DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Ride changes, poorly kept secrets, and an exodus continues | Daily 10-02-2024

Sprint car silly season popped off yesterday, and we'll recap the announcements and give some clues for more changes to come. We'll also dive into the USAC and non-wing exodus, the end for East Bay Raceway Park, and more, let's go!

It's Wednesday, October 2nd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

It was a busy Tuesday around the sport, and we've got a lot to get you caught up on, but before we do, might I make a quick request. If you like what we do here five days a week, consider hitting that subscribe button on YouTube or the podcast places where you tune in. It's free to subscribe, it will make sure you always stay up to date on what we're doing, and it helps out the show. My YouTube goal for the year is to end with 40,000 subscribers, which means we need about 4500 more over the next three months.

So much happened yesterday that I'm not quite sure where to jump in. I guess we'll start first with the Daison Pursley news. We touched on this last week after Buch Motorsports shared a photo of a sprint car chassis to quiet rumors about their future. I told you guys that a certain, recent NOS affiliated driver was in line for the 13, and yesterday they confirmed they are bringing on Daison Pursley to replace Justin Peck. They will remain full time with High Limit next season, and officially become the first driver and team combo to commit to that series publicly. When I talked about this last week, I had a comment saying, well what about Brad Sweet. And yes, we can all assume that Sweet and the 49 will be back next season, especially since they clinched the title and get a charter. I felt like though, one I didn't need to say it out loud, I figured we were all on the same page about Sweet's situation, but apparently I was wrong. And two, to be fair, they haven't actually said anything publicly about their 2025 plans. This deal for Buch to bring in Pursley ends a four-plus year run for Justin Peck in the 13, and that team will hit the road next season with one of the sport's top young prospects. Pursley has made 15 winged sprint car appearances this year with Brandon Ikenberry's 25 car. He did win a weekly show at Huset's in May, and ran top ten against the Outlaws at the Brad Doty Classic. He's fast and talented, but raw, which means the learning curve will be steep, as most of Pursley's success has come without the wing. He's got three career USAC national sprint car wins, two of which came this year, one at Knoxville, and most recently at Eldora. He's also the current USAC midget championship leader, with seven of his nine career wins on that side coming in 2024. He really seems to have found his footing this year, and as a driver, you've got to strike while the iron is hot. Pursley won't have to wait until 2025 to make his first starts in the 13, as the team will hit up Bridgeport in November, and then World Finals to kickstart their time together and work towards getting everyone comfortable. I personally like this move for both sides. Buch goes from one wheelman to another, and Pursley will be in a car capable of winning, with a solid foundation behind him. There will be pressure on him to perform, but not to go out and win a championship right away. It will be good to have some leeway for him to learn and grow.

On the flip side, this does obviously confirm as well that Justin Peck is moving on next season. It's honestly been one of the worst kept secrets in sprint car racing the last several months, that Peck would be leaving the 13 at season's end. He posted a statement yesterday wishing the team the best in the future, thanking his partners and fans, and said that 2025 plans would be announced shortly. I wouldn't expect anything official about that until probably after the High Limit finale at Texas. If they've waited this long, they'll make us wait a little longer. And just so it's clear, this is Peck leaving, not him being fired or replaced. It's the odd situation where the team announces the replacement for the quitting driver, before that driver actually said he was leaving, or where he was going. All talk points to Peck heading to another Pennsylvania-based, national tour running sprint car team, replacing a driver also from Indiana like Peck is. That team's national tour plans for 2025 though are still supposedly being worked out. I don't think I'd be surprised if they went back Outlaw racing, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they stayed High Limit. The driver that Peck will be replacing has had his name mentioned in a lot of rumors about future rides as well, but it sounds like nothing is quite set in stone there yet, regardless of what the internet is saying right now. We'll have to stay tuned on that front. At the moment, we have one team officially going Outlaws, that's the 2C with Cole Macedo that was announced back at Knoxville, and now we've got Daison Pursley and the Buch 13 going High Limit. Both sides are definitely going to lose some drivers off their current roster, but there will likely be additions as well.

