DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Whoa buddy, we've got a lot to unpack... FloRacing buys Lucas, Gio Scelzi's deal official, more | Daily 12-11-2025

It was a big day of breaking news across dirt racing from the PRI show. We'll dive into the big stuff today, including FloRacing buying Lucas, Gio Scelzi's deal is official, new rides for Daulton Wilson and Chris Madden, and more. Let's go!

It's Thursday, December 11th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.

Today's Daily show is being supported by our friends at the Wild West Shootout. The six race mini-series takes place January 10th and 11th, 14th, and 16th through 18th in 2026. And new this year is the host track, with the event moving to Central Arizona Raceway and back to the state of Arizona. The track is located just south of Phoenix down I-10. Things at Central Arizona are really on the rise, and this past season we saw High Limit race there, along with USAC, and now they'll host the best late model racers in the world, along with a great field of modifieds. The list of confirmed drivers is already about as stacked as you'll find anywhere, with Bobby Pierce, Jonathan Davenport, Hudson O'Neal, Ricky Thornton Jr., Brandon Sheppard, Brandon Overton, Mike Marlar, Tyler Erb, Ryan Gustin, Garrett Alberson, and Billy Moyer just a few of the many expected. All week long the action off the track will be just as good, with free concerts each of the Saturdays, plus barrel racing on select nights during intermission, there's a golf tournament, cornhole tournament, and more. Grab some friends and kick off the 2026 dirt racing season at the Wild West Shootout. Discounted six-day ticket packages for reserved seats and single day reserved seat tickets are available now at wildwestshootout.net. That's wildwestshootout.net for single day and ticket packages. I'll also put the link below in the video description.

Settle in friends, a lot stuff to talk about. Grab a beverage and pull up a seat. Today was day one of the PRI motorsports trade show in Indianapolis, and there has been no lack of news breaking all day. Things got off to a serious start right away at 8AM with FloRacing announcing it had acquired the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. This was a move that's been talked about behind the scenes for a number of years, would it happen, when, had it already happened. I think I've said this here before on the show, but a couple of years ago I remember sending Flo's Michael Rigsby a text asking specifically if they had bought Lucas, and at the time he said they had not. But through the years the rumor and chatter never went away, and in a recent interview, we even heard World Racing Group CEO Brian Carter mention it. That Flo was maybe buying in, or had already done so. FloRacing became the streaming partner for the series back in 2022, and if you remember back, Lucas used to have it's own TV channel and streaming platform. MAVTV, and MAVTV Plus. The streaming 'plus' side of the business is what got taken over effectively by FloRacing, and MAVTV was sold to RACER earlier this year and rebranded as the RACER Network. The tie-up between Flo and the Lucas series got even more serious last year, when Flo became the series presenting sponsor below Lucas itself. Pulling back, the Lucas Oil Company shedding some of it's motorsports ties has been a topic on this show before, and it felt inevitable when Lucas founder Forrest Lucas died earlier this year that more was likely coming. Ownership of series and sponsorship deals started to change and go away, and the company itself shifted with Forrest stepping back a few years ago. Son Morgan was named president in 2020, and he took over as CEO in 2024. If the Lucas family was going to divest itself from the late model series, FloRacing and FloSports was the most likely suitor, especially given their foray into series ownership with High Limit, partnered with Kyle Larson and Brad Sweet on the sprint car side, and their midweek FloRacing Night in America series. Beyond the acquisition itself, series director Rick Schwallie said today that not much else will change. As part of the agreement, Lucas has signed a multi-year deal to continue as title sponsor, so it will still be the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series for the foreseeable future. And all of the staff, including Schwallie and series announcer James Essex, will be back. The series had already previously announced their 2026 schedule, and nothing is changing there. Had it not been for this announcement, it's likely none of us would have ever noticed there was a change. What's interesting in all of this, is that even though FloSports is a large, venture capital-backed entity involved in all sorts of sports, FloRacing is bringing itself much more in line with the model that competitor World Racing Group has. Own the streaming and the series, and cut down the need to go out and acquire live rights. Flo still has a ton of active deals in racing, and that will continue to be the case, but their dirt racing offerings will be anchored by these series owned in-house. As I've said before, if you can't beat them, join them. Another thing we've pointed out previously, as have others, is High Limit's rebrand from High Limit sprint cars to High Limit Racing, and I still think there is a possible future where both the sprint car and late model series are brought under the same branding banner, just like we see with the World of Outlaws. When I heard yesterday this announcement was pending, it certainly didn't surprise me given what we've known about the situation, but it is big to see it all play out. I remember back to the days when Flo was just getting into dirt racing, and they had the live rights for the Super DIRTcar Series. Their internal marketing team didn't know the difference between a UMP modified and a northeast modified, and we had to educated them on the difference for their ads, lest they get lambasted by the fans they were trying to convince to buy from them. They've certainly come a long way since then.

