DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Golobic gets NASCAR ride, More on the Outlaws' Bristol invite-only decision | DIRTRACKR Daily 3/4/21
It is Thursday, March 4th, two thousand and twenty one and you are tuned into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today on the show we are talking Shane Golobic's NASCAR debut, FloRacing adding the Short Track Super Series, we've got more details on the Outlaws' decision to make Bristol invite only, and more so let's jump in.
When the NASCAR Cup cars head to Bristol for the dirt event later this month, yet another dirt racing regular will be in the field. Joining fellow open wheel competitor Chris Windom, Matt Wood Racing and Live Fast Motorsports announced a partnership yesterday that will put Shane Golobic behind the wheel of Live Fast's car in the event. Golobic is a regular sprint car competitor from California with two World of Outlaws wins on his resume, besides Chili Bowl feature appearances, a USAC National midget win, Trophy Cup wins, and various other series and track championships. This will be Golobic's Cup Series debut, but it won't be his first time in a full bodied stock car. He made a handful of NASCAR West Series starts back in 2013 for Bill McAnally. Between NASCAR drivers going dirt racing, and dirt drivers going NASCAR racing, the next few weeks around Bristol will be super entertaining. This crossover between the two disciplines is a very good thing, and I hope the fans embrace these opportunities to see guys move around between car types and series.
FloRacing just continues to add to their offerings, with the announcement yesterday that they are adding the Short Track Super Series and events from Fonda and Georgetown Speedways to their streaming schedule this year. The deal adds more than 50 big block and small block modified events to Flo's already diverse schedule of races, including the $50,000 to win Speed Showcase 200 at Port Royal, and the $53,000 to win Fonda 200. Last season, Mike Mallett and his Dirt Track Digest TV were the streaming provider for Brett Deyo and the STSS, and he and his team will stay involved in this new partnership. Mallett's DTD TV group will handle the production of the events for FloRacing. I was interviewed for another podcast yesterday, and we talked about this new deal for the Short Track Super Series. I didn't initially realize that Mallett was going to stay involved, but I'm happy to see that his group is going to continue to be part of this. Flo continues to use their considerable resources to add more content and push growth as quickly as they can, and the subscribers to the service are benefitting. They are north of 800 live events for the year across many different dirt racing tracks and series, and they've branched out into other forms of motorsports, including drag racing and motocross. I know I've talked a lot about the streaming platforms, but I do it because I think it's a super interesting time to watch all of this evolve and progress. It wasn't all that many years ago that only a handful of events were live streamed through the season, and now between services like Flo and DIRTVision, and all the smaller providers, we have to be well into the many thousands of events getting streamed yearly. If you'd like to get a FloRacing subscription, and help out DIRTRACKR, click one of the Flo links on the site, or in the YouTube description.
I always point out new podcast episodes on Wednesdays on this show, and one of those I mentioned yesterday was the new episode of Open Red featuring Doug Auld and World of Outlaws race director Mike Hess. If you haven't listened yet, I'd definitely recommend checking it out. In the conversation with Hess, he gives insight into the thought process behind making the Bristol World of Outlaws events invite-only. And while it sounds like safety was a concern, one of the main driving factors in limiting the field was the available pit space. With limited infield parking for teams and haulers, and two divisions racing, the Outlaws cut the fields down to avoid parking teams outside the track and needing to open and close the turn three gate to allow cars in and out. That time needed to open the gate, load cars in and out, and close it again would slow the program down dramatically, and the series wanted to ensure efficient race nights. Having everyone that's competing already in the infield removes that need to open and close the gate, and avoids any possible effects to the track from cars constantly pulling in and out on the entrance to turn three. It's something I hadn't thought about through this process, but it makes a ton of sense. We are at a point where race nights that drag out to four or five or six hours just don't make sense, and tracks and series need to start taking a look at how they can keep things tight and efficient. Kudos to Hess and Carlton with the sprint car series, the late models' Casey Shuman, Dean Reynolds with the Super DIRTcar Series, DIRTcar's Sam Driggers, and all the competition guys at World Racing Group for making this move. As I said before, you'll still get to see all the racers you buy a ticket to watch, and you'll get a more efficient program to boot. You can find that episode of Open Red on podcast platforms, and at worldofoutlaws.com.
Priority Aviation and the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame are bringing back the Knoxville Nationals sponsorship program for this year. Drivers who are competing in the 360 or 410 Nationals are eligible, with the driver raising the most funds for the hall of fame being awarded a $20,000 sponsorship. The second highest raiser will get $10,000, while third will get $5000. Lance Dewease was the last recipient of the sponsorship back in 2019. Since no sponsorship was awarded in 2020, any donations made last year will carry over to this year. According to the release, Robbie Kendall leads to donations brought in from last season. To participate for their favorite driver, fans and supporters can visit sprintcarstuff.com. There they can order their memberships and specify in the notes section which driver they are supporting. For more information on the announcement, visit sprintcarhof.com.
The Spring Nationals late model series announced yesterday they have cancelled their season opener which was originally scheduled for March 13th at Volunteer Speedway in Tennessee. The track informed series officials that the facility wouldn't be ready in time for the race. The Spring Nationals will now open their 2021 season on Saturday, March 27th at I-75 Raceway in Tennessee. That race pays $10,053 to win. The Spring Nationals events for 2020 were all lost to COVID, so Dale McDowell is the defending series champion back to 2019. For more information, visit southernnationalsseries.com.
There is again nothing on the streaming schedule today except FloRacing 24/7. To see the full daily streaming schedule, with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Tomorrow on the show we'll dive into what will hopefully be a busy weekend of racing between the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and Late Models, including weekend win predictions. We'll also look around the country at other racing going on, and more.
That's it for the show today, hope everyone has a good Thursday.
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