DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Mailbag! Are drivers with big social media followings attractive to dirt racing team owners? | Daily 10-13-2022
On the show today we'll answer some of your questions and comments, including what a Tyler Courtney Outlaw rookie season could look like, what's up with LaSalle Speedway, how do drivers dominate and more. Let's go!
It's Thursday, October 13th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
I've talked a few times about doing a mailbag episode, and I'm sorta going to do that today. I've got a few questions to get to, plus some news, some racing stuff, so let's get into it.
First, I saw a comment recently from Adam about Tyler Courtney's prospects if he were to move up to the World of Outlaws next season. The commenter's basic point was that they don't think he'll do well. And they might be right, especially early on. The transition into full time Outlaw competition is obviously really difficult, and it often takes a few seasons of racing before guys really start to have some success. So I wanted to dive into the numbers a bit and see where Sunshine would potentially be next season if he does indeed move up, and we can also compare this hypothetical jump to what we saw from Aaron Reutzel in 2021 before the whole chassis tubing thickness fiasco. Courtney has now won the last two All Star championships, picking up 16 wins, 63 top fives, and 84 top tens in 105 races. Winning the title in 2021 was incredible, as it was his first real full season out on the road with a winged series. He did stumble down the stretch last year, but he'd done so well through the summer that those last eight or nine races didn't hurt his title chances. What was good to see though, was that team did get better for 2022. There are a few stats that were down, like heat race wins and laps led, but the differences were small, and Courtney made up for it in other places. The big one I see is average finish. A year ago, the 7BC was right around 7th for average finish, while in 2022 it was 5.5. That's a significant jump. Both his top five and top ten percentages were better, qualifying average and feature start average were better, and his efficiency numbers were much improved. When it comes to having success with these series, that consistency is going to be super important. Along with the two full All Star seasons, Courtney made scattered Outlaw appearances this year and last. In 2021 it was 18 races, and so far in 2022 it's 16. His results are pretty mixed, with 17 top tens in 34 starts. He does have that Kings Royal victory, but also a lot of finishes down the order. He's qualifying much better this season than he did in 2021 with the Outlaws, and starting features better, but they have struggled come feature time. Their average feature finish is down, as is their plus/minus. If we use Aaron Reutzel as a comparison, in 2020 with the All Stars, Reutzel averaged a seventh place finish en route to the championship. For 2021, Reutzel went full time Outlaw racing with Roth Motorsports, and ran the first 50 races last year before getting the boot after his car was discovered to be out of spec for it's chassis tubing. We'll use those first 50 as the comparison. In those races, Reutzel had an average finish of 9.38. If you're a DIRTRACKR Plus subscriber, you know that I track a difficulty metric between the Outlaws and All Stars that you can see anytime on the dashboard. I use an index of drivers that run both series, and track their average feature finish and how often they make features with both. The index right now finishes about 2.3 positions worse with the Outlaws, and that number aligns almost exactly with Reutzel's from 2020 to 2021. His average finish difference from 2020 with the All Stars to 2021 with the Outlaws is 2.36. So if we take Courtney's 5.54 average finish this season and add 2.33 to it, we get 7.87. An average finish around eighth would put Courtney in that battle for fifth this season between Sheldon Haudenschild and Logan Schuchart. Last year, Reutzel would have projected out to around an eighth place finish in points with his average. If we go straight off Courtney's average feature finish in 2022, he'd be between Jacob Allen and Brock Zearfoss. So for next season, I think you can probably project him somewhere in between. Sixth to ninth is probably most realistic, which I don't think equates to him getting his butt kicked. I think that's both reasonable and respectable for a first year. All of these numbers I've talked about, you can see for yourself in the analytics section over at dirtrackr.com.
Next topic slash question. Mark asked recently about the future of LaSalle Speedway, and unfortunately I don't have a lot of clarity for you on this one. That track did operate in 2021, but there hasn't been anything there this season. Their Facebook page said back in March that they didn't have anything scheduled for the year. Their usual Thaw Brawl was moved to Davenport, so no MARS shows, no Summer Nationals, and no weekly racing it seems. I couldn't seem to find anything about the track being sold, or closed permanently, so it seems LaSalle is just in flux right now. I wish I had a better answer for you.
