DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.
Kevin Thomas Jr. joining the winged sprint car migration, ASCS releases National Tour schedule | Daily 12-8-2021
Coming up we are talking another non-wing guy going winged racing, the ASCS schedule, and more. Cue the horns!
Today is Wednesday, December 8th, two thousand and twenty one. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
I mentioned back on Monday's Daily show that Chris Windom had talked at the Dome about going winged racing for 2022, and yesterday we learned that another veteran non-wing driver was making the move as well. It had been rumored for a bit, but it's official, Kevin Thomas Jr. will be full time with the All Star Circuit of Champions next season. He's partnering with California car owner Clayton Snow to attack the full schedule with eyes on the World of Outlaws for the future. KTJ is joining Windom in following Tyler Courtney into winged competition after successfully running without the wing for years. Thomas had a resurgent season with the USAC sprint cars, finishing second in the points on the strength of nine wins, 29 top fives, and 37 top tens in 43 starts. He also ran the USAC midget full time with Petry Motorsports as a teammate to Emerson Axsom and had 10 top fives and 23 top tens in 40 starts. Car owner Snow has had a variety of drivers in his equipment, most recently partnering with Brock Zearfoss and grabbing a win at the Copper Classic at Arizona Speedway with the ASCS Southwest Region. The car will be the 9K and supported by a lot of KTJ's existing partners, including Dr. Pepper, McDonalds, and the Ronald McDonald House Charities. The team will be based out of Indiana, and preparations for next season have already begun. In a post at Sprintcarunlimited.com, Snow told Jeremy Elliott that he initially wanted to go Outlaw racing, but that Thomas talked him into the All Stars to help start things off a little slower. It sounds like they do eventually want to be a full time Outlaw team though. While Thomas is known for his non-wing exploits, he's not entirely unfamiliar with racing with the wing on. He has an ASCS regional win from back in 2017, and attempted that year to be a full time winged racer before things went sideways. You might remember his brief stint behind the wheel of the Buffalo Wild Wings 82. Thomas made two All Star starts this season, back in May at Gas City and Kokomo, with finishes of 13th and 21st. He also made some Outlaw starts in 2018 and 2019, with a best finish of 9th at the Nashville Fairgrounds. We are certainly at an interesting moment in time right now with sprint car racing, as we watch some of these non-wing guys attempt to transition to winged competition, even while USAC and it's promoters work towards adding more money to the non-wing side of things. The potential is definitely there for more money to be made in winged racing, but you have to be competitive and you have to find a way to win. It worked for Sunshine this season because he picked up some big victories, like a Kings Royal, plus the All Star championship. We'll have to wait and see if Windom and KTJ can find some of that performance in their own journies. I do think this kicks the door wide open in the non-wing divisions for next season. Windom and KTJ have won 14 races the past two years, with both having north of 30 top fives. That means more chances for the regulars like Brady Bacon and Justin Grant and CJ Leary, but also more opportunities for the newer crowd like Jake Swanson and Logan Seavey and Axsom. Drop me a comment, let me know what you think about this migration from one side to the next. Has non-wing racing become just a stepping stone to series like the All Stars and Outlaws? Let me know your thoughts.
It was one of the last schedules we've been waiting on, but the ASCS dropped their National Tour schedule for 2022 earlier today. It features at the moment 57 races, with the possibility of it growing to over 60 before things get started. The face of the series is changing next season with new owner Terry Mattox keeping the slate of races more located around the mid west, and dropping the west coast and east coast races. In the past that included California and Washington, and stops in Pennsylvania. There is none of that for next year. Except for one weekend, all of the races are within eight or ten hours of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The season will start March 18th and 19th at Devil's Bowl Speedway in Texas, and conclude in late October at Creek County in Oklahoma. Most of the races on the calendar will pay at least $3000 to win, with several paying more than that. A lot of the traditional stops and tracks are still on the schedule, including the 360 Nationals and the Hockett/McMillin Memorial. And the full season will be streamed live on FloRacing. If you want to see the full schedule, visit ascsracing.com. Stay tuned for more about the ASCS. I should have a new conversations podcast out soon.
A quick note about the USAC schedules. They tweeted out yesterday that they will release their 2022 schedules during the PRI show on Thursday and Friday. That should be just about it for the major racing series and their 2022 schedules. We've got the Outlaws, All Stars, ASCS, and Lucas, but we are still waiting for some, like Summer Nationals, POWRi and some smaller regional series. Don't forget, as the offseason progresses, the front page of dirtrackr.com is a great place to check for any news that's dropped through the course of the day. That page updates automatically every 15 minutes, so you know the links are fresh, plus you don't have to wait for me to see the news and then post it. All of the major racing series are represented on that page, as our the major news outlets.
I wanted to jump back briefly to yesterday's topic about championships not seeming to matter. In the YouTube comments, Chuck mentioned the idea that all that really matters is money when it comes to this racing. And I'm wondering if the rest of you feel that same way. I fully understand that a lot of these guys are trying to make a living driving race cars, so money will always be a central factor. But in terms of how we view and perceive the actual racing, does the money mean more than the championships and the wins? It seems to me at the highest levels of motorsport, you don't hear much about the prize money and championship winnings. But with dirt racing, to-win amounts and season long payouts are an ongoing topic of conversation. Is that because we as fans care about it, or is that because it's something that gets talked about by teams and drivers a lot. In talking earlier in this episode about wing vs. non-wing, a central theme of the migration is the chance to win more money on the winged side. So this has kind of seeped into all areas of the racing. As a competitor, I hope we haven't reached a point where the prestige of wins and championships has been completely overshadowed by the cash to be made along the way. That would be a real shame.
The offseason is basically upon us, but there are still plenty of other dirt racing podcast episodes to listen to besides this one. Winged Nation has Max Stambaugh, LoudPedal has Bryan Hulbert, Passing Points has Brady Bacon, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, and the Dirt Nerds. To see the full list of shows and episodes, hit up dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
The streaming schedule has two items on it today. Flo has FloRacing 24/7 and DIRTVision has DIRTcar eSports action from Kokomo Speedway. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, hope you have a good Wednesday. If you have thoughts about the topics on today's show, leave them in the comments below or tweet at me.
Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you in a few days for more DIRTRACKR Daily!