Following the Flo/Lucas news came the official announcement of the new Spire Motorsports sprint car team just an hour later. That included the hiring of Gio Scelzi to drive and Eric Prutzman to crew chief. I've also seen as well that former Kasey Kahne Racing crew member Cole Neuhalfen is coming on as car chief. Scelzi will drive a Chili's sponsored 77, and they will be full time with High Limit. Chili's restaurants a major partner of Spire on the NASCAR side, and we saw them on Carson Hocevar's dirt late model just days ago inside the Dome for the Gateway Dirt Nationals. The Spire 77 will immediately be part of the quote unquote High Roller Club, with it also being announced that they acquired the franchise from Jason Meyers that they earned with the 14 car the past two years. It's been quite the second half of the season for Gio Scelzi, who started the year as an Outlaw driver with KCP, he then quit that car mid-Kings Royal week, and after nursing an injury of his own, emerged not long after to take over the Clauson Marshall 7BC with Tyler Courtney getting hurt that same week. Gio finished the year in the 7BC, and along the way this Spire deal emerged. If you are a regular around here, you know this Spire, Scelzi situation is one we've been following and talking about for several months. I went back and looked, and the first time I can find that we discussed it was August 25th. It was initially rumored that CMR could be in line to buy the Meyers franchise to start a second team for Scelzi. And then just a few weeks later, on September 16th, we talked about the potential for Spire to be involved and that the new deal had hired a veteran crew chief. We obviously know that crew chief was Prutzman, and he spent the last several weeks of the season traveling with the 7BC to start getting things ready for 2026. It's nice to see something we've been following for four months finally be announced. Along with this, it was also revealed that Scelzi will drive a Chili's sponsored ride at the Chili Bowl in a partnership between Spire and Keith Kunz Motorsports. This sprint car program falls under something Spire is calling their Ascent Progra, that also features Hocevar and pavement racer Tristan McKee. I think this could be a potent combination with Scelzi and Prutzman, especially if Prutzman can bring Gio any of the same speed he had with Brad Sweet when they were dominating sprint car racing together. I do think the package will be key here though. As for Spire, there are lots of rumblings about additional future dirt racing involvement for them. I've heard non-wing stuff, more late model races, so stay tuned here. Remember Spire is owned by TWG, that is the same entity that's starting the Cadillac Formula 1 team.

Moving on to late model news from today. After running several times for them later in the year, Daulton Wilson will stick with Big Frog and Viper Motorsports for 2026, this time on a full time basis. They'll run Longhorns with plans to start the year against the World of Outlaws at Volusia. A schedule wasn't announced, but it does sound like they could end up on a national tour. The post from the team said they'll announce series intentions in the coming weeks. Wilson was on the market for a new deal after parting with JRR following the Lucas season. JRR then hired Josh Rice, and now Wilson has his next deal. Big Perm was a full time Lucas driver each of the last three seasons, finishing eighth in the final standings twice, and seventh the other time. He's officially got two series wins. 2025 though felt like a bit of a step back for the pairing though. Wilson is a driver who clearly has talent, and I think in the right situation could win multiple national tour races a season. Big Frog and Viper was a team that ran a bit of a smaller schedule, but I wonder if another free agent deal maybe freed things up a bit here. We know that Viper had been backing Cory Hedgecock, but with his move to Billy Hicks and a full Lucas run next year, it's possible that allowed them to scale up here more with Wilson. That's just speculation on my part though. We'll see now what series they end up choosing.