The other news from yesterday was Brady Bacon announcing he's going to focus on winged sprint car action next year. I feel like I helped speak this one into reality. If you've been around a while, you know that back in May I floated this exact situation; that Bacon could likely do better if he were to focus more on racing with the wing on. And that's his plan going forward. He'll go pick and choose for 2025, running around 40 shows in the TKH Motorsports 21H that we regularly see him in, and he'll add another 25 to 30 races with Chris Dyson and Sean Michael. They'll top it off with 15 to 20 non-wing races, hitting up some of the biggies through the season. Bacon currently sits second in the USAC sprint car standings behind Logan Seavey, and it's taken some serious performances down the stretch to get him that high after a rough start that saw him finish 12th or worse in five of the first eight races. He battled back though, and has regained that consistency that's won him titles before, and picked up five wins along the way. One of my key points back in May for why this switch should happen, was that Bacon was making more money per race this year with the wing on, and that fact has held true, even after all the success he's had with USAC in recent months. Looking at sprintcarratings.com, he's made about $2474 on average per race with no wing, but $2620 with the wing. He won the Outlaw show at Haubstadt, made the Kings Royal and Knoxville Nationals main events, and has been solid almost every time out, even running only 25 times. I think a focus on winged racing could see him easily elevate those numbers.

As for the USAC side of all of this news, and I know Jeremy Elliott talked about this today on his 90 at 9 show, but this exodus from USAC and non-wing racing is tough to overlook. Bacon was a perennial contender in the sprint car, Daison Pursley has a very good shot to be midget champion, and is third right now in sprint car points. But this goes well beyond just two drivers. High Limit right now has Tyler Courtney and Chris Windom, with both of those guys making the transition a few years ago. Emerson Axsom has gone almost completely winged racing, and he's another future star. The same is true of Tanner Thorson, who was running sprint cars and midgets, but now this season is traveling with High Limit. And we can go even further and talk about names like Zeb Wise, Spencer Bayston, Buddy Kofoid, Shane Golobic, Tanner Carrick, Chase Randall, Taylor Reimer, Brenham Crouch, and Kaylee Bryson. All of those drivers were full time USAC competitors in recent years, and all have transitioned away, mostly to winged action, with Bryson and Reimer spending more time on pavement. A series with that group of drivers right now would be absolutely stacked. Are we and is USAC okay with them just being a stepping stone to other racing for so many of these drivers. Because that feels like it's where we are right now. The economics don't work out well for drivers trying to stay at that level, and USAC is not in a position to just start paying $10,000 to win, or more, for every race. And in terms of promoting these shows, USAC must now create names every season, instead of being able to rely on having bankable stars returning. That's a tough road when you're trying to convince race fans to buy tickets and streaming, when they don't know who the drivers are. It's a difficult path for them, and I don't know how you change it. And maybe they don't need to, or maybe they realize where they are in the ecosystem, and are okay with it. I'm not really sure. They will continue to have Justin Grant and Kevin Thomas Jr. and Kyle Cummins and Robert Ballou, but there will be others who depart, especially on the midget side. I don't know how much longer we'll see Ryan Timms in a midget, and Logan Seavey seems ripe to be picked up.

The other news from yesterday, and this one was a bummer, even though it seemed possible all along. But we've seen the final Lucas races at East Bay Raceway Park in Florida. The Grand Finale for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series has been cancelled because of after effects of Hurricane Helene and more rain expected in the leadup to those dates. In place of those races that were supposed to be October 10th through the 12th, the Brownstown races that were postponed, the CJ Rayburn Memorial and the Jackson 100, will now be run October 11th and 12th. So the Lucas championship chase is now two nights at PA Motor Speedway, this weekend, those rescheduled Brownstown races, and the two nights at Eldora for the Dirt Track World Championship. The final race ever for East Bay will now be the Rusty Dixon Memorial, which was postponed to November 2nd. That one will feature local racing for modifieds, 604 late models, street stocks and more. And then after that, a staple of Florida dirt racing will fade into the ether.

It's Wednesday, so that means a look around the other dirt racing podcasts for fresh content this week. Winged Nation has Van Gurley Jr. and Daison Pursley, Turn 2 Terribles has Wes Irwin, Getting up to Speed has Tom Berry Jr., and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, Dirt Track Confessions, the Dirt Nerds, and the Driver's Project. You can find links to all these shows and their newest episodes at dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

That's the show for today. Thanks to everyone who grabbed something in the sale over at shop.dirtrackr.com. All stickers and shirts are now sold out. Your orders are all shipped, and should be to you very soon, if you haven't received them already.

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