DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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RTJ's reunion tour, American Racer looking at sprint car expansion, bad dirt track news | Daily 12-1-2025

Ricky Thornton Jr. and Koehler Motorsports confirm their recent crew hires, we'll debrief from the Brad Sweet interview and talk his schedule for next year, and some important points on sprint car tires. Plus bad news for a New Jersey dirt track. Let's go!

It's Monday, December 1st, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

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I hope in the days between Thanksgiving and now you've had a chance to watch the interview I posted with Brad Sweet. The full hour-long episode is available on the YouTube channel, Facebook page, and podcast places. I've also shared some clips across platforms as well. I haven't really done this before with one of my interviews, but I wanted to double back today and react to a few things, because there were some newsworthy things in there. I usually just post those and move on, but maybe I should start doing some debriefs of them. With Sweet deciding to pull back from full time sprint car competition in 2026, I think an easy to thing to assume was that he'd just be at all the High Limit races next year. He'd maybe be on hand to oversee things, continue working with teams and tracks, and be more hands on. But when you think about it, it would make sense if that wasn't actually the case. And as he told me, he's not planning on being at every race. Sweet believes in the leadership they've assembled for High Limit, and while he will be at some races, he's also going to spend much more time at home. That will give him more family time, and he wants to go deeper into operations at the Silver Dollar Speedway. The Chico track is under the management of SLC Promotions, which is the company setup by Sweet, Kyle Larson, and Colby Copeland. Silver Dollar had 22 events in 2025, and Sweet plans at being at all of them next year. It's clear he wants to see that place continue to grow. Besides being at home more, the Big Cat also revealed he's looking at a schedule of 25 to 30 sprint car races in 2026. That would obviously be less than half the 67 shows he ran during his final full year. He did tell me the team with which he'll run is still TBD. Initially, I think I and others figured he'd just run a partial schedule in a NAPA-sponsored ride still under the Kasey Kahne Racing banner, but I think it's just as likely, and maybe more likely, that those 25-30 races will come with a different car owner. There are certainly plenty of good west-coast based rides that would be happy to have him, including maybe one that is regularly partnered with Sweet's brother-in-law. I'll be super curious to see what ends up happening on this front, and if he can stay competitive when he's not racing all the time. We've certainly seen other guys stay fast past their full time careers, including a guy who was previously a teammate to Sweet in Daryn Pittman. My last takeway from our conversation was Brad's comments on the sprint car tire situation. He did confirm that he was part of the Hoosier tire testing earlier this season, and that he thought maybe they'd implement changes for 2026. But instead, he thinks they are probably a year away, especially given some of the logistical and manufacturing challenges that go into making changes to product lines. He also mentioned American Racer wanting to get involved in sprint car racing, and Sweet pointed towards their involvement in Australia. I'd heard previously that conversations were happening behind the scenes on this front, and that American Racer was maybe looking to get in. That would also create some challenges though, which he acknowledged. He told me quote "You know, that might be a direction the sport goes into the future, is opening that back up, but not really sure. Until you really have the big races, the Knoxville nationals or the Kings Royals, you know, those are the events that kind of control, kind of the rules packages. And right now world racing group kind of has those events and we want our drivers to be as competitive as possible. So we certainly don't want to get our rules package too far off. And we certainly want to stay aligned with the rest of the country" unquote. As these tire conversations continue, the competitive balance is one that needs to be taken into consideration. If, for example, High Limit opened up their tire rules, or switched away from Hoosier, that would complicate things at other races for their full time teams. They'd be building a package around one tire, but needing something else for a different tire somewhere else. And to be clear, I'm not saying this is what High Limit is doing, just using it as an example. But I did have a car owner on the late model side tell me that things are different for American Racer teams versus Hoosier teams in terms of package. This tire stuff could certainly be something we are talking about more into the future, especially if American Racer can convince tracks and/or series to make changes. If you haven't had a chance to check out the Brad interview, it's certainly worth your time.

Moving on to a situation we talked about last week, Koehler Motorsports with driver Ricky Thornton Jr. confirmed in recent days that Anthony Burroughs and Justin Tharp will join the 20RT team as crew members. The reunion starts this week with the Gateway Dirt Nationals. RTJ's Facebook page shared a release on Koehler letter head that read simply "The reunion tour starts now." Burroughs and Tharp will be joined by Zach Frields, who'd been part of the crew all season, and listed as crew chief. Burroughs and RTJ were paired together previously at SSI Motorsports, where they won 34 races together during the 2023 season alone. These two together were one of the most potent combinations we've seen in a very long time, and maybe ever. When Thornton was released by SSI in the summer of 2024, Burroughs stayed on with driver Hudson O'Neal. He then moved over to Riggs Motorsports before 2025 to join up with Brandon Overton and the Longhorn Factory Team. But as we told you last week, the factory team relationship between Longhorn and Riggs is over, and Burroughs and Tharp departed the organization. The plan is for the Riggs 76 to move it's operation to Georgia where Overton will be much more involved. That was reported by Kevin Kovac at Dirt on Dirt. Overton will have almost an entirely new crew for the Dome this week, as only Ryder Cantillo stayed on. For RTJ, having three really experienced crew guys, all have been crew chiefs at various points, should be a boost for him. He's one of those drivers that's heavily involved in the car setup and decisions, but the load and pressure should be a bit lighter, at least in the pits and when it comes to preparation. It's a bit crazy to say that a guy with 14 series wins last year will be helped out by a new-look crew, but he did miss out on the Lucas title for the second time in three years, despite winning by far the most races. Obviously the Lucas championship setup didn't help that cause. I like this move though for Koehler and RTJ, and I don't think they'll have a problem hitting the ground running this week, and into 2026. They'll have plenty of races to get everything re-settled, with RTJ committed to the Wild West Shootout as well.

Closing out today with some race track news, the future is very much in doubt for New Egypt Speedway in New Jersey. In an announcement on their website and social media today, the track's management shared quote "New Egypt Speedway will not operate as a racetrack in 2026 under its current ownership. After 19 years at the helm of New Egypt Speedway, Fred Vahlsing has decided to not open the D-shaped oval for another season of racing. Vahlsing is open to a buyer or another party to operate the speedway for the upcoming season and beyond. In the meantime, truck parking and space for lease is still available at the property, along with the sales of VP Racing Fuels" unquote. The track hosted a full slate of racing this past season, including the World of Outlaws sprint cars in October, the Super DIRTcar Series in March, and the USAC East Coast sprint cars besides weekly action. There is no active real estate listing that I can find, so interested parties should contact the speedway. It does say the quarter midget track will continue to run.

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 Monday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!