DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Call Jay if want to drive a winning sprint car! Plus, where is the World of Outlaws schedule? | Daily 11-20-2024

Open sprint car rides are starting to run short, but there is a quality one open we'll talk about today. Plus when we might see the World of Outlaws schedule, more thoughts on regional racing, and more. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, November 20th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

With racing starting to wrap up for 2024, I know a lot of the attention is starting to shift towards next year, and that includes schedules and teams trying to figure out plans. When we look at the bigger series, we've already seen both national touring late model schedules, plus High Limit. The biggy we are still waiting on is the World of Outlaws sprint car series 2025 slate. I thought maybe we'd get it during World Finals week, as that was when they released the late model schedule. But nothing was announced outside of the confirmation of the Huset's dates. We've see a few shows at various tracks announced in the days since, but it's my understanding we won't have to wait much longer on the full rundown. I would expect the World of Outlaws to release the 2025 season schedule within likely the next day or so. Racing will start at Volusia in February, and they'll be back again in March for that Bike Week event. There is a fall west coast swing, and racing will again end at World Finals. There might be a surprise or two along the way as well, so we'll stay tuned on that. We also only have a hand full of teams we know are confirmed with the Outlaws next year, and that list includes David Gravel, Cole Macedo with the 2C, and Sheldon Haudenschild. There are rumblings though that we could see a new team make it's Outlaw plans known in the coming days. We're still about three weeks from the PRI Show, where a lot of deals are announced and come together, so I'd expect more there, but other things could be released before then.

If you are someone you know is looking for a sprint car ride for 2025, there is a very good one available in Ohio. In recent days, Jay Kiser Racing shared to social media they are now in the process of searching for their next driver. The team is preparing for a 50-60 race season, including Attica, World of Outlaws and High Limit appearances, plus FAST and other regional racing. They are looking for a quote "high caliber driver" with experience that can bring some backing. The post mentioned that the more a driver can bring financially, the more they can race and be competitive. The Kiser 23 was driven in 2024 by Cale Thomas, but these two sides split after the races at Attica and Sharon in September. Thomas won eight times in 50 plus races, with more than 20 top fives, and was in the mix for both the Ohio Speedweek and AFCS championships. Thomas hasn't announced any plans since leaving, but he did race with Ron Rutherford during the National Open at Williams Grove. This could be a very solid landing spot for free agent drivers out there, as it's capable of winning any night out in Ohio. They also aren't afraid to travel some. Some notable free agents right now include Zeb Wise, Parker Price Miller, Chase Randall, Cory Eliason, Devon Borden, and Hunter Schuerenberg.

Out in California tonight, the USAC midget west coast swing gets started with the first of five remaining races. They are at the Tulare Thunderbowl tonight, then Merced Friday and Saturday, Bakersfield next Tuesday the 26th, then Turkey Night at Ventura next Saturday the 30th. Daison Pursley your championship leader right now, he's got 87 points on Cannon McIntosh. McIntosh needs about 17 and a half points per night over Pursley to take the lead by the close of business at Ventura. As we've talked about, these west coast races are going to be absolutely stacked, so you can expect tough races to make and tough races to win over the next week and a half. On top of the USAC midget series regulars, you're going to see Buddy Kofoid, Tyler Courtney, Carson Macedo, Tanner Thorson, Emerson Axsom and several others at all of these races. You'll also get scattered appearances from Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson. One driver we won't see at all is Jade Avedisian. Jade had been running a partial dirt schedule this year in between some road course racing after winning the Xtreme Outlaw Midget championship in 2023. She shared yesterday that she's been dealing with an injury since the BC39 in September, and will sit out the rest of the season to let it heal. Jade actually on the podium in both races at the IMS dirt track. If you are the betting type, some curious odds for tonight's action. Logan Seavey and Daison Pursley the heavy favorites, but I don't think guys like Kofoid, Macedo, Axsom and Thorson are getting enough respect. They have Thorson at plus 6500, which means if you bet $10 on him and he wins, you'd get $650 profit. Let's not forget that going back through the 2020, the only driver with more USAC midget wins than Thorson is Kofoid. Should be a good one tonight though as Tulare is usually wild. Plus the series hasn't been there since 2010.

I did want to jump back to the MLRA shut down news from earlier this week. We covered this on the Monday show, that the Lucas Oil Company is shutting down the MLRA late model series in the midwest, and will instead focus those resources on the national Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and Lucas Oil Speedway. The series director, Ernie Leftwich, will transition to a new role at the speedway. I know the Hunt the Front guys commented on this on their podcast, and there are a few things going around elsewhere. There is an ongoing debate and conversation about what the future is for local and regional racing and how viable it is. We've seen a bunch of weekly tracks shutting down, and this move by Lucas to shutter the MLRA doesn't feel good. It seems as though there is some thought that the MLRA wasn't healthy in terms of competitors, and I did get a message from Ernie about this specifically. If you look at the MLRA standings, yes, Chad and Chris Simpson were the only two series drivers to make every feature, but they actually had 11 drivers with perfect attendance in 2024. That 11 number is pretty standard across dirt racing series, and about what you would expect. The MLRA stats are a little misleading because a few of their shows are co-sanctioned with the national series, so it's going to be tough for some of those regional guys to make those Lucas features. But losing the MLRA is going to be felt in that area. There are some other series these guys will tag onto, and it's likely others will pop up smelling opportunity. I do think though that this MLRA shutdown isn't some sort of deathknell for regional racing. There are a lot of other regional players, and some having some decent success. I think the larger story with the MLRA is the Lucas Oil Company continuing to shift their spending towards things that actually move the needle. When you are talking about larger players and sponsors, especially at a more corporate level, there needs to be stronger justification for why money is going out the door. I also believe we are at a transition point in dirt racing where some of the old school ways of doing business are being exposed badly, and those that refuse to change are being rooted out. The margins are razor thin for a lot of these entities, and not everyone is going to be built for the challenges. I believe that's why we've seen some of the tracks go away. There will continue to be consolidation around the national stuff and big events, because that's what makes money. And there will be some winners and losers at the local and regional levels.

Looking around the other dirt racing podcasts this week, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has Ava Payton, Hoogie's Garage has Chuck McGillivray and Madi Schultz, Turn 2 Terribles has Jeremy Elliott, Getting up to Speed has Geoff Morris, The Driver's Project has Christopher Bell, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, Dirt Track Confessions, the Dirt Nerds, Ohio Dirt, and Plum Wild. To see all the shows and their new episodes, visit dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

That's the Daily for today. Don't forget that we post full show transcripts over at dirtrackr.com/daily. So if you'd rather read the daily, or know someone that is hard of hearing who would still like to tune in, they can do so over there.

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