A ride that Wilson may have been a candidate for elsewhere was the Infinity house car program for Wells Motorsports. That team though announcing their new driver today, and this confirms what I'd told you here not long ago. Chris Madden is back to racing full time, joining Wells to pilot their Infinity chassis car in a pick and choose slate for 2026. This wasn't a super big secret, but now it's all official. Things started to heat up here after it became clear that Madden and car owner Kale Green had parted ways after the Flo finale at Senoia several weeks ago. Madden started the season in the GR Smith-owned car, but moved to Green's team earlier this year. The team plans to also start their season at Volusia against the Outlaws in January. This closes the loop on a Wells slash Infinity house car team that rumors circulated about earlier this year. There was a potential Eric Wells return in the cards, but that never materialized. Wells back racing again for the first time since Brandon Overton departed the team following the 2024 season. And this announcement ends what was a part time driving career for Madden, who announced a pull back in 2024 because of health issues. He sold all of his own equipment earlier this year.

And the final news item we'll discuss today. There was no announcement for this one, but the World of Outlaws Late Model Series is on the hunt again for a title sponsor. There was a ton of fanfare earlier this year when they signed Hulk Hogan's beer company, Real American Beer, to what was called a multi-year agreement to be the series' title sponsor. Real American Beer also becoming the official beer of multiple World Racing Group-owned series. Just eight months later though, the deal is apparently off. The series logo for the Outlaws changed across social media at around 9:30 AM this morning, along with the logo at worldofoutlaws.com. I reached out to WRG for comment, but have not gotten a reply. I was told though that things haven't been great since Hulk Hogan passed away in July. The beer brand's website does still show the Outlaws on it's front page. The World of Outlaws late models started 2025 without a title partner after their deal ended with CASE Construction following the 2024 season. Given how quickly the new season starts in 2026, I'd bet they go for a while into next year with the series unsponsored. I'm sure the hunt has been on for a while, so we'll see what WRG can put together. An interesting dichotomy today between the two big late model players, with Flo and Lucas announcing big stuff, and the Outlaws losing a sponsor.

Before we close out, a quick thought I have for the dirt racing industry as a whole. I know PRI is a big deal, but I don't know why everyone feels like they need to break news all at the same time. Like this is PR 101 type stuff. Things are so easily overshadowed on a day like this, I don't understand at all why some of these announcements were made. There have been plenty of completely quiet days over the last few weeks, and I'm sure next week will be quiet as well. With some better planning, some of these announcements could get a lot more run. Too often this sport shoots itself in the foot, and days like today are a perfect example of that. Announcing driver changes at 9PM on a Friday, everyone rushing out things on PRI day one, and not getting media more involved are all things we've seen happen in just the last few weeks. And don't take this as me complaining for myself about media involvement. I could care less if the teams and drivers talk to me. But get Flo and Dirt on Dirt involved, call Jeremy Elliott, Speed Sport, series PR coordinators whoever. Coordinate. Take advantage of the media who do cover the sport. Make sure your announcement gets the full buzz it deserves. We want dirt racing to be taken seriously, we want bigger sponsors, more ticket sales, more merch sold, etc, etc. But we can't even handle simple announcements the right way. It's really frustrating to watch. Alright, off my soap box.

Looking ahead, there is a solid chance I'll do a Friday bonus Daily. I have enough show topics that I didn't get to today for probably an extra show or two, and there is a possibility we see more news tomorrow. So stay tuned for that.

That's certainly plenty for today, hope you guys have a great rest of your Thursday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow, or Sunday!