DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series adds championship playoff format for 2023, heads explode | Daily 12-9-2022
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is adding a playoff format for the championship, and people are not happy. We'll talk about that, plus a bunch of schedule stuff and more. Let's go!
It's Friday, December 9th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
It's been a bit of a wild 24 hours around PRI. I ran my mouth yesterday about breaking news being less of a thing, and it got kinda crazy. So here's what were gonna do. On this episode we are going to talk Lucas playoffs, some schedule stuff, and some driver news. I'm then going to do a second, bonus episode later today around the World of Outlaws news from this morning. So stay tuned for that one later on.
Alright, I kind of figured today's show would be all about the schedules we got to see and maybe a few other scattered news bits, and then Lucas decided to go set the dirt late model world on fire. We had already seen their schedule a few weeks ago, but what got everyone buzzing was their championship format announcement. For 2023, they are adding more than $470,000 to their end of season points fund, to bring it just north of a million dollars. That's great, everybody happy. But then they also announced they are going to a playoff style system to crown their champion. Think like NASCAR, but longer. So here's how it works. From the first race at Golden Isles on January 26th, up to the Show-Me 100 on May 27th, teams will be jockeying for a top 15 spot in the standings. That is the first cut-off, with those top 15 teams sharing $16 grand in bonus money. Then, between the Show-Me 100 and the Diamond Nationals on July 15th, you need to get into the top 12. That's the second cut-off, and those 12 will again share an additional $16 grand in bonus money. We'll then cut down to eight teams on August 26th at Port Royal, with another $18,000 in bonus money split between them. And finally, Lucas will cut down to four in advance of the Dirt Track World Championship that is moving to Eldora. Those four teams will split $16 grand in bonus money, and have their points reset. So all four will have an equal chance at the title at Eldora. The champion will earn $200,000 from the $935,000 point fund, plus the additional $66 grand in bonus money for each round, brings us across a million bucks total. So there are the details, now let's get into the reaction. It was just bad. All of it. The replies to the tweet are like 99% negative. The Facebook comments on the announcement are a cesspool. Bad. Which brings me to my first thought here. This change feels really tone deaf. I understand what they are trying to do, pump in some more cash, maybe draw some more quality teams, but this was never going to be viewed well by the fan base. As expected, it's all being compared to NASCAR, which a lot of the dirt late model crowd has grown to hate. I, and a lot of people, could have told them this before they went this direction. Someone texted me after the announcement yesterday and said dirt racing is just NASCAR, but 20 years ago. And they aren't far off in a lot of instances. My other thought here though, is there is definitely a lot of bluster and angry people on social media, but will it actually affect anyone's behavior? Probably not. Nobody cares about dirt late model championships anyway, I literally sell a t-shirt about it for that reason. So why the hell does anyone care if Lucas goes to a playoff format? As I've been told multiple times by a lot of people, the big money races are the only thing that matter. Feel free to leave your thoughts on the Lucas Big River Steel Chase for the Championship in comments below. That's one other criticism... We couldn't find something other than "Chase for the Championship"? They were begging for the NASCAR themed backlash with that one.
Alright, moving into other stuff from Thursday at PRI. We talked yesterday briefly about the full time World of Outlaws Late Model field starting to shape up. We know for sure that Tanner English, Boom Briggs, Max Blair, and Payton Freeman are in. We can add to that Iowa driver Todd Cooney, and Chris Madden. If you don't know who Cooney is, he's well known around Iowa and has had a ton of success in IMCA competition, between the Super Nationals and national championships. According to my guy Troy, he's got two brand new Longhorn by Wells chassis and four engines ready to go for the season. As for Madden, he's back as a full timer after a year away. He finished second to Brandon Sheppard in 2021, and then spent 2022 racking up some serious cash around the country. Jonathan Davenport got all the attention for his $2 million season, but Madden was near a million himself. He bagged big money wins with the Outlaws, XR, Spring Nationals, Lucas, and at Eldora. He'll be right at the top of the list of championship favorites when the season starts in January at Volusia.
