DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Rare opportunity or a new sprint car land grab? | Daily 3-3-2024
Are we about to see a land grab in sprint car racing as this World of Outlaws and High Limit rivalry develops? We'll talk about it amid the WRG purchase of the ASCS, plus news from Jonathan Davenport, weekend results, and much more. Let's go!
It's Sunday, March 3rd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
We've got a bunch of stuff to get into today on this packed Daily show, including news from recent days and weekend racing, but before we do, a quick message from today's show sponsor...
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Going back to Friday afternoon, the rumored deal for World Racing Group to purchase the American Sprint Car Series was officially announced. World Racing Group is the parent company for the World of Outlaws, DIRTcar, and lots of other entities if you aren't aware. The opening weekend of the ASCS National Tour for 360 sprint cars was supposed to be this weekend, but it was cancelled amid the uncertainty of the future for the embattled racing series. Things had gone sideways for series operator Terry Mattox over the offseason, and in the aftermath, the Hahn family retook control of the series they founded in 1992. World Racing Group's acquisition secures the rest of the 2024 season, and the next weekend of racing, March 15th and 16th at RPM Speedway, is on as scheduled. WRG now owns the national tour, and is in control of the 12 regions. As you could have guessed, the national tour will be added to the programming lineup for DIRTVision. It was previously on FloRacing, and then RacinDirt for the 2023 year. RacinDirt also served as the series presenting sponsor. From what I've seen the reaction has been positive, and hopefully this will provide some stability for those racers and tracks. There is a ton of speculation about what will happen in the future now and what WRG's plans are, but I think it's clear they view this as a move to shore up regional sprint car racing. In the release headline, they mentioned it as a quote "move to protect sport's future." So why the ASCS, and why now? We haven't seen World Racing Group make an acquisition like this in probably something like 20 years. For much of the last decade or two, Brian Carter has been working towards shedding tracks and series purchased in the Boundless/DIRT Motorsports days that they viewed as not essential to their success. That included series like MARS, and race track deals at facilities like Orange County, what is now Weedsport and Land of Legends, Lernerville, and Rolling Wheels. WRG's only remaining owned race track from the mid 2000's is Volusia. But since the High Limit purchase of the All Stars and subsequent moves to become a national series, it's been clear that Carter and WRG have been eyeing a move into regional racing to fill the void. Back in October, Carter was interviewed for Area Auto Racing News and he told Len Sammons quote "There is a need for a strong, reasonably priced sprint car show. A place for developing teams a chance to race without racing against the very best every night so they have a chance to develop. It's also a great chance for fans to see sprint car racing until the World of Outlaws come through their area. It's a balancing act that is in jeopardy right now. I hope everything remains in balance or there will be a void that will need to be filled. If I have to look at that I will because we all need strong regional programs" unquote. Since then, we know that World Racing Group was involved in efforts to try and create a new series based in Ohio, but that ultimately didn't happen. DIRTVision though will be involved in the streaming of the unified Ohio Sprint Speedweek. And now here we are several months later with the ASCS now under the World Racing Group banner. Did High Limit influence this decision? Yeah, maybe to a point. If the All Stars don't go away, WRG might not have been looking in this direction. But I also think this was a chance for them to grab a distressed asset at probably a very good price. There are questions about the economic viability of 360 racing, but I don't see Carter going this direction if he didn't believe they could make money here. I did a YouTube livestream back on Friday to react to the news, and Carter actually jumped into the chat. There he said they will use this as a foundation to build and grow regional programs, 360's where they are strong, and 410's where they are strong.
As for some more details, for the moment it sounds like WRG and DIRTVision's Brian Dunlap is going to lead the efforts on bringing the ASCS in, but he told Jeremy Elliott they are going to hire a series director. Dunlap was heavily involved in the startup of the Xtreme Series two years ago. They are also evaluating things like purses and the point fund. I have heard as well that there could be alterations to the schedule, stay tuned for any developments there.
