DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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World of Outlaws add money, lower restrictions for 2023; plus reacting to David Gravel's livestream | Daily 12-9-2022
On this special bonus Daily episode, we are getting into the World of Outlaws announcement today about the point fund and relaxed restrictions, plus we'll talk David Gravel's Thursday night livestream with Tyler Swank. Let's go!
It's still Friday, December 9th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
I decided to go ahead and do a second show today, just because there is so much to talk about, and I wanted to give a few things a little bit of space. If you missed the first show today, we talked a bunch of schedules and the Lucas playoffs announcement. That show is available in the podcast feed on the YouTube channel.
We'll start first with the announcement this morning from the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. Once the schedule had been released, this was really what we were waiting to hear about. How would they handle bonus money and the restrictions in the existing platinum agreement that would have kept full timers from running extracurricular races. And obviously the focus there is on the High Limit Series coming from Kyle Larson and Brad Sweet. But that isn't the only extra racing out there available for teams. So here is what World Racing Group announced this morning. The bonus program that existed in 2022 is gone. And what is replacing it is basically two possible championship payouts. The main points fund is over a million dollars, with the champion taking home $200,000 of that. In addition, the series has added a second championship payout, they are calling the exclusivity bonus. This will payout an additional more than $750,000 to full time teams, with the champion getting $150,000 of that. So if you win the title and stay within the exclusivity bounds, you could take down a total of $350,000 just in point fund and bonus money. Second place in the standings, where David Gravel was this season, would get more than the champion got in 2022 at $210,000. On top of the extra money, teams will be allowed to run races outside of normal World of Outlaws shows. As long as they are outside of 48 hours or 100 miles of a scheduled event, teams can run up to four nights elsewhere. This move is the easing of the past restrictions from the platinum agreement. Run four shows or less, and you stay in good standing, and are eligible for the exclusivity bonus. If teams go beyond that four races, and run five to eight shows elsewhere, they will still be eligible for the main point fund, but will not get the extra bonus money. Anything beyond eight races, and teams will lose their status.
My first reaction to all of this, is it's actually more than I thought the series would do. To be able to run as many as eight races outside the sanction and still get full benefits, sounds pretty damn good to me. Teams won't be able under this program to run for points with High Limit, but they could run a number of those shows. They could also use their allotment to run elsewhere as well. I believe it was foolish to think the series would completely open things up, like we have on the late model side, but I think this is a solid compromise. I do want to reiterate here that no sprint car team under any circumstances is being held to a hard and fast rule to do what the World of Outlaws wants them to do. You can run every single Outlaw show you want and every other race you want with zero restrictions. None. And that has always been the case. But teams trade that freedom when they sign the contract willingly to become a platinum member. For that freedom they are paid the points fund and bonus money, which is significant. Nobody is holding a gun to anyone's head to sign these deals and live under the restrictions. And now, for 2023, the restrictions are less, and teams will get paid more. So now the ball is in the teams' court. Who will sign on and who won't. I still think the possibility exists for some to not sign it, which is their choice, and if they think they can do better elsewhere, I hope they don't. Go run whatever races and series work best for your situation. I also know there are drivers and teams upset about other things that have happened through the year and that will obviously play a factor here as well.
There are questions about the proximity clause in all of this. The 48 hour and 100 mile radius rules. This would seem to affect whatever happens with those first two nights at Eldora in advance of the Kings Royal weekend. As was the case under the old agreement, teams were allowed to ask for permission to run other races, and these nights could fall under that clause. I'm sure that when Eldora does release their plans for those nights, this will be discussed between the teams and the series. Feel free to use the comments below to share your thoughts on this news. The teams now know the schedule, the payouts, the points fund, and the eased restrictions. So now we wait to hear who will and won't sign.
The other thing I wanted to do with this second show today was react to David Gravel's livestream from Thursday night. He had Tyler Swank on his YouTube channel, and they talked a lot of different topics, with one of them being my Wednesday show where we talked World of Outlaws team costs. Their main point of criticism for what I figured up was engine costs, which I addressed in the Thursday show. I did shoot low with the rebuild stuff at $30,000 for the year. Probably closer to low six figures, which is what they said as well. The other point they made was the percentages of winnings shared. Drivers in a lot of cases get 50%, but also crew chiefs are often getting 10%, and some crew guys may even see a point or two themselves. That's a solid note from them. I love that David took the time to put that together and go grab Swank to talk about all of this. I'm glad that my show was the start of this conversation about costs, because as we hear drivers and teams complain about not enough money, the added context of what they are spending is important. They want more clarity about money being made and payouts, so give us more clarity about expenses. I do also find it interesting the comments about my knowledge of the situation, and where I got things wrong. I said from the jump that I was open to corrections, and that what I was figuring up was based on publicly available information, a lot of guessing, and some help from a few industry friends. Not everything I had was 1000% correct, which I knew it wouldn't be, but I bet in the last 48 hours most of you have learned more about costs to run a sprint car team then you ever knew before. And that was my point. Let's start a conversation.
A couple of other takeaways from last night. Gravel talked about the Eldora races, and said he thinks they will be unsanctioned, probably very high paying, and that they will be streamed on FloRacing and not DIRTVision. Eldora's owner is obviously Tony Stewart, and he has an existing relationship with Flo for Eldora's content and the All Star races. So not super surprising to hear that.
Gravel and Swank also talked about new sprint car tires coming for 2023, which I hadn't heard about. There will only be a single LR tire for all of sprint car racing, and a couple of new RR options. There is some question about the timing, with some thinking these new tires will show up a couple of months into the season, while others think the change could happen right away. Thanks to Tony Rost and Catalyst Autosport who is in the building at PRI, I have a photo of the new tire design, so here you go. Gravel and Swank did talk about how the tread was structured, and how everyone would basically be starting at square one once the tires were introduced. That could be an interesting wrinkle for 2023.
If you want to watch Gravel's livestream from Thursday, I'll put a link to it in my video description below. I love the transparency he's providing right now. It's exactly what the sport needs, and it's good for his own personal brand.
Alright, that's it for the show today. Make sure to hit that like button, and subscribe! We'll be back Monday for more DIRTRACKR Daily.