DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Competitors, event organizers at odds over Chili Bowl payout | Daily 7-14-2022
We've got a Chili Bowl mutiny underway and coming up will give you the details. Roll the intro!
It's Thursday, July 14th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
So, the main topic of yesterday's Daily was the new High Limit Sprint Car Series from Kyle Larson and Brad Sweet, and that news initially broke while I was working on yesterday's show, so I just went ahead and added it in since I already had people asking me about it. But Kyle Larson was not done making news yesterday. As part of coverage around the series announcement, Racing America's Matt Weaver asked Larson about his future at the Chili Bowl, and Larson said quote "I'm just at the point where I want to see the purse grow a lot. So, for the time being, and unless that happens, I won't be running it this year and I know there are a lot of racers that feel the same way" unquote. That's a huge thing to say. There have been rumblings and murmurs about possible heavy hitters not participating in the next edition of the midget event, but this was the first time one of those guys said something about it publicly. Besides Larson, another name mentioned here is Christopher Bell, but Weaver mentioned in his piece about Larson that he asked Bell the same question a few weeks ago at Nashville, and Bell was non-commital. He basically said it's too early in the year and he hadn't gotten that far in his thinking. That's not a yes or a no. But potentially if both Bell and Larson sit out, you'll be missing the champions of five of the last six Chili Bowls. That is not an insignificant thing. At least as long as I've been around, say for the last 10ish years, there are some complaints every year about the purse at the Chili Bowl. You are getting three to four hundred cars, but it still pays the same $10,000 to win that it has for a very long time. And this is all through added prelim nights and rising ticket and pit pass prices. Larson's point is that this event loses some of it's cache being only $10 grand to win, when you've got so many other big dirt events paying $50, $100, $150,000 or more to win these days. And until the event organizers make a purse increase, he's not interested in continuing to participate. Keep in mind here, that it's easy for Larson to say all of this with two Golden Drillers already on his shelf. It's really the first time that we've seen a racer take a stand like this against the Chili Bowl, and he's probably not the last. But the question will be, is will this actually force Emmett Hahn, who owns the event, to make a change. And from the comments Hahn made to Weaver, it certainly doesn't sound like it. The event apparently costs over a million dollars to put on, when you factor in both the Chili Bowl and the Tulsa Shootout, and Hahn says he can't pay more to win, because he doesn't have it. Hahn also told Weaver that none of these guys have reached out to him personally to talk about this, and that he quote "will not be backed into a corner." So Larson, or no Larson, it doesn't sound like the purse is going up any time soon. It will be something to watch over the next six months as drivers and teams start putting deals together for Tulsa in January. The beauty of this event, at least lately I think, is that it brings together so many different types of racers in one event. It's really the only such event like it across motorsports. And obviously if guys like Bell and Larson aren't there, it definitely takes something away. But I do believe the event is big enough to continue to draw big crowds and strong fields, regardless of whether a few big names don't attend. There are too many eyes on the racing, and drivers will still look at it as an opportunity to get noticed in the sport. The numbers don't add up, when you figure a lot of drivers are probably spending $10,000 or more to run the race that then only pays $10,000 to win. We are in an era of player empowerment in stick and ball sports, and drivers and teams in motorsports are looking around and wanting a bigger piece of the pie for themselves also. This is happening in NASCAR with the charter agreements, Formula 1 teams split revenue with Liberty Media, and the calls for more money and bigger purses have been happening in dirt racing, especially with the influx of the streaming revenue. But what is fair and who should get what are complicated questions. The rumors and innuendo have always pointed to Emmett Hahn making a fortune off the Chili Bowl, which is part of the reason behind this little uprising. But what if that's not true. What if Hahn really doesn't have that money to pay? Should he and the event be penalized? And unless the event opens up their books to these guys, or the public, which they would never do, we'll never know the truth anyway. So knowing all of that, the path forward looks pretty messy. You will always have plenty of teams and drivers that will show up in Tulsa, even if the event paid a Chili's gift card and a fruitcake. Some just love the event that much. But others, like Larson, may not ever race the event again. This is the quintessential rock and a hard place question. These guys want more money, the event says it doesn't have it. So I'm not sure where that leaves us. The comments section is open, feel free to share your thoughts on this.
