DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Late drama propels Brad Sweet at Lincoln, Kyle Larson dominates Brownstown | DIRTRACKR Daily 5/13/21
It is Thursday, May 13th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
Today we react to last night's Outlaw show at Lincoln and FloRacing event at Brownstown. We've also got news from Lucas and USAC, and we answer a listener question about the business deals when a track brings in a big touring series. Let's dive in.
When the World of Outlaws head to Central Pennsylvania for matchups with the Posse, anything can and will happen, and last night at Lincoln Speedway was yet another example. 48 cars were on hand last night for the Gettsburg Clash, which I believe is the biggest field we've seen so far in 2021 for a World of Outlaws show. Two drivers that were missing though were Mason Daniel and Jason Sides. Daniel is currently sidelined with a concussion he suffered in a brutal crash at I-70 back on April 30th. He's missed the past three races and will be sitting out this weekend in Pennsylvania. His timetable for return isn't known as he awaits his symptoms to subside and doctors to clear him. Jason Sides was absent last night because his trailer was hit en route to Pennsylvania, severely damaging the back door. He did get 75 show up points for last night, and hopefully they are able to get things worked out to compete this weekend at Williams Grove. As for the racing last night, we were treated to a fantastic track surface, and at the end it was Brad Sweet standing in victory lane after earning his ninth win of the season. Donny Schatz led the most laps on the night from the pole, but he was under fire from both Sweet and Brent Marks, with Sweet leading lap 12, and Marks grabbing the top spot from Schatz at lap 25. Marks appeared to have the best car, as after he got the lead, he pulled away, but there was drama late in the going. Coming to six laps to go, the lap car of Danny Dietrich got big time sideways in turn four and Marks had to take evasive action to avoid a crash. Dietrich didn't spin out completely, and he kept his 48 rolling, so no caution was thrown. But the damage was already done. Sweet, Schatz, and Anthony Macri were all able to slip past Marks as he avoided Dietrich. Over the final six laps, Marks made his way back to second but ran out of time to catch the NAPA 49. It was Sweet's first career win at Lincoln Speedway. I said on the show yesterday that Central PA is usually a tough place for Sweet, so last night's win was big in his quest for a third straight championship. Sweet admitted in his post race interview that Marks was the car to beat, but as they say, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Marks, Macri, David Gravel, and Schatz rounded out the night's top five. If we are calling Marks Posse again, it was a decent showing for the local contingent, with Posse drivers finish second, third, and 10th. It was an early end to the night for past winner Lance Dewease, as his engine starting smoking early while running third, and he called it a night. With Sweet's win and Gravel's fourth, the points lead was extended to 70 headed to Williams Grove on Friday. Carson Macedo, Sheldon Haudenschild, and Aaron Reutzel complete the top five.
As for Brent Marks, he looks rejuvenated back behind the wheel of his own number 19 machine. Since leaving CJB Motorsports he has multiple local PA wins, and nearly grabbed his second World of Outlaws win in three races last night. CJB is a good team with very good equipment, but something with that pairing just didn't work. It's part of racing and it happens. It's nice to see Marks quickly find his groove though, and hopefully we'll get to see him more often the rest of the season on the national stage. I'm a big time buyer of Brent Marks stock right now. In regards to the no yellow call in the feature, the post race complaints are pretty standard for racing in Pennsylvania. Race director Mike Hess tweeted after the race he called the yellow too quick in the LCS, but stands by his no call in the feature. We certainly appreciate his transparency on the issue. It's important to remember two things. First, things happen very quickly in these races. It's incredibly difficult to stand in that tower and make split second decisions. Hess is one of the best, but it's just not going to be perfect all the time. Second, even though there is an Outlaws/Posse rivalry with the fans and on social media, the series and it's officials have no dog in the fight. It makes no difference to series director Carlton Reimers and Mike Hess who wins those races. To think that Hess orchestrated the no call to aid in an Outlaw victory is beyond bananas. Anthony Macri was right in the mix, and that could have just as easily been him taking advantage of the situation. But when the Outlaws head to PA, this is what transpires pretty regularly. The Outlaws are back this weekend at Williams Grove for two shows, we'll have more on that tomorrow.
