DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Why some sprint car teams are still running those banned turned up headers | Daily 9-3-2025

The Paul Silva rule for 2025 made turned up exhaust on sprint cars illegal, so why are teams still running it? We'll talk about a key distinction there today, plus World 100 wraps everywhere, West Virginia Motor Speedway's new look, and more. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, September 3rd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

If you are a dirt racing fan, I likely don't need to tell you that it's one of the biggest late model weeks of the year, with the World 100 starting tomorrow at Eldora Speedway. If you can't get to Eldora this week though, and you want to watch, you'll need a subscription to FloRacing. If for some reason you don't already have one, you can sign up and help out DIRTRACKR at no additional cost to you, by heading over to dirtrackr.com/floracing. Signing up means you'll get to watch hundreds of races a year, and that's just on the dirt side. They've also got drag racing, NASCAR events, road racing stuff, plenty more. Grab a pass at dirtrackr.com/floracing, or you can click the link below in the video description, or the FloRacing links at dirtrackr.com.

You guys that have been around here a while know that we talked a bunch in 2024 about turned up exhaust headers on sprint cars. Paul Silva showed up with them on Kyle Larson's 57 mid-summer, and it didn't take long before they were showing up a lot of other places, including in regional racing and non-wing competition. Back in a January though, we did a Daily show where we talked about a new rule for 2025, which I coined the "Paul Silva rule." The wording read specifically quote "Elbows on the exhaust after the header tube enters the collector, will not be allowed. All exhaust must exit toward the rear of the car" unquote. The reasoning behind the turned up exhaust is different depending on who you ask, but the one that made the most sense to me was keeping added heat off the tires and rear shocks. Don't let me stand in the way however for what your favorite theory is. In recent weeks though, I've had multiple messages across platforms, and even some comments, including one on the show yesterday, about these types of headers being seen again. The non-wing car that Paul Silva brought out to Calistoga this past weekend had them, and Rico Abreu's 24 has run them at some of the races on the west coast. That included at Douglas County, and some of the California races. The messages usually want to know how Rico is being allowed to run them even though they were deemed illegal. There is a very key distinction here though, and that's the series being run. Only the World of Outlaws added that wording to their rulebook. High Limit did not. This is one of a handful of rules differences that have been in play this season. Another is the shock adjuster allowed by High Limit and not the Outlaws, and in the in-wheel tire inflators that High Limit green lit. High Limit did clarify some verbiage around those turned up exhaust setups, with their rule just saying quote "Any header that is not straight out the back of the car with or without a muffler must be welded where the bend connects to header and to the muffler" unquote. So while you won't see them at any of the World of Outlaws races coming up during this west coast trip, they are still legal under High Limit rules. For Rico specifically, it looks like it's something that he and crew chief Ricky Warner use to tune their car for specific conditions. And even Silva doesn't use them all the time. At Calistoga, Seavey's car had them, but the winged car with Bayston did not. So if you see them, High Limit legal, Outlaws illegal.

With action at Eldora getting started tomorrow, World 100 special wraps are starting to be revealed by a number of teams, and I wanted to show off at least a few today. I know these are floating around online, so you've probably seen at least some of them. I've got 12 here that I grabbed this morning, and here is the first page. These are schemes for Bobby Pierce, Ricky Thornton Jr., Jordan Koehler, and Dylan Thornton. Pierce with the wild look, and Koehler's car just might be my favorite out of all I've seen so far. Love the throwback look and the numbers on that one. Not a big change for the DRT car. Up next is Hunt the Front, Tim McCreadie, Carson Ferguson, and Bailey Currey. Hunt the Front confirming here they are running the 19M number and the Rocket with JCM. McCreadie has the big Barefoot Bob throwback, certainly don't hate this one. Carson Ferguson has the construction/dozer wrap, and certainly an interesting throwback look for Currey and Niece Motorsports. The final batch here is Ryan Gustin, Ethan Dotson, Devin Moran, and Brian Shirley. Gustin going with Buzz Lightyear for the Infinity chassis, Dotson is another throwback, Moran not a huge change from his usual look, but some different details. And Shirley rolling out the gold, which reminds me of cars he ran seven or eight years ago. Drop a comment and let me know which of these is your favorite, or if there is another one out there that has caught your eye.

The newest attempt to revive West Virginia Motor Speedway saw a big update yesterday, as promoters shared images of the new, much smaller, track configuration yesterday. As progress on the reconfigure has continued in recent months, they've been sharing videos and photos to social media, but yesterday we saw what looks to be a fairly complete new track layout, including lights, infield tires, and outside guardrails. In it's original form, WVMS was a massive 5/8 mile track that struggled under a previous attempt to bring it back. The size of the track and speeds that were possible kept some teams away, and the effort was eventually abandonded. New promoters Mike and Becky Hurley made the decision to shrink the track down to a 3/8, with the hopes that they can get things going again. Works has been ongoing all summer. The first official race at WVMS will take place on October 11th. They're running a $5000 to win show for super late models, with modifieds, sport mods, and pro late models on the undercard. That was originially the date of the $75,000 to win race at Pennsboro Speedway that has since been cancelled. There is a $15,000 to win show at Beckley the day before the Southern Nationals and ULMS, so they just might be able to draw some cars to WVMS after that. The Hurleys also announced yesterday they have acquired Elkins Raceway, which is about two and a half hours from WVMS. Work has already begun there to make improvements as well. If you'd like to follow progress, find West Virginia Motor Speedway and Elkins Speedway on Facebook.

At the IMCA Super Nationals, we are now through two race days, with a whole host of new winners from last night. Tony Olson won the sport mod race of champions, Blake Luinenburg was the hobby stock race of champions winner, Dillon Richards was the sport compact event winner, Jake Sachau won the night's sport mod qualifying feature, and Corey Vanderwilt and Brandon Nielsen took the two hobby stock qualifying features. Your Wednesday schedule includes qualifying for stock cars, modifieds, hobby stocks, and northern sport mods. Cars are expected to be on track early this afternoon, although there is some weather in the area, so keep an eye out.

That's the show for today. Don't forget, if you want even more dirt racing content, make sure to follow DIRTRACKR across social media. That means Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and more. Wherever you are, so is DIRTRACKR.

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