DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Thoughts on California's 410 sprint car scene, bigger World of Outlaws purses at Bristol | Daily 3-2-2022
Coming up on the show today we are talking 410 racing in California, Scotty Thiel, and more cash at Bristol. Let's roll.
Today is Wednesday, March 2nd, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
I try and keep these shows as packed full of content as I can, which is why I've eliminated a lot of the pluggy stuff from my daily spiels. But every once in a while, I want to jump back in with a quick reminder. If you like what I do here, like these videos and subscribe to the YouTube channel. If you're a podcast listener, make sure you're subscribed on your favorite podcast app, and leave me a review. I just got some new big ass dirtrackr decals, so here's what we'll do. If you leave a podcast review, or subscribe to this YouTube channel, shoot me a screenshot proving you did so, and I'll pick five emailers to send a big ass decal to for free. Send your emails to info@dirtrackr.com. I'll give you a few days to do so. These decals will look better on your car or beer fridge, than they do stacked up on my desk.
I want to start the show today with a reaction to a comment on my show from yesterday. The sprint car season out in California got started over the weekend at Hanford, with Carson Macedo getting the win over Kerry Madsen. Not a bad show to get 2022 kicked off, but not everyone agreed. In my YouTube comments, Speedie pointed out that the 410 field was light, actually 14 cars total, and called it a quote "sad show at Hanford" unquote. He made reference to some of the recent talk about how promoters are trying to elevate 410 racing out west, but pointed to this event as an example of how things are not better. On some level I see his point, you certainly would hope for more than 14 cars, and I know there were issues with the format and a dash that for some reason ended up not counting. But on the flip side, we've got to give this some time. Kevin Rudeen and Peter Murphy have only owned Skagit up in Washington for a few months. The new 410 Trophy Cup hasn't even happened yet. Brad Sweet, Kyle Larson, and Colby Copeland's new venture running Silver Dollar Speedway is also very young, with their first event still upcoming. 410 racing out west is also adopting the Outlaw tire rule, but again, very young. Steps are being made in a positive direction, but we have to be patient to allow them to take effect, and we also need to remember that we still live in a world with ongoing supply chain issues. Parts and pieces are still difficult to come by, and with the World of Outlaws inbound in a few weeks, I think there is a reasonable chance that the teams that have 410s are saving them for later. Changes like this are not going to create results overnight. This will probably take a few seasons before it has any real meaningful impact, especially in this current climate. He also mentioned some specific drivers in his comment, including Rico Abreu. As we've talked about here, Rico's focus in 2022 is on a much heavier Outlaw schedule with Ricky Warner as crew chief, and an early season Saturday night show at Hanford, California for $4000 to win is probably low on the priority list when Rico is headed to Texas this weekend for what I'm assuming are two $10k to win nights. It's still very early in the year, car counts will get better, and we have to be patient and allow these changes to really take effect before we can start declaring that 410 racing in California isn't better.
Speaking of 410 racing, the All Star season is still a ways off from getting underway with points, and we are still waiting on a full list of series regulars for the year. One of the drivers who was considering a full run with the series was Wisconsin driver Scotty Thiel, but in a release yesterday it was revealed that he and Team 73 will instead do a pick and choose schedule in 2022. They've got a packed slate planned that includes the Outlaws, All Stars, IRA, FAST, POWRi, MOWA and more. Thiel is a regional guy that makes scattered starts with the big series each season. In 2021, it was 11 starts with the Outlaws and 13 starts with the All Stars. That will ramp up significantly this season, with I think I counted north of 20 nights with just the Outlaws upcoming. Thiel had a nice run in May and June with the All Stars in 2021, picking up five straight top tens, and best finish of fourth at Circle City on May 21st. His best Outlaw finish was an eighth at Wilmot in July. I point all of this out, because this team is making a big jump this season in their committment to racing, and I think the seat time and added resources could really benefit Thiel. He's got 20 IRA wins in his career, and I think there are certain tracks and parts of the country where we could see him do really well this year. I think more Outlaw top tens are possible, and he's a guy who could sneak up on us and grab an All Star win, like we saw with his IRA brethren Bill Balog.
In some news that came out just a little bit ago, the World of Outlaws have bumped the purses for the upcoming weekend for the sprint cars and late models at Bristol. Both the Friday and Saturday shows for each series will pay $25,000 to win and $2000 to start. Last year, the first night was $10k to win, while the second was $25k. The start money is up from $1000 and $1200 respectively. I wonder if this move to fatten the purse is in reponse to the car counts from last year, when we had 28 sprint cars and 29 late models. Bristol was not easy on equipment with the speeds, and I think it kept a lot of teams away. According to the release, the event is again invite-only, which will certainly piss people off like it did last year for whatever reason. I'll be curious to see how these Bristol events, between both the Outlaws and XR do in year two. You won't have that novelty factor like you did in 2021, so will teams still show up and will fans still tune in in high numbers. We'll have to wait and see. Drop me a comment and let me know if these Bristol events are still high on your watch list for this year, or if you view them like any other race.
If you're at work or running around this week and want some other dirt racing audio in your earholes, LoudPedal has Emerson Axsom, Forward Bite has Cody Overton and Kenny Collins, Ohio Dirt has DJ Foos, Passing Points has Emmett Hahn, and there are new episodes of Winged Nation's Work Area, the Dirt Reporters, and the Dirt Nerds. To see the full list of podcasts and recent episodes, jump over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.
It's again a quiet day on the streaming platforms, with only FloRacing 24/7 on today's streaming schedule. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, 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 tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!