Moving over to the racing from last night. David Gravel dominated the Jokers Wild feature at Eldora, picking up his first Outlaw win since Perris way back in March. It was 26 races between wins for the Big Game 2 car, which is pretty crazy, especially after the fast start they had to 2022. People were talking Gravel as the title favorite, but even as Brad Sweet has only picked up one win this season, Gravel and everyone else chasing the KKR 49 have not been able to take advantage. Carson Macedo and Brian Brown were also on the podium, while both Justin Peck and Kasey Kahne had nice nights, both ending up in the top five. Gravel and Macedo did make up a little ground in the standings, with Sweet down in eight. But both Logan Schuchart and Sheldon Haudenschild backed up. Schuchart was 13th, and Sheldon needed a provisional to make the feature after getting in an early hole in qualifying. He ended up hard charging from 25th to 12th. Other drivers who were on the outside looking in last night included Kings Royal winner Tyler Courtney, Sam Hafertepe, Alex Bowman, and Zeb Wise in the Rudeen machine. Last night was the standard Outlaw format, but for the return of the Historical Big 1 tonight, things will be different. We'll qualify, do six heats with an invert determined by the wheel of misfortune, with first through third in heats making the night's feature, along with the two fastest qualifiers that didn't advance from heats. Everyone else will then head to the C and B. The winner of heat six will start on the feature pole. Tonight's winner will take home a very nice $100,000. The dirtrackr.com analytics prediction formula is staying with Donny Schatz as the win pick. I'm going Macedo after what we saw last night from the JJR 41. The racing tonight will be live on DIRTVision if you aren't headed to Eldora.
Out in Kansas last night, Thomas Meseraull bagged his second USAC midget win of the year, outdueling Cannon McIntosh and Buddy Kofoid for the victory at Solomon Valley. We had a nice battle between the three in the opening laps, but TMez took over on lap 10 and led the rest of the way. Points leader Kofoid finished second, with a hard charging Ryan Timms in third. Teams have a chance to regroup today, with Mid-America Midget Week continuing tomorrow at Jefferson County.
In Summer Nationals action, Bobby Pierce was your late model winner on Wednesday at Montpelier Motor Speedway, with Nick Hoffman getting his 12th modified win of the year. Both have sizeable leads in the standings with racing heading over to Shadyhill tonight. The late models still have eight shows left in 2022, while the modifieds have 10. These guys are also live on DIRTVision tonight.
Looking elsewhere around the country, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is headed to I-70 tonight to run the 3/8 mile track for the first time. This is a co-sanction with the MLRA. We'll get a full program, including a $10,000 to win feature. Following tonight, Lucas heads to Tri-City and then Lucas Oil Speedway. Tim McCreadie has taken the points lead from Brandon Sheppard after the Rocket squad had issues a week ago at Deer Creek. The gap between the two is 50 points, while Ricky Thornton Jr. is third, 185 behind TMac. The formula likes McCreadie tonight, but I'm gonna go BShepp to bounce back. This one will be live on FloRacing. Remember, no more MAVTV Plus.
And if you want some modified action, the USMTS kicks off Mod Wars tonight at Ogilvie in Minnesota. Dustin Sorensen leads Tanner Mullens and defending champion Dereck Ramirez in the standings coming into the weekend. Tonight's show is $3000 to win, with midwest mods, mod fours, and hornets also on the card. You can watch live on RacinDirt.
And since we are talking streaming, there are ten shows on the streaming schedule today. DIRTVision has the Historical Big 1 at Eldora and the Summer Nationals. FloRacing has the Lucas late models at I-70 and Flo 24/7. The USMTS modifieds are on RacinDirt, Fast Four has action from Deming Speedway, and there are four shows over on Speed Sport. 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!