DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.

The thing you CAN'T do if you work these dirt races | Daily 1-28-2025

The weather isn't a late model fan in 2025, plus the Outlaws put a ban in place, and more drivers declare for regional sprint car series. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, January 28th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

On the YouTube channel, we are very close to 40,000 subscribers. As I write this, we are just a tick over 300 away from that milestone. If you'd like to stay current on all things dirt racing, hit that subscribe button and the notification bell. It's free to do so. Through these first few weeks of 2025, nearly 53% of show views are coming from people who aren't subscribed to the channel. With a few hundred thousand people tuning in regularly, you can understand that 53% is a large number of people. My goal for the year for both the YouTube channel and Facebook page is 50,000. So come along!

Mother nature continues to not be kind to dirt late model speedweeks. Lucas shows lost, an Outlaw night lost, and now Hunt the Front was affected. The Monday night show at Needmore Speedway in Georgia was rained out. They will try again tonight with $10,000 on the line. Going back to yesterday when we talked about some of the names expected to race, three we know for sure won't be there. That includes Jonathan Davenport, Bobby Pierce, and Ricky Thornton Jr. RTJ had planned on racing, but they needed to make repairs back at Longhorn in North Carolina, so they won't be back on track until later this week at All-Tech. Still plenty of big names racing tonight though, including Brandon Overton, Hudson O'Neal, Ryan Gustin, Jimmy Owens, Kyle Bronson, and of course, Joseph Joiner. Tuesday's racing will be live on Hunt the Front TV.

Jumping back into the gambling in dirt racing conversation, World Racing Group, the parent company for the World of Outlaws and DIRTcar, took a significant step yesterday in bringing wagering to their events. We still don't have any official confirmation from WRG on it's plans, but we have to be just days away at this point. Alt Sports Data lists the Outlaws as a partner, NXTBets has a whole page on how to bet World of Outlaws events, and odds for the late models at the Sunshine Nationals this past weekend at Volusia were available on some betting platforms. In recent days though, the World of Outlaws and DIRTcar issued a rules bulletin regarding the addition of a gambling policy to their rulebooks for all WRG series. That includdes both Outlaw series, the Super DIRTcar Series, ASCS, Xtreme midgets and more. You can see the full policy for yourself over at dirtcar.com/rules. The main verbiage in the bulletin reads quote "All race personnel, including but not limited to, drivers, team personnel, crew, officials and staff (“Personnel”), are strictly prohibited from placing, soliciting or facilitating any bet or wager, whether directly or through a third-party proxy or surrogate on any class of a World Racing Group (WRG) event if: (i) they compete in any class of the same event, (ii) have a direct or indirect association or affiliation with the event (such as promotor, track owner or track employee), or (iii) they are aware of information regarding an event or its competitors that would give them an advantage in placing a wager. This applies to all events sanctioned or operated by subsidiaries or affiliates of WRG. All WRG staff are prohibited from placing any wager on any WRG event" unquote. The policy also says providing inside information or tips is prohibited for all personnel, and that there is a zero-tolerance policy. WRG quote "reserves the right to pursue legal or disciplinary action regarding violations of this policy." This addition to the rulebook is not surprising, as similar policies are in place for all other sports involved in wagering. That includes NASCAR, stick and ball sports, and similar wording can be found in the USAC rulebook. My assumption would be also, that when the High Limit rulebook is made public for 2025, they will also have verbiage to this effect. In posting the bulletin yesterday, obviously all of the pearl clutching and horror and outrage came back over the addition of gambling, and how it will be the end of dirt racing. There is obviously no evidence to support any of that, but the sentiment persists from some folks. What is interesting to point out here, is that I've had several folks reach out and tell me that the limits on wagers that can be placed are actually very low. For USAC events last year, I've heard of a few bets allowed up to $100, and some $50 bets depending on the type. But a lot of the available options are capped at $24.99, and even some as low as $6. If you place a $50 bet on something that pays 15 to 1 odds, that means a max payout of $750. To even get to $600 on a $6 bet, you'd have to hit on a 100 to 1 winner. For those worried about race fixing, I have a very difficult time believing that someone would risk even attempting to fix a race for a $750 payout. Let alone whether or not I believe that a race could actually be fixed. These situations where people can place wagers of millions of dollars on a single event, like we see with the Super Bowl, that's not happening for a Tuesday night High Limit show at Kokomo. Dirt racing is a fringe sport, and something the sportsbooks and oddsmakers don't really have a strong grasp on. They aren't going to risk big losses by taking huge wagers on something they don't completely have their arms around. I wish that instead of going full freakout mode on things like this, we just wait and see how it plays out. We know that Kevin Miller said USAC hasn't made any money on wagering so far, so there is a significant chance this entire situation is just a big nothing burger. I think what's most likely, is that all of this gets put into place, and you might see the odd social media post, or mention from an announcer about it, but for the most part, I don't think this will be a big deal. Those that want to get involved and place bets will, and the rest of us will continue as we did before.

Looking at some regional sprint car stuff, the POWRi and All Star rosters continue to grow. In recent days Brandon Spithaler became the eighth official All Star team for 2025. He joins Kalib Henry, Justin Clark, Aiden Price, Devon Borden, Leyton Wagner, Darin Naida, and Cody Bova on that roster. I've said previously that Henry and Borden were likely the early championship favorites based on this roster, and Spithaler will join this group. Eight wins in 55 starts a year ago, including scores with FAST, plus local wins at Lernerville, Wayne County, Mercer, and Tri-City. Spithaler also the 2024 FAST champion, where he topped Zane DeVault.

On the POWRi side, their 410 roster is up to 10, with the recent additions of John Barnard, Preston Perlmutter, and Rees Moran. Those three join Ayrton Gennetten, Xavier and Natalie Doney, Joe B Miller, Noah Gass, Lane Warner, and Scotty Milan. Still at least six more expected to join POWRi's Elite Sixteen program before the season starts next month. If you want more on POWRi, check your email inboxes today. I sent out a new edition of The Slider featuring an interview with POWRi's Talin Turner by Jordan Wilman. If you don't get The Slider, you can sign up free over at dirtrackr.com/theslider.

Looking ahead to the rest of the week, there is more dirt late model racing coming your way which we will continue to follow and talk about. We've also got the ASCS getting their season started this coming weekend at Volusia. A few things to talk about there. For today though, we are going to shut things down.

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