DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Traction control, Alex Bowman photos, sprint cars left? | Daily 11-6-2025
Where are the sprint car ride announcements, why did Sheldon Haudenschild post photos of Alex Bowman, what sprint cars left World Finals and why, why was a sprint car driver DQ'd before a feature event started down under. Those questions answered today and more. Let's go!
It's Thursday, November 6th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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Coming into this week at World Finals, I thought we'd maybe get a ride announcement or two on the sprint car side, but with the week nearly over, it doesn't seem like that's going to happen. It feels likely now that we'll have to wait until maybe next week, and the few weeks heading into PRI to get more public clarity on a few situations. Make no mistake though, a lot of stuff is done, and has be signed and sealed for weeks. One of those is the Sheldon Haudenschild KCP situation. He and ex-crew chief Kyle Ripper will pair there for 2026, and the only question that remains is what series they choose. I was told that Ripper was wearing a KCP hat the other night at Millbridge Speedway, although by the time I showed up, Ripper was wearing a beanie, because it was cold. Something that popped up this week that I've been asked about was a Sheldon Haudenschild Facebook post that featured photos of former sprint car team owner, and current Cup series driver Alex Bowman. That post has since been deleted, but here is a screenshot of it. It was strange because it was just photos of Bowman, and no text. And as us internet dwellers are want to do, the leap that some folks were trying to make was if this had something to do with silly season. Bowman was a team owner, Sheldon needs a ride, etc. But, unfortunately, it's nothing that serious. In the photos, Bowman is wearing hats from Sheldon's apparel line, Race Ready. I don't know why the post was deleted, but I'm told that's all it was. But just like with the Gio Scelzi/Spire/CMR stuff, Sheldon to KCP is what's happening. I don't know when exactly we'll get public acknowledgement, but there isn't much intrigue here.
Looking ahead to weekend racing, World Finals is happening as I write this at Charlotte, with the first race program going down today. They race again Friday and Saturday to close out the World of Outlaws and Super DIRTcar Series seasons. Bobby Pierce, David Gravel, and Mat Williamson are headed for series championships, so all that's really left to decide is the other points positions, and who wins each night. A couple of sprint car notes, we've actually lost two cars from the field after last night's qualifying. Kyle McFadden from FloRacing reported today that Ryan Smith and the Kreitz 69K went home after they weren't pleased with their time trialing efforts. So no baby blue 69K this weekend. Also, the Dave Blaney-owned 10 car with Dale Blaney in the seat is gone. Apparently they were just in attendance last night to test, and were not planning on racing. Dale was sixth quick in his group for Thursday, and 17th for Friday. Still 46 410 sprint cars on the property, along with 71 late models and 47 big block modifieds. DIRTVision is the place to be all weekend if you aren't in town.
Your other weekend sprint car options include the POWRi 410s at the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track. They race Friday and Saturday to end their season, with Ayrton Gennetten set to be crowned series champion. There is also action down under and USAC CRA at Perris.
Other weekend late model racing includes regional late models at Texas with POWRi, local racing at Pevely, and the Southern Thunder Super Dirt Series at Clarksville.
Moving on, as we get ready to close out sprint car racing here in the US for the year, things are well under way in Australia. They've been racing for several weeks already, but there is a curious and potentially controversial situation to keep an eye on there. A couple of weeks ago, driver Kaiden Manders was set to start the October 18th feature at the Perth Motorplex from the pole. During the feature lineup though, his number 71 machine wouldn't fire, and eventually the race went green without him. What's curious though, is on the results at MyRacePass, Manders is listed as disqualified. I was alerted to this several days ago, and since then, I've been trying to figure out what happened. I've reached out to both the local sprint car series and the team via social media DMs twice, and have had those messages ignored. They were seen, just not replied to. From what I gather though, this all stems from the traction control detection device they've been using down under. One source told me the car was running poorly at some point that night, and the device was maybe tampered with in some way. And the guys on the Work Area podcast in the days following the race did briefly touch on the subject, but refused to get into details regarding what exactly happened at the track, and what's coming out of the situation. Reading between the lines though, it's clear the device is what led to the issues with the 71 not firing, and it kind of sounds like maybe penalties are coming which they mentioned not agreeing with. Manders and the 71 team have raced since that night, which they would be allowed to do if some sort of appeal was under way. I'm told though they could be looking at a significant suspension if found guilty. I do find it strange that everyone is being so quiet about it. Whether in the US or down under, we need more transparency for rules situations, not less. We talked here on the Daily back on February 26th about the traction control detection device and it's development process. Toby Bellbowen with the Sprint Car Hub YouTube channel has done a few videos about it as well. The device mounts to the car, plugs into the wiring harness, and logs quote "any illegal movement in spark timing." How successful it is, I don't know, and we certainly don't have a strong gauge on pervasive traction control systems are. There are some folks that believe that ignition might not even be the right place to be looking these days. If you want to dive deeper, I'll link below to the Daily episde where we talked about it, and Toby's video.
Rounding out the last two DIRTRACKR channel supporter questions for the week, reyneleesonmotorsport asked quote "I'd love a deep dive into why racing in the US is so regionally specific to a type of car. Why are there sprintcars here but no late models. And late models here but no sprintcars. That kinda thing. I'm sure it has something to do with history but I'm still curious" unquote. I don't have a great answer for this one, other than to just say it's history and tradition. Over the years, certain types of cars became popular at certain tracks, or areas of the country. We are at a point though, where cars are pretty much everywhere. It just comes down to rules, engines, and other considerations. For example, where we are here in the Carolinas isn't sprint car territory. But there is a sprint car series here, the Carolina Sprint Tour. They run 305s though, and not 410s. Same with other parts of the country. Maybe they have 305s or 360s, but no 410 scene. Late models are that way as well. You might find somewhere with a healthy limited crowd, or crate group, but no supers. It kind of just depends on how deep you want to dig. I'll put this one out there for commentors too. Let me know if anyone out there has other ideas why racing can be so regional for car types.
The last question comes from Drutato. He asks quote "In 410 winged sprint car racing, how have the increased purses this year affected the outlook for 2026? The schedules have not been released but are the overall number of races and events increasing, decreasing or staying about the same? I know we will know more after PRI, but with the increased prize money available, it seems like more teams are running 410 races but not sure what the actual data says…" unquote. Bill over at sprintcarratings.com actually has a very nice page dedicated to this kind of information. He's got overall, generic sprint car stats from 2025 to 2015. Those numbers include total race count, total purse money, average car count, driver count, and driver count with a win. The number of events in 2025 should be the highest we've seen in a year over this span. The previous high was 490 in 2021, and we are at 489 currently. World Finals and BAPS should push that into the low 490s. This year was the most money paid out, currently sitting at over $19 million. Average car count and driver count though are not highs. The highest driver count year was 2023 with 1,018. This year we are just shy 900. The best average was 2020 at 29.9, but obviously that's a weird year. 2024 saw 29.6. I think at the top of the sport, things are as healthy as they've ever been, and some of the regional series seem to do pretty well. The local level is down though, if you look at places like Central PA and California. There are efforts underway to strengthen those areas, but we will just have to wait and see how successful those efforts will be.
We are going to end it right there for this week. Appreciate the support as always. Don't forget to hit the streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight for your daily viewing options.
Hope you guys have a great Thursday and a great weekend out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday!