DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Another Longhorn team flipped, is Kyle Larson right? | Daily 5-6-2025

Kyle Larson said he thinks it's tougher to win against High Limit than the Outlaws, but do the numbers jive with that idea? We'll dive in today, plus a schedule change for the Outlaws, the Flo series kicks off tonight, and Infinity Chassis adds a new dirt late model recruit. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, May 6th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

It's getting serious over on FloRacing this week. Illinois Speedweek runs through Saturday night. Three High Limit sprint car shows. Plus USAC, Spring Nationals, Marshalltown, NARC, IRA, and more. If you haven't yet gotten a FloRacing subscription for 2025, and you want to help out DIRTRACKR at no additional cost to you, sign up over at dirtrackr.com/floracing. Flo is home to a ton of big dirt racing series and events, and they've also got plenty of paved racing, drag stuff, plus action sports. And you can explore an entire world of other sports and events as well through the other FloSports verticals. So dirtrackr.com/floracing, or you can click the link below in the video description, or the FloRacing links at dirtrackr.com.

Now that we live in a world with two national touring sprint car series, between the World of Outlaws and High Limit, this talking point about which series is more difficult will persist. And it's going to persist because there is no real way to answer the question. There are going to be moments during the season where the two sides come together for big events, like the Knoxville Nationals, but is one race week or weekend enough to say definitively that one is tougher than the other? And if you spend any amount of time where sprint car conversations are happening, you'll likely run into folks debating one side or the other. Gravel versus Sweet. Tougher features to make. The top of one is better than the top of the other. Etc, etc. Over the weekend after Rico Abreu's win at the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track, Kyle Larson himself took the chance to weigh in on the subject. He told Tony LaPorta quote "Seems to be harder to win a High Limit race than an Outlaw race right now." He had a wry smile on his face when he said it, and obviously we need to take his assessment with a grain of salt, as he just happens to be a co-owner of the side he was advocating for. If you are curious on his stats versus both sides, Larson with a win, three top fives, and four top tens against High Limit. Average finish of 3.5. In six Outlaw starts, it's three wins, six top fives, six top tens, with an average finish of 1.67. Larson though qualifying more than two positions better on average against the Outlaws, and with no heat race inversion, he's going to start better in features. He also admitted that TMS hasn't been a great track for them, and that showed especially on Thursday. 16th in qualifying, and a season worst finish of 9th after starting 13th. I was curious though about strength of fields, so I used the best option we have at the moment for measuring that, which is the ratings over at sprintcarratings.com from Bill. I used the full, two year rolling rating system to look at this, so we have a bit more of a complete picture on the individual drivers, versus just the 2025 ratings, which are a much smaller sample size. I then compared strength of fields between Saturday night at Texas and Friday night at Eldora. Similar car counts, with 31 at TMS and 34 at Eldora. In the features, we have ratings on 23 drivers for each side, as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ashton Torgerson are not rated by Bill. So for the 23 drivers we counted on each side, High Limit's total score was 8.9335, with an average rating of 0.3885. The Outlaws though scoring better, with a total of 9.5332, and an average rating of 0.4145. Given the geography, you'd probably expect Ohio to come with tougher drivers than Texas, so it's not a surprise to see Eldora with a tougher strength of field. If we pare it down though to just the series full timers, the Outlaws again scoring better in the ratings. The 14 High Rollers with an average of 0.439, and the 15 Outlaws with an average of 0.478. Take those numbers and digest however you'd like. I think though that when it comes to the dicussions, the conversation is going to be heavily affected by which side someone favors and individual biases. Since Bill's ratings are based on results though, they are about as unbiased as we can get. Feel free to post your thoughts in the comment section.

If you were hoping to see some sprint car racing tonight, unfortunately you'll have to wait another day. The World of Outlaws Gettysburg Clash at Lincoln Speedway has been pushed back a day, to Wednesday, May 7th. Some early week weather is to blame, but tomorrow's forecast looks much better. After Lincoln on Wednesday, the Outlaws head to Williams Grove Friday and Saturday for the Morgan Cup weekend.

In Illinois tonight though, there shouldn't be any weather issues for the opening Illinois Speedweek at La Salle Speedway. The FloRacing Night in American Series starts their 2025 season with a $20,000 to win show. They will continue Wednesday and Thursday with stops at Spoon River and Lincoln, with Lucas taking over Friday and Saturday with races at Farmer City and Fairbury. It's interesting to note that the Flo series is ten races this season, and four will happen in the next week. So 40% of the schedule in seven days, and then the other six races happen from June to November. This is year five for the mostly midweek Flo late model tour, and we've had four different champions up to this point. Ricky Thornton Jr. is defending, while Bobby Pierce, Brandon Sheppard, and Jonathan Davenport are the other three. Pierce and RTJ are tied for the most series wins at seven. 12 different drivers have won a series race in it's existence. This season, the series champion will pick up a $50,000 check, which could be $75,000 with perfect attendance. I haven't seen an expected list of full timers for the year, but I would imagine the shows this week will be heavily attended. All are good paydays, Lucas is racing this weekend, and there is no competition from the World of Outlaws, or the regional series like MARS. Tonight will be the first big time race at La Salle since 2021, and this kicks off a special event schedule at the track this season. Later this year they'll also host the Summer Nationals, the IRA, the World of Outlaws sprint cars in October, plus things like monster trucks and rodeo.

One other dirt late model note for you today. Wells Motorsports and their Infinity Chassis brand added another recruit to the mix this past weekend. Tyler Bruening and his Skyline team showed up to Mississippi Thunder with the Outlaws in a new Infinity, and not their usual Longhorn. This means both Skyline teams now using Infinity, as Mike Marlar had switched several weeks ago. With the success we've seen Marlar have, it's not surprising to see Bruening make the swap as well. We also know that Infinity engineer, and past Gustin crew chief Tim Douglas had been at the track helping Marlar get comfortable in the Infinity. Marlar revealed to Kyle McFadden back in March that Douglas was helping Bruening as well, even though Bruening was still in that Longhorn. Drivers running more national type schedules in Infinity cars now include Ryan Gustin, Marlar, Bruening, Tristan Chamberlain, and Dillon McCowan. We are still waiting on the debut of the Wells Infinity house car team in 2025 with Eric Wells behind the wheel. And if you're curious Bruening was 11th and 15th against the Outlaws last Friday and Saturday.

Alright friends, we'll call it good there for today. Enjoy the racing out there tonight.

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