The FloRacing Night in America late model series was back last night for round three of the mid week series. Brownstown Speedway in Indiana was the host, and a very strong field of 33 cars showed up to race. At the end of the night though, we were left looking at yet another dominating performance from Kyle Larson. He went quick time on the night, won his heat race, and led every lap of the feature but one to take the $10,000 win in the K&L Rumley number six. Just past half way, a three car battle for second reeled Larson in, and eighth starting Tanner English was able to briefly slide by the six for the top spot. But the lead was short lived, as Larson was back out front on lap 25, and he drove away to the victory. English finished second, Jonathan Davenport was third, Brandon Sheppard fourth, and Mike Marlar was fifth. The win was Larson's third career super late model triumph, which also includes a Lucas win at Port Royal and one at All-Tech. I don't want to gloss over the fact that Larson is driving incredibly well prepared race cars thanks to Kevin Rumley. Rumley's engineering knowledge and shock expertise make him a formidable crew chief, which we've seen plenty in the past with drivers like Jonathan Davenport. But Larson showing up to a run in a car he has limited experience in, at tracks he's never seen before, and just dominating is something to see. Last night's field included some of the best in the business and Larson was yet again up to the task. As for the rest of the field, Davenport continued to do Superman things driving up from seventh to finish third, and I was impressed with English. He was a $10,000 Spring Nationals winner at Clarksville a few weeks ago, and was very good last night against a stacked field. With three races of ten now complete, Jonathan Davenport continues to lead the series points standings with Devin Moran second, Tyler Erb Third, Mike Marlar fourth, and Kyle Larson and Hudson O'Neal in a tie for fifth. The series returns next Wednesday night at Marshalltown Speedway in Iowa for $10,000 to win.
We were supposed to get a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series double header weekend in the south between 411 Motor Speedway and the Talladega Short Track, but the entire weekend was cancelled yesterday. The Colonial Pipeline shutdown due to a cyber attack has affected the availability of fuel in the southeast, and the shortages have forced the series and tracks to scrap the weekend. Neither event will be made up. Next up for the Lucas late models is May 21st at 300 Raceway and May 22nd at 34 Raceway, both in Iowa. Tim McCreadie currently leads Hudson O'Neal and Jonathan Davenport in the standings. For more on the announcement, visit lucasdirt.com.
And just this morning USAC announced that this weekend's national midget events at Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex in Missouri have been postponed to July 11th because of impending inclement weather. That July race will now kick off a busy stretch of Mid America midget week that will see five races in four states over seven days. Buddy Kofoid is the current series points leader over Chris Windom and Justin Grant. For more detaisl, visit usacracing.com.
I got a message on Twitter this week from Joe asking about how events with the big series are organized and how the business deals work between tracks and series, so I wanted to dive in and give an explanation about the different possibilities. When your favorite track decides they want to showcase a big traveling series there are a few different options of how those deals are structured. I will say off the top, that each series is different in how they handle their agreements, but for the most part there are a few different ways to do a deal. The first option is by just a straight sanctioning deal. The track pays the series a sanctioning fee and the night's purse money, and the track keeps any revenue from the night. This means ticket sales, merch, beer and hot dogs, parking, etc. The track keeps every dollar. The series gets their sanction fee, and the purse money is distributed as normal to the drivers. Sanction fees vary from series to series, with obviously the larger series commanding a bigger fee. These types of deals are pretty common across the landscape of dirt racing. On the opposite end of the spectrum is a track rental. In this case, a series or promoter will pay the track a rental fee for the facility, and they will keep any revenue for the racing event. In each of these cases, one side is on the hook for any risk. With a sanction deal, the track is completely at risk, and with a rental, the series or promoter is completely at risk. That means if there is a rain chance, and only 100 people show up and there is a big loss on the night, all of it falls on one side. And the same is true if 20,000 people show up and they sell a ton of pit passes and beer, one side makes all the money. The other option that some series and promoters utilize with tracks is a partnership deal. The two sides agree to split the night's profits or losses based on a percentage. And this split may or may not include the various revenue streams, including ticket sales, pit passes, event sponsorships, concessions, and more. Those splits can obviously be different depending on the deal. This type of agreement can certainly make things easier on both sides, as any potential losses from an event are split, but it also caps the possible upside for each party. Profits from a night would also be split between the two. Partnership deals for events can bring other benefits though, including extra support from the series or promoter. For example, with World Racing Group, they can provide a robust ticket sales system for events along with great marketing expertise and event management. The organization behind the World of Outlaws has a ton of knowledge and experience promoting events, and they have a big fan base to draw from, effective ways to communicate with possible ticket buyers, and things like online ticketing. That can be a big boost to an event at a smaller race track that doesn't have the resources to create their own robust infrastructure. Through the course of a season, your favorite big traveling series may utilize one, a few, or all of these types of agreements, but obviously their hope is that your experience at the track is the same regardless of the business deal in effect. One thing to keep in mind here, and when you work for a series you hear the complaints all the time: how come certain tracks get events and others don't? Or how come we used to have an event, and now we don't? The simple answer in a lot of these cases is money. If events were super profitable, they would remain on the schedule. Profitability isn't the only factor in these decisions, but it's certainly right at the top. Series and tracks are businesses, and if there isn't money to be made, events will go away. Hopefully that answers Joe's questions and sheds a little light on the deals between tracks and series and promoters.
There are three items on the streaming schedule today. FloRacing has weekly IMCA action from Kossuth County Speedway and Flo 24/7, and Speed Sport TV has A-class non wing micros from US24 Speedway. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, hope everyone has a good Thursday. If you have thoughts about the topics on today's show, leave them in the comments below or tweet at me.
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