DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Can dirt racing cash in, or will their bet go bust? | Daily 12-15-2024

A popular late model win, Christopher Bell picks up right where he left off, more sprint car ride news, and we'll talk High Limit's gambling announcement. Let's go!

It's Sunday, December 15th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

At All-Tech last night, Randy Weaver made himself $100,000 richer thanks to the XR 604 Nationals win. He started 13th, was to the lead by lap 16, and then battled Jason Garver and Michael Brown through the rest of the feature to score the victory. Brown fought back to finish second after losing the lead on lap 56 for jumping a restart. Mason Zeigler charged to the podium from 22nd, and Brandon Overton and Ricky Weiss completed the top five. Definitely the richest win of Weaver's career, and this one will be a popular win. I've already seen this morning a bunch of social posts congratulating him on the victory. This race effectively wraps up the 2024 dirt late model season around the country. Don't worry though, in less than three weeks we'll have cars on track at Talladega and Vado to start 2025.

Indoors at DuQuoin, Christopher Bell made his return to dirt at the Junior Knepper 55 last night. He started on the pole of the POWRi midget feature but got outdueled towards the end by sixth starting Karter Sarff. Sarff took the win with Bell second and Brent Crews third. Sarff could be an interesting one to watch come Chili Bowl in a few weeks. Bell though didn't leave empty handed, as he dominated the 25 lap non-wing micro feature from the pole, topping Parker Leek and Kole Kirkman. After more than two years away from competition, Bell knocked the rust off pretty quickly, and there is no reason to believe he won't be a contender in Tulsa coming up. Also, Brent Crews, this kid has been racing pavement all year. His last midget start was at Chili Bowl back in January, and he shows up to a competitive 55 car field and puts it on the podium. That's impressive as well. Tulsa Shootout starts two weeks from this Tuesday, and we are less than a month from Chili Bowl.

With weekend racing out of the way, let's talk about some of the other news that's broken since we did that bonus Daily show back on Friday. We led off with the split of Chris Windom and Vermeer Motorsports, and we didn't have to wait long for the two sides to announce their future plans. It was only a few hours after the show that Sides Motorsports revealed they were bringing on Windom with that NOS sponsorship to drive the 7S next season. Windom will battle for rookie of the year on tour with the World of Outlaws against Cole Macedo. Windom replaces Landon Crawley who departed the 7S not long ago to join Michael Dutcher's team for next season. Windom will be into year four of his transition to full time winged sprint car racing, and it hasn't been easy to this point. 15th in High Limit points in 2024, with just three top fives and 10 top tens in 41 races. He's going to be jumping from the frying pan into the fire though moving from High Limit to the World of Outlaws. In 31 career Outlaw appearances, he's got just three top tens. All of those came this season though, with a best run of sixth at 81 Speedway, and his last two Outlaw starts, at Joliet and Riverside in October, resulted in finishes of 10th and eighth. We'll see if he can best Crawley's 10th place Outlaw points finish.

On the flip side, Vermeer announced their next driver yesterday, and things have come full circle here. The 55 team will run next season with Hunter Schuerenberg back in the seat. Since departing the Vermeer team in 2023, Schuerenberg had made the rounds in sprint car racing, driving something like 15 different cars. He found success along the way too, winning three POWRi 410 shows at Lake Ozark in 2024, and picking up a FAST series win at Paragon. Now he's reunited with Tony Vermeer and crew chief Clinton Boyles. A schedule has not yet been released, but there are rumblings this team could be pulling back from High Limit and focusing on more regional racing. I think with the expansion of the POWRi 410 deal, the return of the All Stars, and FAST's deal with POWRi, this car could be a serious challenger for one of those championships. As you may have heard Jeremy Elliott say the other day on his 90 at 9, we are at a point where sprint car teams can put together a significant schedule, race for some good money, and never have to face High Limit or the Outlaws. I could see Schuerenberg and Vermeer picking one of these series, filling in other races, and having a very solid 2025 year.

As we look at national tour fields, the Vermeer car pulling back would be a loss for High Limit, but the addition of Windom to the Outlaws, while sort of a flip, is not actually a net gain, as the Sides car was there last year. The Outlaw field right now is David Gravel, Carson Macedo, Donny Schatz, Logan Schuchart, Sheldon Haudenschild, Cole Macedo, Chris Windom, and likely Bill Balog and Buddy Kofoid. We are still waiting on Gio Scelzi, although I don't think that car will flip to High Limit. Bill Rose is still driver searching for the six, and who knows what happens with the Premier Motorsports 70. They are nowhere now after a deal with a young midwest driver fell apart in the final hours late last week. That means we are likely at 11 with the loss of Brock Zearfoss. High Limit is sitting on eight with Brad Sweet, Tyler Courtney, Spencer Bayston, Daison Pursley, Aaron Reutzel, Justin Peck, Tanner Thorson, and probably Rico Abreu. Brent Marks is still a question, as is the CJB 5 with Brenham Crouch. We know they've lost Parker Price Miller, probably the Roth 83, Jacob Allen, Kasey Kahne, Windom and the Vermeer 55, and potentially the Crouch car.

