DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Legal sports gambling comes to dirt racing | Daily 6-2-2024
A six figure payday for Cade Dillard, the Kreitz 69K goes back-to-back with two different drivers at two different race tracks, legal gambling comes to dirt racing, and much more today. Let's go!
It's Sunday, June 2nd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
Later this week the Dirt Late Model Dream gets rolling at Eldora Speedway, and another big Eldora event means another opportunity to visit our friends at The Whistle Stop Bar and Grill located just 7 miles South of the track. Besides the Whistle Stop, they also have a sister business located in Downtown Greenville, Ohio called Sure Shot Tap House. Sure Shot Tap House is a 46 tap self pour facility featuring domestic and craft beer, ciders, seltzers, bourbons, and wines. They also have a self-serve cocktail machine that compliments their amazing food menu. Venture upstairs to the Bullseye Game Lounge which boasts Duckpin Bowling as well as 24 arcade games, making Sure Shot the ultimate destination to Eat, Drink, and Play all under one roof. New this year, they will be running buses from Eldora to Sure Shot on the Fridays of all major events. The the first of these bus trips is this week. The trip includes a buffet, $15 pour card, swag bag and more! Visit sureshottaphouse.com/events for more information on this great trip.
We'll start this Sunday show off with some news that dropped last Friday, and it's a situation that could end up being potentially a serious revenue driver for dirt racing. USAC announced that starting with Indiana Midget Week, fans will be able to legally bet on the racing action through various sports books in 30 different states. The release says that means fans can place wagers on things like driver champions, feature winners, plus head to head competitions on which drivers finish ahead of each other in specific races. The way it reads, this will be just for the national sprint car series and the national midget series. I'd been hearing for the past year or so that USAC was working through the process to potentially make this happen, and now it's a done deal. This makes USAC's dirt racing divisions really the first to be included in legal gambling like this. They said specifically the first grassroots racing series to be represented in online wagering. So USAC becomes the first, but I doubt they will be the last. Especially if there is significant money to be made. I know that other dirt racing sanctioning bodies have looked into the possiblities as well, and while dirt racing gambling would be incredibly small relatively, when looking at the larger sports betting ecosystem, it could still end up being a revenue generator for the sport. So how exactly can sanctioning bodies, like USAC, make money here? The first is licensing. The sports books will pay USAC fees to use logos and names inside of apps and marketing materials. There is also the possbility of a cut of the actual gaming revenue. From there, if racing series control their data, they can get fees for providing that data, especially streaming data, to the books. There would also potentially be sponsorship opportunities available, with betting providers looking to use marketing to get more fans to sign up for apps. We are at the point where you could open your betting app, and throw down some cash on a feature winner from the grandstands or your couch right before a feature pushes off. We wouldn't need betting windows like at a horse track. The downside though is now action needs to be monitored to avoid issues with integrity, but even the top leagues haven't been immune to that. We've seen NFL players suspended for gambling, and the NBA recently banned a player for altering outcomes because of wagers. The USAC release specifically mentions part of the rule book that bars quote "drivers, crews, team members, officials and staff from placing, soliciting, or facilitating any wager." During my own time in NASCAR, we were barred from placing bets on NASCAR events, and had to participate in regular trainings about sports betting, which included sections on integrity of races. These days there are companies that monitor players and action and improprieties can be spotted by technology. So will this be some sort of game changer for USAC overnight? It's hard to say, but I do think there will be plenty of opportunities coming up for the sanctioning bodies to cash in, and this will definitely be somethig to watch if you're interested in the business of dirt racing. The dollars provided by streaming services have helped the sport shift in some significant ways, and this has the potential to be another big revenue stream for the sport.
Looking around at racing action the last few days, Cade Dillard definitely the big winner. He bagged the $100,000 modified race at Mississippi Thunder put on by the XR folks. He led 92 of the 100 laps for the biggest payday of his career. Jake Timm, Kennedy Swan also on the podium. Bobby Pierce finished fourth, and Ricky Thornton Jr. was 16th. Lots of other big names missed out on the feature event, with some really tight racing all weekend. It was announced that this event will return in 2025, with the payout bumping to $125,000 to win. No surprise with the number of cars they had and the big crowds.
In weekend late model action, as expected, teams were scattered around the various regional and local events. Mike Marlar was a $10,000 Spring Nationals winner at Ponderosa topping Garrett Smith and Brandon Sheppard. With the Hunt the Front series, Brandon Overton won the Friday show at Swainsboro, while Dalton Cook bagged the big $20,000 check on Saturday. His first career win with Hunt the Front, an his biggest payday ever. Brandon Overton extended his championship lead over Sam Seawright. And notably, Hudson O'Neal was a $5000 Iron-Man winner at Atomic Speedway on Saturday. In the course of his career, this is obviously not up there on his resume, but I do think it could end up being important for his season. This is his first win in a Longhorn Chassi this season and could be a nice confidence boost going forward as he tries to stay in this Lucas playoff hunt. This wasn't his own team, but instead a car out of Kevin Rumley's shop. Longhorn does seem committed to helping Huddy succeed.
With the World of Outlaws, Sheldon Haudenschild a winner on Friday at Beaver Dam. Rain pushed the Saturday race back to July 10th. The standings remain tight as both Carson Macedo and David Gravel picked up podium finishes. Just 30 points separate those two right now. And both Macedo and Buddy Kofoid pushed their top ten streaks out again. The Outlaws are at River Cities and Ogilvie this coming weekend.
High Limit also had their Saturday race rained out, they are running though at Butler Motor Speedway today. Kyle Larson won the Friday show at Lawrenceburg, topping Rico Abreu and Parker Price Miller. It was Larson's first sprint car win since the High Limit opener at East Bay back in February. Rico now has four straight podium finishes as well, since winning at Utica Rome on May 17th. Brad Sweet back on top of the championship thanks to a fourth place run at the Burg, with Tyler Courtney struggling a bit down in 14th. It was Sunshine's worst finish of the season. I do want to give a hat tip as well to Kalib Henry. We just talked about his impressive start to 2024 on the Daily show not long ago, and he ran fifth with High Limit on Friday after starting second. He then went to Fremont on Saturday and beat Zeth Sabo in a thriller for the $4000 win. Go find those highlights on DIRTVision. After tonight at Butler, High Limit is back with another midweek race on Tuesday at Davenport Speedway.
USAC sprint car wins at Knoxville went to Justin Grant and Daison Pursley, with Logan Seavey still maintaining the lead in the standings even though he suffered a DNF last night. Indiana Midget Week for USAC starts Tuesday at Circle City.
Also, how about Don Kreitz Racing going back to back Friday and Saturday, at two different race tracks with two different drivers. Friday it was Daryn Pittman going to victory lane at Williams Grove for the first time since 2016, and then Saturday it was Logan Wagner going seventh to the win at Port Royal. Remember Daryn Pittman running an abbreviated schedule in the 69K, including some Outlaw races at the Grove, and they are going to Knoxville here soon as well.
Other weekend sprint car winners included Justin Sanders in a good one with NARC at Placerville. Cole Macedo still the NARC championship leader, but that one is super tight through five races. Cannon McIntosh and Ashton Torgerson were Xtreme Outlaw winners, and the first three Western PA Speedweek victories went to Dylan Norris, AJ Flick, and Ryan Smith. Speedweek closes out today with a stop at Tri-City.
That's it for the Daily show today. There is a bunch of racing today, so make sure to hit up the streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Hope you guys have a great rest of your Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!