DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Rare February silly season news, what happened to all that money talk? | Daily 2-23-2025

On the show today we've got some rare February sprint car silly season news, plus weekend results, and what happened to all that talk around money in dirt racing? Let's go!

It's Sunday, February 23rd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

Here just a few weeks ago, this Daily show turned five years old. And since 2020, we've done 1,280 of these episodes. Over that span, I've obviously learned a lot about what types of topics do and don't land with this audience. I've certainly had plenty of chances to experiment, and I feel pretty confident that there aren't that many stones we haven't turned over. One specific topic that we've talked about plenty is money in dirt racing. We've talked purses, and points payouts, tow money, streaming stuff, and the cost of everything. It felt like for a while that if we explored money on the show in it's various forms, a lot of you were interested. And across both big time sprint car and late model racing, rising costs and the idea that teams and drivers weren't getting enough from series and events has been a big talking point over the past few seasons. On the sprint car side, money was a big driver behind the split that led to our current situation with two national series. It seems to me though, at least anecdotally, that the conversation over money has really quieted over the past year. You'll still hear a little chatter now and then, but not nearly like it was. I get asked periodically to do shows about top earners, especially in late model racing, but I haven't gone down that road for a while, and for good reason. The last time I focused on earners in late model racing was September 29th, 2023. That show went through multiple titles and thumbnails, and 17 months later, it was the last time I had a Daily show not go over 10,000 views on YouTube. The shows directly before and after got to nearly 30k views each. Something had clearly changed, and this was a direction that my audience as a whole, just cared about less. Message received. Since then, who is making what and who is spending what has largely been left out of my shows. And in the meantime, the complaints about sharing streaming revenue, and purse payouts not being good enough, especially in sprint car racing, have largely died out. From a fan perspective, I wonder if my audience cares less because of the state of the world at large, with inflation and such. And in the sprint car community, I'm going to focus on them specifically here, I wonder if there are less complaints because there have been massive jumps in the amounts available. Some of those increases can certainly be attributed to the addition of High Limit, but some of it is also because of the rise of streaming dollars, and more money being added to purses at marquee events. In 2022, according to sprintcarratings.com, 410 sprint car teams shared about $14 million in purse money across 687 races. That does not include tow money, or any point fund and bonus payouts. In 2023, with High Limit going just midweek racing, the Eldora Million, and increases from the Outlaws and at places like Huset's and Knoxville, that purse money leaped from $14 million the year before, to nearly $17 million. I don't want to say that High Limit had no effect in 2023, because that wouldn't be true, but 11 midweek races with 20K and 50K payouts isn't why there was suddenly three million more dollars. For 2024 however, you can attribute increases to High Limit's first full national season. There were actually less races this past season than in 2023, there was no Eldora Million, and yet total payouts rose from nearly $17 million in 2023, to over $18 million in 2024. So in three years, we've seen a 30% rise. The top 50 drivers in 2022 averaged $167,000 each for the year, that jumped to about $213,000 in 2023, and in 2024, the top 50 teams in the country averaged $216,000 each. Again, a 30% increase in just three seasons. And I'll remind you, these numbers don't include any of the other benefits that the full time series teams get, like tow money, bonuses, contigencies, and points funds. David Gravel cleared more than $700k in 2024 in race payouts, but was easily over a million with the other available cash. For 2025, there have been a few bumps here and there with existing series. We'll have to see though how the expanding POWRi and the re-emergence of the All Stars affects total money. We should again see at least a modest increase. I know others have brought this up as well, but the question going forward will be how much more the eco-system can handle. Ticket and streaming prices aren't getting any cheaper, and there will come a line where race fans are forced to make tough choices. We've seen very rapid growth in just a short span, but these types of increases won't continue. In the meantime though, it is interesting to note how quiet some have gotten around the topic of money in dirt racing.

Moving on, we've had some silly season news break just today. A bit unusual to get ride news so late in February, but a guy we talked about not long ago has found a ride for 2025. And that is sprint car driver Cale Thomas. He parted ways with Jay Kiser's 23 team after a very successful season in Ohio in 2024, and things around him have been very quiet lately. For this season though, he's going full time with the All Star Circuit of Champions, becoming their 11th driver. And he's doing so in the Demyan Rudzik 49X. And if you are saying, wait Justin, wasn't he in this car before? Why yes, yes he was. Thomas was last with the 49X team in 2023, but parted with them late in July. Since then, we've seen Tim Shaffer drive that car a bunch. 2024 was a career season for Thomas with eight wins in 60 races, and he was in serious contention for both the AFCS and Ohio Speedweek championships. If he can find this same form with the 49X, he's immediately a contender for the All Star title. My early thoughts are Devon Borden, Kalib Henry, Brandon Spithaler, and Thomas are in this fight.

Alright, let's talk some on-track action, shall we? The Icebreaker at Lincoln saw the Saturday show axed because of the weather, but things are full go for today. And there doesn't appear to be any issue with car count. We talked on Thursday about some of the names you'll see today, and we know that Brent Marks is also coming, along with Parker Price Miller, and more. As you watch this, the gates are already open at the track, and racing starts at 3PM eastern time. Things are live over on FloRacing if you cannot get there.

In weekend racing elsewhere, Jake Swanson won the USAC CRA sprint car opener at Mohave Valley. He topped Tommy Malcolm and RJ Johnson. Some national touring flavor in that one beyond just Swanson, as Ricky Lewis was in attendance, as was Kevin Thomas Jr. The CRA is back next week with a trip to Perris Auto Speedway. The lone USCS show at Southern Raceway in Florida went to Dale Howard. Davie Franek and Mark Smith joined him on the podium. Howard now with two wins on the year, and he leads the early championshp standings. That Southern show also saw a pair of Hunt the Front Joiners race IMCA modifieds. Jonathan went 10th to sixth, and Joseph a very nice 18th to third. Chris Spalding the winner in that one. Indoors at Trenton, father and son Pat and Zack Bealer won the two micro shows. Andy Forsberg won the 360 weekly opener at Marysville in California. And the lone late model win went to Mark Whitener. He led all 75 laps at Hendry County to win $15,000 with Crate Racin USA.

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