DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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The narrative about sprint car purses isn't accurate, we've got the numbers (Hint, they're rising) | Daily 12-13-2022
Is the prize money narrative around sprint car racing accurate? We'll dive into some numbers, plus a look at World of Outlaws parity, more late model full times, and more. Let's go!
It's Tuesday, December 13th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
So I thought we'd have the High Limit schedule to talk about today, but last night they decided to play PR games and released just three of their 12 dates. And it sounds like they are going to sprinkle the rest out over the coming days. They actually released three more today. I'm going to wait to talk about it until the full schedule is available. That will give us the opporunity to react to it as a whole and understand the full context when compared to the other series and major events in 2023. So maybe by Friday we'll get into it.
In the mean time, I've got some other sprint car stuff for you to think about today. When it comes to the World of Outlaws, it seems as though in recent seasons we've had maybe a little bit more parity, and some closer championship battles. I wanted to see if that was true, so I dug into some stats. And it appears as though I am correct. Over the previous three years, we have seen fewer Outlaw winners then the three year stretch before that, but wins are spread out more through the group of winners. In 2022, we had 18 winners, but 14 guys with multiple victories. If you compare that to 2019, we had 21 winners, but only 10 won multiple races. Also, we haven't had a driver with 20 or more wins in a season since Donny Schatz did it in 2018. That's four straight years. Looking back, the last time we didn't have a driver with 20 or more wins in a season was 2012 when Sammy Swindell led the way with 13. Schatz went six straight years with more than 20 victories. The other thing to look at is the champion's margin of victory. From 2011 through 2018, we only had one season where the points margin was less than triple digits. That was 2013, when Daryn Pittman topped Schatz by 14 points. Every other year was at least 114 points, with 2015 actually being 544 points. In this stretch though of four straight titles for Brad Sweet, the margins have been insanely close. Not one season was decided by more than 80 points. 2019 was four, 2020 was 46, 2021 was 80, and this season was 48. In the entire history of the Outlaws outside of the past four seasons, the championship battle was decided by less than 100 points only five other times. In 1978, 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2009. I think an argument could be made here that this is the most competitive the series has ever been.
And one more thing for you, and this in regards to the money available in sprint car racing. It's been a big topic of discussion lately. If you listen to the teams and the drivers, they need more. The streaming is supposedly big, and they aren't getting enough. $10,000 to win shows are decades old, and things need to change. But consider these numbers. These are all thanks to sprintcarratings.com, awesome website. Bill does a great job. You may have heard this site referred to this year, especially when it came to Brent Marks. He and Anthony Macri are high on Bill's ratings, and have made a bunch of money in 2022. I grabbed the top 30 drivers each season going back to 2015 and dumped them all into a spreadsheet. I then added up the total amount of money each of those 30 drivers have made each season. It should give us a pretty good idea of how much money is floating around for the top echelon of sprint car drivers. And here you go. 2015 those top 30 drivers made $4.8 million together. 2016 was almost $5.5 million. 2017 it fell to $5 million, which was the same in 2018. 2019 it jumped back to $5.2 million. 2020 was a massively down season, but covid and smaller schedules will do that, so they totaled just shy $4.2 million. Now here is where things get more interesting. We'll throw 2020 out as an anomaly, and use 2019 as our comparison season. So $5.2 million that year. In 2021 those top 30 drivers shared almost $6.4 million. That was $2.2 million more than the covid year, and nearly $1.2 million more than 2019, which is a better comparison. So from 2019 to 2021 we had a nearly 23% increase in the dollars shared among the top 30 sprint car drivers. For 2022, that number jumped again, with the total being $6.8 million. That was nearly a 7% jump from 2021, and a 31% jump from 2019. And to be clear in all of this, Bill's dollar amounts are based on the individual race purses and don't include things like points funds, bonus money, and tow money. So how did this happen? Well, the big events have certainly helped. Knoxville, Eldora, Huset's, and several other big events have pumped more cash into the system. But don't forget also, that the Outlaws raised all purses for 2021. That included standardizing $10,000 to win across the board, and raising the start amounts to mostly $1000, and some $900s. I get that we are in a world where everything just costs more. Parts, fuel, food, all of it. And there is clearly work to be done to try and make the teams more sustainable. But while races being $10,000 to win maybe isn't super sexy, there is still way more money in the system now than there ever has been, and it continues to rise at a fairly rapid pace.
