DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Hunt the Front starting late model series for 2023 | Daily 12-8-2022
Hunt the Front is expanding to series ownership, the Outlaw late models add more cash, and we've got sprint ride news for Kerry Madsen and Scotty Thiel. Let's go!
It's Thursday, December 8th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
The PRI Show in Indianapolis is off and running this morning and we've already had several schedules released and a few other news items. We'll get into some of it today, and if there is something bigger that I don't talk about today, we'll add it to tomorrow's show. If you aren't aware of it, PRI is the big motorsports trade show that happens every year in December. It used to be a place where a ton of news items for the next year broke, but that has slowed a bit in recent years. There will still be some notable things to mention though, and it's a good week to get some deals done for companies, series, and race teams.
Looking back at yesterday's Daily show about the money around the top World of Outlaws teams, the industry response was pretty good. I had a few reach out about my numbers, and it sounds like the only thing I really was low on was the engine cost. Probably a few more rebuilds, plus a couple purchased through the year would push my number up into the low six figures. David Gravel also weighed in on Twitter, saying that it was a million dollars to run a team, which could easily be true on the budget I presented if you are buying a few extra cars and a few extra engines a season. The other thing that got brought up a bunch in my comments was where merchandise plays in to all of this. And that's not something I'm privvy to, and I don't know how many drivers will go in depth about. Most merch at an Outlaw show is handled through the drivers, and not the teams themselves, so unless some sort of revenue split is in play, I don't know how much the team owners are actually getting from merch sales. If a driver owns their team, like say Rico Abreu, then yes, merch will affect the team's income. But for hired drivers like Sheldon Haudenschild or Donny Schatz, I am not aware of how TSR or Stenhouse Jr. Marshall Racing benefit. We will definitely do a late model version of yesterday's show at some point in the future.
One of the news items that is coming out of PRI this weekend, and a schedule we should hopefully see soon, is for the new southeastern late model series being planned by Hunt the Front. There have been some rumblings about this for a little while now, and the YouTube channel creators hinted at it not long ago via an episode of their podcast on Patreon. The Joiners started the Hunt the Front YouTube channel around their dirt late model team back in 2019, and have since grown it into nearly 125,000 subscribers and 45 million views. They've parlayed that success into a Patreon account with over 1500 supporters, a sizeable merch business, and race promoting the previous two years. They will now use their influence and experience on this late model tour that, according to a piece from Dirt on Dirt, should have at least 15 races and pay the series champion $20,000 from a total $50,000 fund. Races are expected at tracks like All-Tech, Magnolia Motor Speedway, and a return to Deep South Speedway, which hosted their Southern Showcase a few weeks ago. Joshua Joiner is in Indy for the weekend, and we should be hearing more confirmed details very soon. If you want to know more about the business of Hunt the Front, check out the Conversations episode I did with Joshua from back in August. We talked about a lot of what goes on behind the scenes and their foray into race promoting, which kind of foreshadowed this move towards the series. Joshua also did a few videos on his own YouTube channel around that Deep South weekend sharing his experiences as race promoter. I'll link to all of that in the video description below if you want to check them out.
Also on the subject of late model tours, the World of Outlaws Late Model Series announced their point fund for 2023 and their new Winner Circle program. The total point fund has been bumped to $780,000, with the champion earning $150,000 of that, which is $25 grand more than last year. The Winner Circle program kicks in an extra $2500 a month for each of the top 12 full time drivers from February through November, which equates to an extra $25,000 for the season. And this is all in addition to the $3 million in purse money available through the 53 race schedule. As we wait for things to resolve themselves on the sprint car side, I'm wondering if this maybe isn't a preview of what's to come on that side. Maybe some sort of additional guaranteed money per month like this Winner Circle program is for the late model teams. We could know something very soon on that front. As for full time World of Outlaws Late Model teams, we know right now that Tanner English is in with Viper, and the new pairing of Max Blair and Boom Briggs are returning. Also, Payton Freeman and the GR Smith team will join the series full time starting at Volusia in January.
Back on Tuesday we mentioned that Bill Balog was partnering with Ozzie Motorsports for 2023, and that meant that things were uncertain for Scotty Thiel. But as of yesterday we know where Thiel is landing for next season. He's going to join Pete Grove and Premier Motorsports to run full time with the All Star Circuit of Champions, starting in Georgia and Florida in February. Thiel had four IRA wins a year ago, plus he made 11 starts with the All Stars and 13 appearances with the Outlaws. He ran third with the All Stars at Plymouth in May, and had Outlaw top tens at Cedar Lake and Wilmot. I believe Thiel is the first confirmed All Star regular for next season, but I think that group should look pretty similar for 2023 as it did for 2022, probably sans Tyler Courtney.
One other sprint car driver and team move for you, is Guy Forbrook hiring Kerry Madsen for next season. Madsen had been with Roth Motorsports in 2022 helping to develop the Toyota 410 engine, but was sort of quietly dropped after the late season NARC weekend at Hanford. Tim Kaeding drove that 83 car for the final few races of the season, with Madsen on the shelf. For 2023, Forbrook and Madsen will run probably 40 races around the midwest, including weekly stops at Huset's and Knoxville, plus plenty of World of Outlaws shows when they come through. This is a reunion for these two, as Forbrook was the crew chief on the Big Game two car when Madsen drove it a few years back. This could be a potent combination for that midwest region, and I think we'll definitely see the Mad Man back in victory lane.
Before we shut it down today, a quick Tulsa Shootout update. We've been talking about Chili Bowl entries, but the Shootout has crossed 1000 entries with still a few weeks to go until that event in the expo center. A lot of the usual suspects are on the list, but one notable entry is the return of Kyle Busch and his son Brexton. Kyle will compete in both winged and non-wing Outlaw, while Brexton will be back in a junior sprint. The Tulsa Shootout runs December 27th through the 31st.
Alright, on tomorrow's show will go over a bunch of the news that's dropped today at PRI, including schedules for USAC, the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets, Summer Nationals and more. And we'll see what else percolates out of the next 24 hours.
The only things on the streaming schedule for today are FloRacing 24/7 and DIRTVision Now. To see that full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, have a good Thursday! Make sure to hit that like button, and subscribe! Thanks for tuning in, we'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily.