are very murky at the moment, and that event could be close to changing structurally. Terry Mattox assumed control of the ASCS from Emmett Hahn back in 2021, and has operated it the last two seasons. But it sounds like Mattox's time at the helm has come to an end and the Hahn family is back in the mix in a major way. This has been playing out for a while, but over the last several days has ramped up significantly, and it's finally started to leak out onto social media. Which isn't a surprise, given how many tracks and drivers are affected by this. I spent some time on the phone yesterday with a 360 car owner involved, I've seen text messages, and have heard all of the same things others have. This is an area where things are very fluid right now, and it's a situation that wil continue to evolve in the coming days and weeks. Chatter on the internet points to a possible sale of the ASCS to dirt racing's main player, but it sounds like those rumors might be a bit premature. I'm not saying a sale won't happen, or that it's not possible, but I've gotten the indication that we are still very early on any of that. 360 sprint car racing was supposed to be a less expensive way to go racing versus a 410, but the rising costs of everything have changed the balance. The cost of a 360 engine isn't all that different than a 410 now, but yet 360 payouts are usually quite a bit less. So the economics of a traveling 360 tour have become increasingly difficult. What any of this means for the 2024 ASCS season, and beyond, nobody actually knows at the moment, regardless of what they post on a Facebook group. Again, the rumors are rampant, some of them oddly specific, but nothing has been settled and there are way more questions than answers at this point. Hopefully this all gets resolved in a positive way, because sprint car racing is already trying to deal with splintering at the 410 level. Issues with the ASCS will only add to the current unrest. Stay tuned.

We'll get more into the High Limit weekend tomorrow, but I did want to make a quick update about James McFadden. He didn't race at East Bay because of visa issues and getting here from Australia, and he's not on the entry list again for Golden Isles this weekend. Dominic Scelzi will again be in the Roth 83 as a sub. Jeremy Elliott at Sprint Car Unlimited talked on his 90 at 9 video today about McFadden's status, and confirmed he's still waiting on approval, but does expect to have it any day now. After these two High Limit shows at Golden Isles, the series the goes quiet until April, similar to how the All Stars use to structure their schedule. Race early, then go quiet for the early spring. So hopefully with more than a month in between races, McFadden will have his status worked out. As we talked about before, this will effectively end McFadden's chances at a driver championship with High Limit, but the Roth team will still be in line for the owners' side of things, and the High Limit charter. I'll be curious to see how McFadden's future plays out, especially as it seems as though his career is really starting to blossom here in the US. Depending on the reliability of the Toyota engine, he could be a real threat with High Limit this year, and there exists a situation where he can stack up the wins. But he told Jeremy not long ago that his time as a racer in this country is limited, and that he will re-evaluate his future after this year. He's got a young family, and no home in the states. When he comes here, he basically lives out of his RV. It would be a shame to not see him continue racing here full time, but I don't think anyone can blame him for wanting to be home in Australia more.

We are still several weeks away from the start of the national midget season, with Xtreme getting started March 15th and 16th indoors at Du Quoin, and USAC not kicking off until April 26th at Kokomo. We haven't talked much about full timers for either, so I thought today we could run through what's been announced so far. On the USAC side, Zach Daum is the newest full timer there. Announced just yesterday, he will tackle the full schedule with Texas based RAMCO Racing, with whom he raced a few times in 2023, including wins at Belleville and the BC39. This will be the first time since 2014 that Daum will be out full time with USAC, but he has chased the Xtreme championship the last few seasons, and that will continue as well. So both national tours for Daum. Also signed on with USAC are Kyle Jones with car owner Corey Joyner, Jake Andreotti and Matt Westfall with the new 4 Kings Racing, Kevin Thomas Jr. has joined Mounce/Stout for a full slate, Zach Wigal will be a rookie with Chad Boat. Wigal was the 2023 USAC Midwest D2 midget champion. And we know that Logan Seavey will be back with Abacus Racing to defend is 2023 national championship. So that's seven at this moment we know of. On the Xtreme side, besides Zach Daum, Chase McDermand will tackle the series again, but with Dave Mac Dalby. Ryan Timms is back with Keith Kunz and he will run the full Xtreme schedule, as will Gavin Miller, who was third in the standings a year ago. Mounce Stout will campaign three cars, with Ashton Torgerson, Jayden Clay, and Tyler Edwards in the seats. And Hayden Reinbold is back after picking up his first series win last season. That makes it eight right now for Xtreme. Some drivers we know that won't be back on either side full time include Jade Avedisian and Taylor Reimer. Both will make select midget starts, but are shifting more towards pavement racing. There are plenty of other drivers who will likely be back full time again as well, like I'm assuming Justin Grant will return to the RMS Racing midget for a full USAC run, there just hasn't been anything shared officially. There is still plenty of time though for the rest of the full timers list to shake out.

Besides this show, there are plenty of other dirt racing podcasts to tune into each week. Every Wednesday, I run through the other recent episodes to spotlight other content creators. This week, you can check out Tyler Courtney on Winged Nation, Bryce Dues on Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks, Kasey Kahne on Hoogie's Garage, Jeff Smith on Dunewich on Dirt, Billy Dietrich on the Turn 2 Terribles, David Heileman on Plum Wild, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, Dirt Track Confessions, and Racing Roundup. If you want to see all of these podcasts in one place, including a list of their recent episodes, jump over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

That's it for the show today, make sure to stop by dirtrackr.com to see all the latest dirt racing news and to sign up for free to our email newsletter, The Slider.

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