DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Bonus Daily! Your High Limit franchise questions answered | Daily 3-14-2025
Everything you need to know about High Limit's franchise announcement, including all of your questions answered. Let's go!
It's Friday, March 14th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
Given the announcement from yesterday, I thought maybe it would be a good idea for a little bonus Friday episode. If you missed it yesterday, High Limit, FloRacing, and Brad Sweet and Kyle Larson made a significant announcement in regard to the future of team ownership with the sprint car series. Since the beginning, we've been hearing about charters coming for High Limit, and it's a topic we've covered here multiple times. This was first talked about way back towards the end of 2023 in conjunction with the announcement of High Limit becoming a full national tour. In the year-plus since then though, we've had more questions than answers about how it was all going to work. The High Limit team had a lot of things to figure out, so it's not surprising it's taken them this long to start having some clarity to share. Besides those of us who have just been curious, the lack of solid information has been a hurdle for some of the High Limit teams. With so many questions about how it was all going to work, and so few answers yet, it has been a massive leap of faith for these groups to sign on with the series. Brent Marks admitted to Jeremy Elliott he had second thoughts going into 2025. All along, Brad and Kyle have talked about wanting to find ways to help team owners make more money, find stability, and at the very least, work towards breaking even. It's obviously not a secret that these race teams are not profitable entities. Kasey Kahne yesterday even shared that KKR has never even been at zero come seasons' end. The initial charter idea has been their plan, and it's something we've seen across sports, including franchises in stick and ball sports, and a similar setup in NASCAR. The press conference yesterday at the High Limit season opener at Las Vegas did provide a bunch of details, including a new name for the system. I obviously tuned into the press conference, I've read the release, I solicited questions from you guys on social media, and I spoke with Brad directly yesterday for 10 or 15 minutes to get some more information and ask a few questions of my own. So here's everything we know about the system, and I'll address a lot of the questions floating around out there.
First, we aren't talking charters anymore, they are now franchises. It's definitely a branding shift, and a good one. Maybe distance themselves from the NASCAR mess going on right now, and the word franchise I think is easier to understand as a concept.
The biggest part of this announcement though is the amount of cash that will be paid out to teams over the next four years. Starting in 2026, 10 franchise teams will share $2.6 million dollars, with an additional $1.4 million available for other teams and other awards. I'll come back to that in a minute. In 2027, that amount rises to $2.9 million, then $3.4 million in 2028, and $3.7 million in 2029. When you add in the extra money in the system each year, the total amount to paid over the next four years is just shy $18 million. These franchise team payouts replace the current system of point fund and tow money. That's a key point. This isn't in addition to the point fund and tow money, it replaces it. I've seen that question asked multiple places. Brad told me that these dollar amounts will be paid out in some form through the season, so teams can continue to get regular payments to support their operations, like they were getting with tow money. Another key point, this money does not replace race purses. Teams will still be racing for that money, in addition to this franchise cash. So franchise teams' revenue streams will include these payouts, plus race purses, and then contingencies, sponsorships, and other bonuses.
Back to that extra money each year. When you look at the rundowm, in 2026 for example, franchise teams get $2.6 million guaranteed, and there is an additional $1.4 million available. That extra money will cover some measure of a point fund for non-franchise teams, plus other bonuses and incentives. It will still be possible to compete with High Limit full time even without a franchise, and those teams will still have money available in both a point fund and some tow money system.
The franchise teams will see their yearly payouts based on a rolling two year average of their points finishes. So take everyone's finishes from 2024 and 2025, add them up, divide by two. That final list will be how that cash is paid in 2026. As we know, five franchises were awarded after 2024 to the top five teams in the standings, and another five will be awarded after this season, basically to the next five highest teams. Those next five highest will have their status determined by their combined results from 2024 and 2025. The five teams who earned one from 2024 are the KKR 49, the Clauson Marshall 7BC, Rico Abreu's 24, the Roth 83, and Brent Marks' 19.
The obvious question is what happens with Roth's franchise, now that they aren't back this season. With them not signing in last night, and having no intention of doing so in the future, that franchise now goes back into the pool, and Brad told me they will award a sixth franchise after 2025. Roth retains no ownership over the franchise, and is not in a position to sell it.
Looking forward, if you notice on the graphic, there is space for 2028 and 2029 for High Limit to add an additional five franchises. So that would take the series to 15. Those additional franchises wouldn't dilute the payouts, with those amounts already set. They would be awarded in a similar fashion to those already out there.
