DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Let's talk about dirt modifieds, more Xtreme Outlaw midget full timers | Daily 3-3-2022

Coming up we are talking about modifieds! GASP! I've also got more full time Xtreme Outlaw midget drivers and more. Let's go!

Today is Thursday, March 3rd, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.

We are kind of in that lull right now in the dirt racing season, where Florida is over, and a lot of tracks are just starting to open or won't open for another few weeks. We'll have weekend racing, like we do coming up, but not much happening during the week. So because things are a little bit quiet, I want to take a minute to talk about modifieds. Now wait, before you go to turn me off, just give me a second. The 2022 USMTS season opens this weekend, which is why I bring this up. I want to know where you stand on modifieds. I feel like there is always a lot of mod hate floating around, they are just a support division, they always crash, etc. But as a race fan, where are you personally? Do you like them? Do you not like them? I'm curious. For all intents and purposes, I feel like the USMTS should get more attention than it does. Their series champion in 2022 will take home $100 grand. A lot of those races pay $10,000 to win. In fact, nearly half the schedule does. There are also four races that pay more than that to win. They will give out nearly a million and a half dollars in just purse money alone during this upcoming season, and another quarter million plus to just the top ten in the series points at the end of the season. I've gone stretches on this show where I talk about the series and the racers, but it doesn't move the needle in any way. My USMTS talk recently has just become passing mentions, and calling out the championship battle here and there. I honestly wonder how many race fans know who Jake O'Neil or Tanner Mullens, or even series champions Rodney Sanders or Dereck Ramirez are. The series does have a streaming deal, but not with one of the big players. RacinDirt is a niche service, with a modified focus, especially around the USMTS and USRA. They have picked up some sprint car stuff this year with the demise of RacinBoys, which includes Terry Mattox and Kerry Gorby's URSS and OCRS series. But with the USMTS on RacinDirt, if you want to watch, you'll have to come up with an additional few hundred bucks a year on top of your DIRTVision or Flo subscription. Certainly a tough ask. Outside of their streaming deal though, and their own website, this racing gets basically no attention. RacinDirt itself used to be a news site covering the action, but that side of things has gone away, and now the focus is 100% on the streaming, which isn't surprising, because that's where the money is. I certainly can't blame anyone there. But the lack of media is probably hurting this series, as it is all of dirt racing. I won't go to deep on that, as the media stuff is a conversation for another day. But in hearing all of this, is big money, a sizeable schedule, some entertaining characters like Joe Duvall, and a streaming deal on a smaller service enough to entice you into this type of racing? Modified racing in some form or fashion, between DIRTcar, USRA, IMCA, WISSOTA and the various other bodies happens all over the country all the time. There are some big money shows here and there, and some great racers, like Nick Hoffman and Mike McKinney and the guys I mentioned earlier. But amongst all that, the USMTS is the closest thing we have to Lucas or the World of Outlaws, but for modifieds. If you are interested, the season opens Friday and Saturday at Rocket Raceway Park in Texas, formerly known as 82 Speedway. Dereck Ramirez is the defending series champion. Tonight is a practice night, with full programs Friday and Saturday. USRA stock cars, limited mods, and factory stocks are also on the card both nights. So, back to the original question, why does it seem like so few care about this racing. Drop me a comment, let me know your thoughts on the USMTS, the state of modified racing, and why you care or don't care.

Moving on to some other topics today...

We saw the debut of the Xtreme Outlaw Series at Volusia during DIRTcar Nationals, but that was just the sprint car side of the new non-wing series. We are still waiting for the debut for the midget side of things, and a release yesterday gave us some more clarity about the current roster of full time drivers for the series. We already knew about the Chad Boat entries of Jade Avedisian, Dominic Gorden, and Jace Park. We've also talked about Andrew Felker, and Kyle Jones. According to the series though, the list has swelled to 12 right now, with Rylan Gray, Cannon McIntosh, JJ Loss, Chase McDermand, Karter Sarff, Hayden Reinbold, and Bryan Stanfill all signed up. Amongst the 12, we definitely have a wide mix of ages and experience coming into this first season. Of the new additions though, only JJ Loss doesn't have any recent USAC midget starts. He's a young driver from California that has been running micros in the NOW600 Series and is making the leap to midget competition with Dave Mac Motorsports. He will be a teammate to Cannon McIntosh. With still about a month left to go before the season opener at Farmer City, there is still plenty of time for more teams and drivers to declare with the series, and more are expected to sign up.

I alluded to this a little last week, and it's something I get asked about pretty regularly, but Open Red is sort of back as a podcast. The guys over at World Racing Group debuted the new show yesterday, and it's got some new voices and a bit of a new format going forward. The show will cover all the various types of racing under the WRG banner, and the hosts include Nick Graziano, Mike Warren, Chris Dolack and James McMahen. They aren't ruling out having guests, but the shows going forward will feature round table discussions of various racing topics. If you'd like to check out the new show, it's available at worldofoutlaws.com and in the Open Red and Stick Signals podcast feeds.

If you are a DIRTRACKR Plus subscriber, I made a few updates to the Dashboard last night. First, once you are logged in, I made it a little easier to navigate to the various series sections. You won't need the dropdowns up top anymore, and it should be easier on mobile. Also, I finally added in the Outlaws versus All Stars difficulty numbers. I talked about this on an episode of the Daily late last year, trying to find ways to quantify how much harder it is to race with the Outlaws versus the All Stars, and those stats along with the full driver index are now available to see. I have plans of doing something similar with the Outlaws and Lucas on the late model side, so stay tuned for that in the future. If you aren't yet a subscriber, you can get access to added stats and analysis for all the major dirt racing series for just $4.99 a month. Click the link below in the description, or click Plus in the nav bar at dirtrackr.com.

There are two shows on the streaming schedule today. Speed Sport TV has NOW600 micros from Adobe Mountain Speedway and there is FloRacing 24/7. 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 Thursday. 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!