In my YouTube comments about a week ago, Mel mentioned sprint car channels on YouTube and asked why a car owner wouldn't be interested in someone like a Tanner Holmes because of his sizeable following on the platform. It's an interesting question, and something to consider for team owners for sure. What it really comes down to though is money and sponsorship. I don't want to speak for Tanner on this, as I don't know what his future plans or ambitions are, but the opportunity to get into another car is going to be about what a driver can bring. A big YouTube following isn't going to matter if it doesn't help that team get up and down the road. I'm sure that it's probably helped Tanner get some extra support because of his following, and we know that Hunt the Front continues to grow and do more because of their audience. That following needs to be leveraged into partners that can be brought to a team. I'm not crapping on car owners these days, but it is much easier for them to put someone in the seat who brings money, versus trying to sell sponsorship on their own and then going to find a driver. For a driver like Tanner that races a family car, there are choices to be made. Would they rather spend that money on their own team and try and grow, or do they take that funding to someone else. It's a classic decision that has been around motorsports for years. At the end of the day, what really matters is that funding. Some use family members, others network well, and still others can leverage their prowess on social media.
My final mailbag question today is from Ed. He was curious how we can see drivers have such dominant seasons from time to time. He mentions Kyle Larson from 2020, and Brent Marks this year. He points to things like engines and the tire rules as things that should promote parity. This is a question that I don't think has just one answer. For example, I don't think you can compare what Larson did in really both 2020 and 2021 to many other seasons. 2020 was so good because he just focused on dirt after losing his NASCAR ride. He's incredibly gifted in a race car, and allowing him to just run dirt races for a season showed what he's capable of. If he didn't have NASCAR, I don't see any reason why those results wouldn't continue. Marks is an interesting one though. In terms of money won, he's had an amazing season, sitting at over $600,000 in earnings and some big wins. But those guys have had some tough races as well. Recent crashes at Port Royal and Williams Grove are examples of that. His average finish in Outlaw shows this season is actually down from 2021. I do think though what you've seen from Brent is a lot about chemistry. They have found a good combination of equipment, they've got support from sponsors, and he and crew chief Heath Moyle have gelled this season. Those intangibles play a big role when guys have good runs. Look at Brad Sweet. He, crew chief Eric Prutzman, car chief Joe Mooney, and tire guy Andrew Bowman have been together for several seasons now. That combination just really works well. Ed also asked about whether or not engines are really fair in sprint car racing, and if it's possible to bring something larger than a 410. I'm sure it's probably happened but the series do pump engines periodically through the season. They also check things like wings, tires and ignition boxes.
Alright, if you have questions for a future episode like this, feel free to send them my way. Email, DMs, on YouTube, whatever works for you.
A few things before we close out. First, the Speed Showcase weekend at Port Royal for the Short Track Super Series was supposed to start today, but a poor forecast has led to Thursday's action being cancelled. Teams will get a Friday morning practice session before racing begins tomorrow night.
If you want to see some midget racing tonight, the Xtreme Outlaw Series kicks off their final 2022 weekend with a stop at Port City Raceway. They have the Donnie Ray Crawford Sooner State 55 tonight, before racing Friday and Saturday at I-44 Riverside. Zach Daum currently leads the championship over Bryant Wiedeman and Brenham Crouch and is trying to close it out these next three nights. If you can't get to Port City, the racing is live on DIRTVision.
And finally, the NARC 410 sprint cars out west have two races this coming weekend, Friday at Hanford for the Anthony Simone Classic and Saturday at Thunderbowl Raceway for the Dennis Roth Classic. A pair of All Star invaders are headed west to challenge the California regulars. Bill Balog and Justin Peck are expected to campaign entries from Clayton Snow and Snow Racing. The All Star season has concluded, and both drivers were winners this year. Peck finished second in the standings, with Balog sixth. Both NARC nights will be live on FloRacing.
Seven shows on today's streaming schedule. DIRTVision has the Xtreme Outlaw midgets from Port City, Fast Four has action from Lemoore Speedway, Speed Sport has racing from Lernerville and Batesville, The Cushion has micros from Sweet Springs, XR has the Iowa Dirt Nationals, 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. Please hit that like button, and subscribe to the show if you don't already.
Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!