DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Legendary car owner spills the beans, a unique driver search to watch | Daily 5-5-2025

A top team owner reveals what it costs to go racing these days, and you might be shocked by the comparison he makes... Or maybe you won't. Plus Cody Sommer's driver search, Hunt the Front and Joseph Joiner stacking wins, and more today. Let's go!

It's Monday, May 5th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

Lots of good stuff to get into here shortly, but before we do, a quick message from today's show sponsor.

In recent days, the legendary team owner Keith Kunz got into a social media back and forth about the costs to go racing these days, and he revealed some interesting numbers about the current state of midget racing. Kunz obviously the owner of Keith Kunz Motorsports, along with Pete Willoughby, and they've long been tied into the Toyota Racing Development pipeline for young drivers. The KKM team has helped develop Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Rico Abreu, Buddy Kofoid, Logan Seavey, and many others. This season, they are fielding a quartet of full timers out with USAC full time, with Jacob Denney, Cannon McIntosh, Kale Drake, and Gavin Miller the drivers. Along the way, we'll also see the team run cars for Brandon Carr, Colton Robinson, and Alex Karpowicz. KKM also made headlines back at the Chili Bowl in January, when they showed up with an incredible 16 cars for the six day event. And when you see and hear people railing against funded drivers, while they might not come out and say it outright, this is often the team they are directing their feelings toward. I have multiple times on this show shared my opinion about funded drivers, which is that I could care less. Keith and Pete have built themselves a sustainable business, and they've launched a lot of racing careers, both with drivers and crew members. I'm not really sure how you frown upon any of it. Back to the money stuff though, Kunz got tagged in some burner posts and jumped in to respond about the costs to go midget racing in 2025. He said that it's $7000 a night to go racing, and that the Chili Bowl is $17,000 for the week. And that's if there is no crash damage to repair. He went on to say that a midget operation costs the same to operate as a sprint car team. Engines, cars, trailers, employees, all of it is not cheaper because the race car is smaller. So at $7000 a night, if you can get 65 races in between USAC, Xtreme, and POWRi, you're looking at nearly half a million in 2025 for a full midget season. You can definitely have a pretty solid 410 sprint car operation for that amount a season. And it's been a few years, but these numbers align with what we heard from Zach Daum and Thomas Meseraull back in 2023, when TMez walked around Wayne County and did a bunch of commentary about the costs to go racing. Daum said then that a brand new, race ready midget was $90,000, with anywhere between $45k and $65k being the engine, depending on whether you were going with something like an SR11 or a TRD. These numbers also jive with what we went through a few years ago when I dove into the money to go big time sprint car racing. The top teams are certainly spending a lot more than half a million, especially to run Outlaws or High Limit, but $500k would get you pretty far. Back to midgets though, there are certainly cheaper ways to go racing than those types of numbers, but KKM is obviously one of, if not the top team in the country. I'd also put Chad Boat's CBI in the mix there as well, Boat just doesn't quite have the scale KKM does. KKM and CBI teams were seven of the top ten in USAC points a year ago. Knowing the costs are the same, the obvious question is why even bother with midgets knowing the purse money is much lower than sprint cars. But, it's clear that Boat and Kunz have built businesses in this space, and they provide unique opportunities for the right drivers. Both would certainly be capable of running successful sprint car, or probably even late model teams, but kudos to them for doing what they like.

Another thing I've been keeping an eye on recently is something that promoter Cody Sommer has going on. If you don't know, Sommer is the guy behind the Gateway Dirt Nationals, previously the Dirt Million at Mansfield, he worked with Scott Bloomquist for a few years, and he started DRT last year. DRT, or Dirt Racing Technologies, is his late model chassis brand that debuted last season, and it appears as though cars are being built at Nick Hoffman's shop in North Carolina. Sommer drove one of his own cars at the World at Eldora late in 2024, and I saw the car test at Charlotte Motor Speedway before World Finals. Hoffman was driving it that night I was there. Back on April 29th, Sommer posted to social media he was looking for a driver for the blue 13 car for the Dirt Late Model Dream coming up soon. He said he was taking applications for the car, which runs Bilsteins with Vic Hill power. It seems as though he got quite a bit of interest, as back on Friday he shared he needed to pare down the nearly 500 names he received. And then yesterday, DRT on Facebook shared a list of 50 drivers that were pulled from that larger list, and they were asking for feedback on a top five. So here is that full list. An eclectic mix of late model guys, modified racers, and even some open wheel racers. Don't sleep on Brent Crews and Emerson Axsom here. Also interesting to see Matt Sheppard and JJ Yeley being considered. But looking at this list, if you were Sommer, who's your pick? The Dream is June 4th through the 7th at Eldora, so he's got a few weeks to decide.

In Sunday racing action, Joseph Joiner and the Hunt the Front guys bagged $10,000 in the super late model feature at Cherokee Speedway. The Mike Duvall Memorial was shifted to Sunday after Hunt the Front's series lost races Friday and Saturday to weather. It was a sweep for Joiner, going quick time, winning his heat, and leading all 40 laps in the main event. He topped Trent Ivey and Ross Bailes for his first win at the track. Joiner now with back-to-back $10,000 wins in the late model, including the Southern Thunder show at Southern Raceway back on April 19th. It was late model win number three on the year, which already tops his 2024 total, and he's also won in an IMCA modified. The help of Taylon Center continues to pay dividends for this team. Center serving as a consultant for the team and crew chiefing at the track where possible. Joiner currently eighth in the Hunt the Front series standings with a top five and three top tens after five races. He only trails points leader Zack Mitchell by 30 markers. That series back in about two weeks at Sugar Creek and Smoky Mountain.

In Sunday sprint car action, Jade Hastings picked up where he left off last season with NOSA. The defending champion won the opener at Nodak Speedway over Brendan Mullen and Gage Pulkrabek. Hastings won four times a season ago, and is a perfect one for one now this season. NOSA back in action this coming Friday with a stop at River Cities.

That's it for the show today. A big racing week coming up, with both the Outlaws and High Limit running midweek program, plus Illinois Speedweek starting tomorrow with the Flo series. We'll dive into all of that in the coming days.

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