On the schedule front, we got all three USAC calendars, plus the ASCS, the Summer Nationals, the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets, the Super DIRTcar Series, and the Hunt the Front slate that we talked about on yesterday's show. First, for USAC, definitely some changes across their different series. The Silver Crown Series is about what you've come to expect. IRP, Eldora, the mile races, Toledo, Winchester, etc. The opening round on April 16th is a TBA, and we did get the addition of the Belleville High Banks in Kansas. April through October, with some solid money along the way. We'll see if Kody Swanson continues his control over this series. For the national midgets, there are some changes compared to what we've see the previous few seasons. First, it doesn't start in Florida, we'll have to wait until April 21st at Kokomo. The end of season run through California is back, with Bakersfield, Placerville, Merced, and Ventura. The BC39 will return, but we don't know a date yet. You'll also get the favorites like Indiana Midget Week, the 4-Crown, the Leffler, and Angell Park. There is only one stop at Haubstadt, no big Huset's weekend, and no Port City in 2023. With the sprint car series, changes are sprinkled through that schedule as well. The fall trip out west has been axed completely, so that means no Oval Nationals. You have to wonder if the issues at Perris led to that being left off, including Don Kazarian's public comments about USAC and FloRacing. I guess he won't have to worry about that for 2023. The two opening nights at Volusia for DIRTcar Nationals are non-points, and no Huset's for the sprint cars either. We are getting a national show at the Action Track USA in Pennsylvania, which should be wild. The Corn Belt Clash at Knoxville is back in June, and the season now ends at Red Dirt Raceway in Oklahoma. There are also still three TBAs to be worked out.
Since we are on the subject of non-wing, the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets revealed a 34 race calendar, which is substantially larger than it was in it's first season. $80,000 point fund, with races from March through October. And the best part in all of this, is no conflicts with the USAC National Midget calendar. Teams could run for both championships, and something like nearly 70 nights. That's a big upgrade for midget competitors. Some of the Xtreme shows are co-sanctioned with POWRi, and except for a PA trip, and a stop at Millbridge in North Carolina, the tracks are very midwest heavy. I like all of it though. It will be a good season to be a midget team.
Elsewhere, the Summer Nationals gets even closer to it's traditional look, with 29 races in 33 days across the midwest. They'll run from June 14th to July 16th, with the modifieds closing July 28th and 29th at Fairbury. All $5000 and $10,000 to win shows as we've come to expect, still a few TBAs, a couple of off days, and $25,000 to the series champion.
The Super DIRTcar Series will open at Volusia for the traditional non-points shows, end at World Finals, and have nearly 30 nights. Pretty traditional, outside of the return to Atomic Speedway in late March. But all of the other tracks you'd expect, including Super DIRT Week at Oswego. According to the release, there could be another race or two added as well.
Year two of the ASCS under Terry Mattox has 48 race nights, from March 17th through October 28th. The season will open at Devil's Bowl and close at Lake Ozark. Mattox stuck with that more condensed version of the series footprint as he did in 2022. That seemed to help teams with travel costs. Hopefully they'll have better luck in 2023 with the weather and tires than they did this season. With Blake Hahn supposedly focusing more on 410 racing next year, things for that championship could be much more wide open.
The Hunt the Front schedule we talked about yesterday ended up with 17 race nights. Eight pay $5000 to win, two are $7500 to win, three are $10k to win, and one is $23,000 to win. There are still three we don't know purse money for. All races around the southeast, with tracks in Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama. We'll see what kind of field they can draw, and where these shows will end up being streamed. I think it's super lame those people who commented that they are only starting this series so they'll have races to win and run well at. That's just super trolling and flat incorrect. Joseph Joiner had three top fives and six top tens on the national level with XR. He had three Southern All Star wins in 2022, and had good runs with the Spring and Southern Nationals, the Iron Man Series, and Comp Cams. So don't bring that crap into my comments.
One other note for you before we close out this first episode today, Justyn Cox will take the reigns of the Bates Hamilton 42X next season out in California. Gary Thomas says they will focus on the 24 race NARC schedule, plus add in shows with the Sprint Car Challenge Tour and at Placerville and Silver Dollar.
A few items on the streaming schedule through the next couple of days. We've got some indoor action, there is racing down under, the Lucas banquet is being streamed and more across FloRacing, Speed Sport, Clay-Per-View and others. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for this first show today. Make sure to hit that like button, and subscribe! We'll be back in a little bit for round two, discussing the World of Outlaws Sprint Car news. If I don't see you for that, we'll be back Monday for more DIRTRACKR Daily.