One final thing on this front that I wanted to address was the question of future acquisitions by the major players like WRG, and the FloRacing sphere. I saw people wondering if other series could be gobbled up, with POWRi and the USCS floated as examples. And at this moment, my own opinion and feeling is no, I don't see that. I don't believe we are suddenly going to see a land grab, especially in sprint car racing. I do think there is a path where High Limit could expand in other directions in the future, but for the time being, they need to focus on making their national series viable and profitable before they look elsewhere. Expanding too much too quickly is a recipe for disaster. And now with the ASCS brand to use as a starting point, I don't know why WRG would need to buy anything else. Like I said earlier, I think this was a unique opportunity for World Racing Group to capitalize on a perceived void in regional racing by buying a distressed asset at a good price point. Things like this don't happen very often. Feel free to leave your comments below on this entire situation and what you think will happen in the future.
One other news item for the past few days that I didn't want to gloss over was the announcement that Jonathan Davenport is indeed sticking around as a full time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series driver for 2024. He previously didn't have a set schedule beyond Golden Isles, but on Thursday evening the team shared via Facebook that they are going to chase a fourth series championship. Coming out of speedweeks, Davenport is currently third in the standings, just 25 points behind leader Ricky Thornton Jr. JD had a win, eight top fives, and nine top tens in 13 races. This was very much that wait and see type of situation for Davenport. Run down south, see how their speed was a where they shook out after the opening stretch, then decide on future plans. With Overton out of the mix, this should be probably five drivers vying for those final four championship playoff spots. RTJ, Hudson O'Neal, Davenport, and Devin Moran are the favorites, with Daulton Wilson also in the mix if he can stay consistent. I do think maybe Mike Marlar has an outside shot as well. Lucas is quiet at the moment until March 22nd at Atomic.
Jumping into some weekend results, we had a lot of races rained out, including two of three Spring Nationals races, and the Northern All Stars at Brownstown. Ethan Dotson dominated the Spring Nationals opener Thursday night at Waycross, leading all 40 laps for the $7500 score. He topped Ryan Gustin and Donald McIntosh. And Spencer Hughes was a $5000 winner with the Southern All Stars on Saturday night at North Alabama. Looking at today, a bunch of late model teams are at Cherokee for the $20,000 to win March Madness. That one will feature Chris Madden, Brandon Overton, Chris Ferguson, Carson Ferguson, and many more. It's live over on Hunt the Front TV if you want to stream it.
With the ASCS Elite Outlaw winged 410 series, Noah Gass and Sam Hafertepe were winners at Hunt County and Kennedale Speedway Park. Gass topped Ayrton Gennetten and Hafertepe Friday, and Hafertepe beat out Blaine Baxter and Dominic Scelzi Saturday. That Elite Outlaw series races again late in April.
And weekend USMTS modified wins went to Jack Sartain and Dan Ebert down at Rocket Raceway Park. Both of those were $5000 scores. The USMTS heads to Humboldt Speedway this coming weekend for the King of America with Dan Ebert leading Jake Timm and Jason Hughes in the championship standings after four races.
If you want some sprint car racing today, the World of Outlaws are back at Volusia for a Bike Week double header. They race today and Monday, and I believe both shows are $12,000 to win. David Gravel leads Gio Scelzi for the championship with just those four DIRTcar Nationals races complete. Some drivers who had tough nights at Volusia several weeks ago will be looking to make big jumps in the standings, and that list includes Carson Macedo, Buddy Kofoid, and Sheldon Haudenschild. Sheldon did bounce back from three finishes outside the top ten to score the win on the final night, but they certainly need more. If you aren't in the neighborhood, DIRTVision has live coverage.
And Lincoln Speedway pushed their regular weekly race from Saturday to today to get better weather. A bunch of Central PA 410 teams will be in attendance there, we'll see if Troy Wagaman can go back to back. Lincoln is again only showing certain races this season on FloRacing, not the entire schedule, but today's race is one that will be streamed, so you can watch if you aren't headed to the track.
Alright, that's it for this edition of the Daily show. Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!