DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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What life was like in 2022 for a World of Outlaws team down the order | Daily 11-17-2022

We've seen what the numbers and money look like for the top performers in dirt racing, but what is life like down the order? We'll talk about that today plus the opening of the Hangtown 100 weekend. Let's go!

It's Thursday, November 17th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

When it comes to racing a national tour, and really when we talk about major dirt racing at all, it's those guys at the top who get the most attention. It's the crown jewel winners, the champions, the perennial favorites that get all the pub and sell the most merch. And obviously for good reason. We as race fans want to get behind the guys who are good. What gets lost though is the struggles of those down the field and how difficult it really is to run a national tour as a race team when you aren't one of those top names. Last Thursday, my episode was highlighted by the top earners in dirt racing for 2022, and we talked about Jonathan Davenport and Brent Marks, and those guys at the pointy end making the big money. Mixed up in that show's comments and reaction, were a few who mentioned other drivers and what earnings looked like if you aren't one of the big names. And today I wanted to take a look at one of those names and give you an idea of just how hard it is when you are down the list a bit. For 2022, Oklahoma driver Noah Gass decided to go full time with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. The 18, now 19 year old Gass had made just 27 previous starts with the Outlaws before deciding to go full time, and all of those 27 races were in 2021. He bagged three IRA wins towards the end of 2021, winning at Jacksonville, and twice at Plymouth, but things are a little different out with the Outlaws. I've been locked into the World of Outlaws on a serious level since 2013, and Gass coming out felt a lot like Shark Racing in the beginning. Just making it to the end of the season felt like it would be a big win. And here on November 17th as I talk about this, they did it. They got to the end, and had some bright spots along the way. If you look at the numbers though, you'll see a team that had a difficult time in their rookie season. 69 races, but just two top tens and an average feature finish of 17.4. Gass raced in 34 of 69 features, which is just a tick less than 50%. For some comparison, series champion Brad Sweet was not in a single B-Main all year and ran all 69 main events. Through the opening 20 nights of the season, Gass was only in nine features, with a best finish of 13th at Haubstadt, but there were improvements to come. Their first top ten of the year was a 10th at River Cities, when Gass drove up from 17th and was also the night's hard charger. That group was thrilled with the result. After that though, the rest of June and July were really brutal for the team. Over the next 17 races, and as we got into the month of money, they were only in three features. Huset's, Eldora for the Kings Royal week, and into Pennsylvania at Port Royal and Williams Grove saw the 20G in a lot of B and C mains. Things turned around though at Weedsport, and Gass was back in A-Mains for 15 of the next 20 races, which included his season's best finish, a ninth in the Ironman 55 at Pevely. To give you an idea of the incremental improvements made, in the first half of the year they were in just shy 43% of main events, and that number got to almost 56% over the second half. More features means more money, and teams down the list need every dollar they can get. Last week the series posted a breakdown of how much every Outlaw team earned in 2022 through purse payouts, points fund, the bonus program and tow money. For the year, the 20G team earned $112,125. If we break that down, they got $30,000 for 12th in points, a little more than $45,000 in race winnings, and that leaves nearly $37,000 from bonus and tow money. So $112,125 over 69 race nights is $1625 a night they averaged. Beyond that, they earned other money not included in this like contigencies, and it doesn't include sponsorships, but you can see how difficult it is if you aren't in the top five and top ten regularly. After hearing these dollar figures, I'm sure some will try and use this as evidence for why races should pay more money, and maybe they'd be right. But let's not forget that racing is a performance based business. If you perform, you get rewarded. Noah Gass got his head kicked in all season against the best in the business, and if he chooses to stay out with the series, he'll be better for it. If he scales back to a lesser schedule, which nobody would blame him for, his experience will make him much tougher in competition. Running with a national tour like the World of Outlaws is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. But you know what, it isn't supposed to be easy.

A little bit of DIRTRACKR merch news for you today. Two new hat options are available over at shop.dirtrackr.com. I picked them up just this morning from Kahne Screen Print. Thanks to Hamlin and the good people over there for taking care of me yet again. These are snapback, mesh back, trucker style hats with the DIRTRACKR logo on the front. One option has the logo big in the center, and the other has the logo smaller on the left side panel. They are $30, that includes shipping and tax in the US, so when you see $30, you'll pay $30 at checkout. While you're there you can also grab a shirt or a decal. I am out of sprint car decals at the moment, but a fresh round is on order and should be here soon. Also, a reminder that if you sign up to be a YouTube channel member for $2.99 a month, you get a decal for free. So, new hats, shirts decals, find everything over at shop.dirtrackr.com.

After having Thursday off to travel and get some maintenance done, the USAC National Midgets begin a three race weekend tonight at Placerville Speedway for the Hangtown 100. The Thursday and Friday prelim night shows pay $5000 to win each, while Saturday's finale is $20,000 to win. There is also an additional $12,000 on the line for the weekend's point champion, which was taken down in 2021 by Logan Seavey. Justin Grant is the defending Hangtown 100 race winner, and he'll need to duplicate that success this weekend if he's going to have absolutely any shot of tracking down Buddy Kofoid for the USAC National Championship with just six race nights left. The gap between the two right now is 209, which Kofoid stretched out on Tuesday at Bakersfield. Two nights ago we had 39 midgets at Bakersfield, but that number will swell this weekend, with more than 50 cars expected to be in attendance. One notable absence is Kyle Larson. He raced this California swing a year ago, including picking a Hangtown 100 prelim night win, and was also in the field for several shows at the end of 2020, but is not expected to race at all coming up. Don't worry though, there are plenty of other heavy hitters on the way. Outside of the USAC regulars, we'll have Tanner Thorson, Ryan Timms (who was also a Hangtown prelim winner last year), Carson Macedo, Ryan Bernal, Shane Golobic, Tanner Carrick, Emerson Axsom, Corey Day, Michael Pickens again, and a whole lot more. Day is entered in a car owned by Willie Kahne, so that could be an interesting combination. Willie is not opposed to some experimentation, and is obviously the mind behind Factory Kahne shocks. You can get weekend tickets online at hangtown100.com or at the track. Grandstands open at 3PM Pacific time today, with cars on track at 4:30. If you can't be there, FloRacing will have the livestream.

There are three items on today's streaming schedule. FloRacing has the first night of the Hangtown 100 from Placerville plus Flo 24/7. There is also DIRTVision Now. 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!