Final topic for today, I did want to dive into the High Limit announcement back on Thursday afternoon that they will be bringing on sports betting for 2025. They are going the same direction we already saw USAC go earlier in the year, and they are using the same partner to make it happen. It's a company called Alt Sports Data. Alt Sports currently handles sports betting for a bunch of non-mainstream sports and leagues, which includes the NHRA, the PBR, now USAC and High Limit, and things like Power Slap and Bare Knuckle Fighting. There were very few details given in the announcement, which basically just came through a short video posted to social media where Brad Sweet and FloRacing's Michael Rigsby were talking about it. This is a topic we've covered a few times this year, especially since things went live for USAC back in May, and I've said a few times that USAC would not be the first to go this direction. Sports betting has become legal in more and more states in recent years, following the 2018 Supreme Court decision that struck down the federal ban on it. When I worked at World Racing Group, these discussions were being had back four or five or six years ago there when it comes to wagering in dirt racing. As things continue to expand, and these series look for more ways to bring in revenue, this is just a natural progression. It's become a major part of the top sports like football and basketball, and it's been part of NASCAR for a long time already. It's pretty wild though just how nasty the reaction was to the High Limit announcement. People convinced the racing will be rigged and manipulated, that there will be conflicts of interest, and that this will lead to addicted gamblers losing their houses. Right, because a bunch of people don't already believe the races are rigged, conflicts of interest haven't been happening in motorsports since it started, and gambling addicts will suddenly run wild and be unlocked because they can now bet on sprint car races. The sport is literally daredevils going from town to town, driving insanely fast vehicles on dangerous race tracks, trying to win as much money as possible while trying not to get severely injured, and this is the moral line that gets drawn in the sand. I wonder if those angry realize that racers are basically just gamblers. Let's spend a bunch of money building a race car to try and go win more money. Some interesting mental gymnastics going on here. There will certainly be challenges to overcome by adding in betting, but after the initial reaction to USAC, it's funny how we never heard any more about it on that side. These are problems and challenges the other leagues have had to deal with and face, so I'm not sure why dirt racing would be different. Policies, procedures, and solutions will be found. Back to the bigger story though, according to the American Gaming Association, sports betting in some form is now legal in 38 states, with wagering from mobile devices available in 30 states. USAC and High Limit won't be the first to go this direction, and I think we can assume an announcement is likely coming soon from World Racing Group. It was less than two weeks ago that Brian Carter was telling Mike Kerchner on the EPARTRADE Race Industry Week call that they were working on wagering partners coming on board. What's interesting is between Brad Sweet, Brian Carter, and also USAC's Kevin Miller, it's like they were all given the same talking points. All three pointed towards using wagering to create more fan engagement, and more involvement. USAC's Miller was also part of that Race Industry Week, and he gave some insight into what it took for USAC to go this direction, and the results, which were actually surprising. I've had a bunch of people reach out to me asking if I knew any details about how things were going for USAC this season, and apparently it's not great, at least financially. Miller said it took them two years and cost them $200,000 to get USAC to a point where they could make it happen. He said the first betting events, which were Indiana Midget Week races, saw a 25% increase in FloRacing viewership. That's great. But he revealed they do not make money on the gambling itself. Miller said USAC is using it as a way to grow the fanbase and reach new groups of people. That's certainly an interesting revelation, and it makes you wonder if that will just be a USAC problem, or if dirt racing as a whole just isn't big enough for gambling to be profitable, even for the larger series. It's clearly going to be a risk for High Limit and eventually World Racing Group, but they are hopeful that the possible reward will be worth it. The American Gaming Association reported that sports betting revenue for 2023 was nearly $11 billion, and it could grow even larger for 2024 and beyond. As dirt racing continues to look for more ways to increase revenue, they are going to be caps on certain areas. There will come a point where ticket and streaming prices won't be able to grow much more. The same will be true of merch sales, and sponsorship is a constant battle. Everyone seems to want the pool of money to be bigger, especially for drivers and teams, but then when alternate sources of money are introduced, like gaming, suddenly there is pushback. We can't have it both ways. Love it or hate it, the toothpaste is officially out of the tube on betting.

Alright, that's the daily for today. Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!