Another question. Where is High Limit getting all of this extra money. They say they can cover the massive bump in payouts through their rights and streaming revenue, plus things like sponsorship and advertising. After this first year, they are confident in the growth of the series and their audience, and Brad said they wouldn't be putting this out there if they weren't sure they could cover it. I haven't asked this specifically, but I wouldn't expect the cost of your Flo subscription to suddenly double, or for race tickets and track sanction fees to skyrocket to cover this. High Limit's sanction fees are already lower than the Outlaws, and there are other considerations for raising prices. I'm not saying there won't be any hikes ever, because that's foolish and not how the world works. But I don't think we need to go freaking out about this on that front.
Yet another concern I've seen floating around is what does this mean for smaller local and regional teams. Won't this type of system only benefit the top teams over the long run. That's a question that I don't know that anyone can really answer right now. Those teams that aren't full timers anyway will still be racing for the same pool of money they were before. And if nobody is profitable, you can't really call it a rich getting richer type situation. It's clear by this point that across the spectrum of dirt racing, the top owners are going to spend whatever it takes anyway. But this is something we won't have a clear understanding of for many years down the road.
Moving on, does this franchise system guarantee teams feature starts each night starting in 2026? That's a question I've seen as well. And unlike NASCAR, where their system does guarantee race starts, this franchise system does not. The format remains where teams need to earn their way into the main event each night. I doubt that was ever even a consideration here, given the nature of dirt racing. Another question I didn't ask specifically, but something else to point out, is I don't see High Limit suddenly giving out unlimited provisionals to franchise teams. Only three are available now, and it seems farfetched to believe they would go from three to unlimited in one season.
Another point I wanted to cover here is how this new franchise system and all the money compares to the World of Outlaws. Up to this point, in both 2024 and 2025, World Racing Group has paid out more to teams in terms of point fund and tow money than High Limit has and will. For 2024, David Gravel, I believe, was paid about $350,000 in point fund money, and likely received another $50 or $60 grand in tow money. So right around $400k probably. But as you can see for 2026, the High Limit leader will get $425,000. And that number will be $625,000 by 2029. All in, the Outlaw system is probably around $2 million, maybe $2.2 million per year based on some guestimations and what's available on the Outlaw website. So this new High Limit franchise system effectively doubles that. The major difference here between the two sides, at least early, is the payouts down through the top ten will be dramatically better with High Limit. Now that this is out there though, do I expect the Outlaws and WRG to just take this lying down, and do nothing? No, I don't. They will have to come up significantly, or risk losing teams.
Next, I've seen some questions about what this means in terms of transparency, and how much money is really being made by these entities. I do not think that this is suddenly a sign that Flo and WRG are getting rich off of any of this. I think if there was really a huge amount of cash available all along, High Limit would have come out of the gates hotter and paying better than the Outlaws. It would have been in their best interest to blow the Outlaws out of the water right from the jump to steal all the teams. That didn't happen though. Instead, we are seeing effectively a several-year ramp up. I do think we need to remember that World Racing Group is just the dirt racing and DIRTVision. They are bound by what the series and streaming can generate and must operate within that window. On the flip side, FloSports as a larger company is venture backed. Some estimates online have them raising near $80 million in funding. Flo is going to have a much larger subscriber base, and they're going to have more leverage with advertisers. This isn't an apples to apples comparison. I do think High Limit is taking a sizeable risk here in putting this type of money out there, but it's one they think is going to pay off.
And finally... I've seen several "what-if" type scenarios in the questions. What if David Gravel wins the 2026 High Limit championship as a non-franchise team. Does he get a franchise, what's his pay, etc. That is obviously not spelled out in any of the information from High Limit, but I'm sure this scenario has been thought through by the High Limit leadership. Gravel wouldn't get nothing, but he also likely wouldn't get franchise-team type money. This series is going to reward tenure and longer term performance. Unless his team decided to buy a franchise from another team, they wouldn't be eligible for a franchise until the 2028 window. Some of these what-if situations are things we'll just have to wait and see how they play out, if they actually happen. Even Brad and Kyle and JP and all their leadership probably can't answer those super specifically right now.
Alright, this has gone on way longer than I thought it would when I started out today, but I think I covered the bulk of the questions I've seen. Hopefully all of this gives you a clearer picture of what exactly High Limit announced yesterday. Looking ahead, now we'll watch the rest of the High Limit teams battle it out for those remaining franchise spots, and we'll see what WRG does to counter. It does seem clear that High Limit wanted to make a statement, and they certainly did that. It's certainly a very intriguing time for the business of dirt racing, and as we've talked about previously with the streaming stuff, the ground is going to continue move and shift in the coming years.
Alright, hope you guys have a great Friday out there, see you Sunday.