DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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World Racing Group drops portion of Outlaw schedule and a complete series! | Daily 11-30-2022

The Xtreme Outlaw Sprint Cars are gone, the Outlaws cut out a big part of the schedule, plus crew members caught in the middle. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, November 30th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

The All Stars tweeted out yesterday that they will have an announcement Thursday, which should be their 2023 schedule. And unless something happens before then, they will be the first big sprint car series to announce their slate of races for next season, as we continue to wait for the World of Outlaws schedule. On the Outlaw side of things, we know some changes are already coming, as they've been announced or confirmed in various places. That includes no Bristol, a third weekend at Knoxville, plus the dates for big shows like the Knoxville Nationals, Kings Royal, and High Bank Nationals at Huset's. From what I've heard, the rest of the schedule should be fairly traditional, with one big exception. We've talked about this a little bit here and there in the last month or so, but the early season run out to California is looking more and more like it's gone for 2023. WRG's CEO Brian Carter alluded to this in his Winged Nation interview, there have been rumors about it, and the NARC 410 Series tweeted yesterday they heard there might be some weekends opening up in March next year. That spring trip to California always seems to be fraught with problems, including weather related cancellations. We know the teams don't like it because they are basically out there for a month and have often only raced a few times over that stretch. It's expensive for all involved, including the series, and it seems as though the time has come to make a change. In it's place, there are talks of races in Pennsylvania and Carter even mentioned racing back at Volusia around Daytona Bike Week, which would mean dates in early March. There is no guarantee the weather will be better on the east coast in the spring than it is in California, but at least if you get rained out in Central PA, you're much closer to the house. World of Outlaws fans on the west coast won't be left completely out to dry though, as the fall swing will remain, with the traditional stops at Skagit and at Chico for Gold Cup the cornerstones of that stretch of races.

And while we're on the subject of schedules, WRG officially dropped the setup for DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia coming up in February. It's mostly what you've come to expect from Florida in February, but there are a few notable changes. Week one is still sprint cars and modifieds, with the first two nights featuring the All Stars, and then the Outlaws take over Thursday through Saturday. The final Outlaw night has been bumped to $20,000 to win and $1500 to start. Week two is late models and big blocks, with the World of Outlaws Late Model finale also paying $20,000 to win and $1500 to start. The big blocks will also be testing out a new qualifying format, as these nights are non-points for the Super DIRTcar Series. The other change though, is Monday and Tuesday of the second week now feature USAC non-wing sprint cars, and not the Xtreme Outlaw Sprint Cars. I had heard that the boss people weren't super thrilled with the first season of the Xtreme sprint cars, and now we basically have confirmation that going forward, Xtreme will just be midgets. USAC will kick off at Volusia, before heading to Bubba Raceway Park later that week. We talked yesterday about Tyler Bachmann being named series director for the Xtreme Midgets, and I completely missed that buried in the botton of that release was this line, quote "With Bachman at the helm, the 2023 schedule will focus solely on the Midget Series, rather than spread across to Non-Wing Sprint Cars. Volusia Speedway Park’s DIRTcar Nationals in February will continue to feature premier Non-Wing Sprint Car racing" unquote. I guess that's one way to announce the shut down of a series. The Xtreme Outlaw Series were supposed to be WRG's big foray back into non-wing racing and events, as it was the one thing they were really missing in their portfolio, and now the sprint cars are gone after just one season. What initially felt like a shot across the bow of USAC has fizzled really fast, and now WRG has even partnered with USAC for DIRTcar Nationals. What a difference a year makes.

The last thing I wanted to talk about today, is something I hadn't thought about until this week when it comes to this discussion over purse money, and midweek racing series, and bonuses, and full time drivers. Caught up in this game of chicken between drivers, teams, and series, are the people who actually work on the cars and go up and down the road every week. There have been a number of public postings from sprint car teams looking for employees for 2023, and we may be at or near a breaking point when it comes to finding crew members. Making a career out of working on race cars and competing at race tracks across the country seems like a dream, but in reality it's a vicious grind from coast-to-coast that is often not super lucrative and leads to long stretches away from home. Turnover and burnout are high, and talented people are pretty regularly out after a few years in search of better pay and more stability, with positions in bigger series like NASCAR and IndyCar much more appealing. They can still get their racing fix, but with a much more manageable schedule. When you're 20 and just starting out, healthcare and retirement plans don't seem like a big deal, but you quickly find out how important they can be, and those benefits are not common in the sport for crew members. The job postings are always looking for people with a commercial driver's license, and if you are in possession of one of those, there are plenty of places outside the sport that are going to offer a lifestyle that will eventually be more appealing. As we continue to have these discussions about the future of dirt racing and the money involved, yes, the drivers who risk their lives need to be compensated fairly. Yes, we need to have a model for car owners that doesn't see them go broke trying to run a team. But we also need to not forget the men and women on the wrenches who make the teams go.

One other quick note for you. I've started a push this week to try and complete the Chili Bowl results section over at dirtrackr.com/analytics. Before last year, I got all the Saturdays for the full history of the event in the database, and now I'm filling out prelim nights. At this moment, I've basically got everything in for 2013 up to today. And now I'm working my way backwards starting with 2012. I'd like to have this completed in the coming weeks, so it's ready come January when you guys start making pool picks. A lot of the info and stats are free at dirtrackr.com/analytics, but a subscription to DIRTRACKR Plus will get you even more. Anything marked in blue on those pages is part of Plus, and you'll get access to a growing dashboard that includes added tools like driver comparison, race results by track, and average finish, average qualifying, and winner average start by track. You can find basic stats and results in a few places around the interwebs, but nowhere can you find trends and dive deep like you can with Plus. $4.99 a month, or $49.99 a year gets you in. If you buy a year, you basically get two months free, and you can easily cancel at any time. If you want to check out DIRTRACKR Plus, there is a link below in the video description.

Out there in dirt racing podcast land this week, Passing Points has Koby Barksdale and another Down Under episode. Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has Brian Davis and Kent Schmidt, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters and the Dirt Nerds. To see the full list of shows and episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts. If there are shows out there that I'm not currently including on that page, feel free to reach out to me. I took a few things off today that I know are dead, and I'd like for that page to stay as complete as possible.

The streaming schedule is quiet today with just FloRacing 24/7 and DIRTVision Now playing. 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! 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!