We talked on yesterday's show about the full time World of Outlaws Late Model field for next year, and I just wanted to quickly double back. I had a few comments about other drivers yesterday, and there were a few that I missed. We've talked about Tanner English, Max Blair, Boom Briggs, Payton Freeman, Chris Madden, Todd Cooney, and Nick Hoffman. I missed that Ryan Gustin is back, as is Brent Larson. So that takes us to nine, with five returning, and four additions. The additions being Freeman, Cooney, Hoffman, and Madden. I'm guessing that Dennis Erb Jr. will return, but nothing official right now. We also don't know about Gordy Gundaker and Shane Clanton. Josh Richards is still also without a ride. Back to Lucas, I mentioned yesterday McCreadie, Ricky Thornton Jr., and O'Neal. I did forget to throw in Devin Moran, as he and Double Down had already said they are going that direction. Someone also mentioned Garrett Alberson being back after winning rookie of the year. So that's five, and doesn't include Earl Pearson Jr., Tyler Erb, or any of the other rookies that competed in 2022. And again, still waiting on Brandon Sheppard's decision. I'd assume that Jonathan Davenport and Brandon Overton will continue with the pick and choose schedule, even with the addition of the added cash from Lucas. And I have not heard anything about the future for Jimmy Owens.
The Short Track Super Series schedule for 2023 is out as of yesterday. Similar setup, north region, south region, Elite Series, plus four days of racing down at All-Tech in Florida to start the year in February. The Elite Series is quite a bit different this year. Five events, three are $12,000 to win, with the Fonda 200 and Speed Showcase both still paying $50,000 to win or more. A bunch of those Elite races were $25,000 to win in 2022, but the release says they are spreading that money down through the field more, with the races paying $1000 to start. The north and south regions look pretty similar, with the north adding a trip over the border with stops at Granby and RPM. Matt Sheppard won all three titles with the Short Track Super Series in 2022, so we'll see if anyone can slow him down next season. To see the full slate of races, head over to shorttracksuperseries.com.
I'm sure you've seen this elsewhere, but we are running up on the shipping deadline to guarantee delivery from the postal service by Christmas. Their recommended send-by date is December 17th, so if you want to grab some DIRTRACKR merch as a gift, you've got just a few days left to place orders. Hats, shirts, and decals are available right now over at shop.dirtrackr.com. I try and get orders out same day, and I'll hustle this week if you want to buy something to make sure you get it in time. Everything is high quality, the shirts and hats are from Kahne Screen Print, and the decals are really nice vinyl. Incredibly, so far, we've had orders come from 27 states, and I've shipped stuff internationally, including to Canada and New Zealand. Really awesome. So shop.dirtrackr.com.
Last night was race number three of ten for the iRacing World of Outlaws Sprint Cars. They took on Williams Grove with stops at Volusia and Eldora already in the books for 2022. Points leader Alex Bergeron did not get off to a good start, with a tough qualifying run that left him at the back of heat race one. He had fortune on his side though, as a first lap crash allowed him to move up quickly and he ended up third, inside the feature transfer. In the main event, last week's winner Hayden Cardwell started on the pole and was out front for the duration. Braden Eyler tried to run him down late, and was able to get close, but not close enough for a move. So Cardwell your winner over Eyler and Timothy Smith. Bergeron ended up fourth after starting ninth, and with seven races still to run, has extended his points lead to 47 now over Timothy Smith. Next Monday night the series will take on Lincoln Speedway, which is a new addition to the iRacing service. It might be a little bit of a wildcard as none of the competitors will have had the chance to race here a ton just yet. Interesting side note about last night's winner Hayden Cardwell. In 2021, he took the $10,000 he won from winning the iRacing World of Outlaws Late Model championship the year before and used it to buy an actual dirt late model. He's competed in crate competition around his home in Tennessee, and this year ran the full American All-Star Series, won 13 of 31 races, rookie of the year, and the series championship. Not bad for a cartoon racer that isn't even 20 years old yet. You can tune into next week's race on Monday night at 9PM ET, free on DIRTVision and YouTube.
Before we get ready to close out today, big happy birthday to show watcher Jay. He and his girl Katie watch every day from Wisconsin. Appreciate you guys tuning in! Hope Jay has a great birthday!
Just the two usual items on the streaming schedule today, with FloRacing 24/7 and DIRTVision Now. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Alright, that's it for the show today. Make sure to hit that like button, and subscribe! We'll be back here tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily.