DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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A late model driver pushes back, High Limit adds cash for sprint car teams | Daily 1-7-2025

The High Limit roster push continues with a new addition, and I've got some details on the package the series has been using to add teams this offseason. We'll also talk the curious Max Blair situation, another All Star full timer, and more. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, January 7th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

Since it's a new year, it's time for some new goals. And we are going to bring Facebook into this as well, besides YouTube. 2025 is all about 50K. 50K on Facebook, and 50K on YouTube. We added about 12,000 new subscribers on YouTube in 2024, and right now we need less than that to get to 50,000. So if you don't already, hit that subscribe button. Over on the DIRTRACKR Facebook, we are north of 25,000, but we added nearly 23,000 just in 2024. So why can't we also get the Facebook page to 50k. Let's try it. Hit the like and follow buttons, tell your friends and come along for the dirt racing conversations.

The High Limit sprint car roster grew yet again yesterday, and this is one that shouldn't have surprised you if you are a regular around this show. We talked about this being the likely destination for Danny Sams last week, and it was confirmed on Monday that the Florida driver will indeed make his first ever national tour run in 2025, and he'll do so with High Limit. 116 career 410 starts, and already wins with the FAST Series and the IRA, plus victories with the GLSS and TopGun. Three of those FAST wins came during Ohio Speedweek in 2024, and that seemed to be a point where a bunch of folks started taking notice of him. 43 of his 67 410 starts this past season came against the Outlaws and High Limit, and rumors of him joining a national tour persisted all through the second half of the season. Make no mistake though, even with the success he's found fairly quickly, this will be a big leap for Sams and his team. In 38 Outlaw shows this past year, they made 25 main event starts, and their best finish was 11th. With High Limit, it was eight features in 12 appearances, and a best finish of 10th. But, that 10th was in the split field feature at Eldora. This team will have a lot of tough nights, but they are going to learn a lot. Sams pushes High Limit to 12, joining Brent Marks, Brenham Crouch, Kasey Kahne, Brad Sweet, Tyler Courtney, Spencer Bayston, Daison Pursley, Aaron Reutzel, Justin Peck, Tanner Thorson, and again probably Rico Abreu. The other name that is a possbility here that we also mentioned last week, is Chase Randall.

Something interesting to note here about High Limit, and I don't believe this has been publicized anywhere, but they did make changes to their point fund and tow money for next season. Based on some documents I was sent from an industry friend, they've added $50,000 total to the point fund, adding extra money to positions four through 13 in the standings over what they paid in 2024. The champion still gets $250,000. Also, it appears as though their tow money payouts are being made monthly, with structured payments paid out via a schedule from March through the end of the season. These fixed monthly payouts are tiered based on points position, with the summer months paying the most. Also, everyone appears to get the same amount for March, which I'm assuming is to help with that first west coast run. And then depending on where a team is in points, this tow money package is worth somewhere in the low to mid $20s, to near $40k for the season. And this is obviously on top of point fund and purse money. This does still differ from the Outlaws who pay their tow money weekly.

Moving along, let's talk about this Max Blair situation, shall we. I've been including him all along on the Lucas roster the last few months, because the team made it known that's what they were doing. There was a Facebook post back in December on Max's personal page about an end of the year party, and in it they mentioned celebrating Max's 2024 Lucas season, and looking forward to his 2025 Lucas year. But then yesterday, the World of Outlaws Late Model Series dropped an announcement that Blair would be returning to full time competition with their side in 2025. This was characterized as a return to the Outlaws for Blair, who was last with the series in 2022, and there were even quotes from Blair in the release talking about Volusia, and his chassis swap, etc. But apparently maybe Blair isn't so set in those Outlaw plans. Late yesterday afternoon, Blair shared the following to Facebook, saying quote "Been in the shop all day, missed a busy day on Facebook. We will be running a national tour this season. We will get through speedweeks and evaluate where we stand. With both series. And make a decision on what we're going to do. I just wanted to make sure and clear up any confusion. We're looking forward to getting started next week with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series!" unquote. So this sounds like the classic situation of sign the paperwork with both sides, run speedweeks, and decide from there. It does make it confusing though, especially when series want to start promoting drivers, and then we end up in a situation where it looks like the Outlaws have egg on their face, when it reality they don't. Blair's team signed the docs, and then he even gave quotes for the release. So it's not like he didn't know this was coming. I would like to see both the Outlaws and Lucas make it a little more clear which drivers have completed the paperwork in advance of the season. Maybe mark them on the points standings or something. It would help with that transparency, especially when you see guys start racking up provisionals, and they were never talked about as a full timer. There were definitely guys who were full time in 2024 who I didn't realize were until part way through the season. It would also give folks like us something to follow through the opening stretch of the season and speedweeks, watching to see who runs well on which side and makes those decisions. When it comes to these decisions to, it's the guys further down the order who this is going to apply to. Nobody expects Bobby Pierce or Hudson O'Neal to flip sides after speedweeks. I think we can pretty safely assume they are where they are when it comes to series choices.

If you are following along with the roster updates for the new All Star Circuit of Champions, they are up to five with another addition in recent days. 15 year old North Carolina driver Aiden Price is making a massive jump into the 410 ranks, joining Marc Dailey Racing. He'll be in the 2MD machine that we've seen Cap Henry drive over the past few years. Price has been a regular in micro sprint competition at Millbridge, and has made super late model starts around the southeast, including with the Carolina Clash series and at tracks like Carolina, Sumter, Ultimate, and Lake View. I don't see where he's made any sprint car starts though. Hopefully he's going to get some laps in somewhere before the season starts, either in competition or testing. Price joins Devon Borden, Leyton Wagner, Darin Naida, and Cody Bova as declared with the All Stars so far. The All Star season doesn't begin though until April 11th at Attica.

We'll end it there for today. The show topic list is still full though, and we'll likely talk the World of Outlaws sprint car rule changes on the show tomorrow. Definitely some curious things there that I wanted to dive into, but I want to give it plenty of space on an episode, and I had other things I wanted to talk today. Still some other interesting silly season things we are waiting on as well, as long with some other series news. So stay tuned.

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