DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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That crowd? Live on FloRacing?! On a school night?!! | Daily 2-24-2023
The Central PA 410 season is off and running, and we'll get into it today, including results, and how Thursday's show at Lincoln feeds into the ongoing streaming narrative. Let's go!
It's Friday, February 24th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Interesting night last night at Lincoln Speedway in Pennsylvania. I hope you had a chance to either go there or tune in on FloRacing. This was the much-talked about late addition to the Lincoln schedule, with some drivers and fans critical of the move. But as we talked about, with a chilly forecast for this coming weekend, and 70 degree temps yesterday, the track saw an opening and took it. And I'd say it worked out in their favor. 26 cars signed in, and they ended up scratching the night's B-Main and starting the feature with 25. Tyler Ross and Freddie Rahmer on the front row, with Ross grabbing the early lead. Rahmer got to the front though on lap four, and Ross immediately ended up spun out of turn two trying to keep pace. He finished the night in 20th. Rahmer was able to stay out front for the rest of the show, making good moves through lap traffic and taking the season opening win at Lincoln for the second straight year. Behind him though, there was a lot of movement and passing in the top five, with Brent Marks, Justin Peck, Danny Dietrich and others in the mix. Peck got to second past half way, but couldn't get close enough to Rahmer to make a move, and he settled for the runner up spot with Dietrich third, Devon Borden fourth, and Matt Campbell rounding out the top five. It was a solid night of racing, the track was in good shape, we saw plenty of wheel stands, and hopefully this will lead into some more good shows this weekend. As of right now, things still seem to be on at Lincoln for Saturday and Sunday.
Quick side note here, does any else get John Force vibes from these post race Justin Peck interviews? The dude gets out of his car super amped up. He's intense and talking a mile a minute. Hopefully those Miller Lites chill him out a bit afterwards.
As for the Lincoln crowd, the place looked pretty packed from the photos I saw on social media and the infield that we could see on the Flo broadcast. Local reporter Lyndsay Barna posted a shot of the frontstretch grandstands that looked like folks were shoulder to shoulder, including in the upgraded seats into turn one. I retweeted that photo last night with a couple of emojis, and had some interesting responses, especially because of all the talk around streaming services being so harmful to attendance. I did have a few people mention that the crowd at Lincoln for the opener is always good, and that maybe we shouldn't use this as a measuring stick. But I disagree 100%. Clearly there are conditions under which Lincoln can draw a huge crowd and simultaneously be showing the action on FloRacing. This wasn't a special event. This wasn't the World of Outlaws, which, let me remind you, are also streamed live. This was 26 410 sprint cars, mostly with local ties, on a school night that paid $5000 to win. So why is this different then a regular show in June or September? Yes, people have been stuck inside their houses all winter, and this was a chance to get out on a nice night and see some racing. But how is that different than any other week? The way I see it, streaming either affects attendance, or it doesn't. Flo doesn't sit in a control room and decide which race nights to screw over certain race tracks. Race fans had the same opportunity to sit at home and watch on Flo last night, as they would for any other show during the season. In terms of this streaming narrative, last night didn't appear to help the cause of the streaming haters. I do think that the track, and other tracks, can learn lessons from last night's program and crowd and apply them to situations later in the year. That is, if they are actually interested in improving and not just blaming someone else for their problems.
In research and statistics, there is this idea or rule that correlation does not equal causation. Just because two things appear to be related, or move similarly, doesn't mean one causes the other. That is an important thing to remember when we talk about streaming and attendance. A lot of these race tracks went hard after streaming deals during 2020. They needed to survive, and with little or no fans in the stands, streaming was the lifeline. Lincoln is an example of this. Flo bagged the Lincoln rights with the acquisition of Speed Shift in 2020, and Lincoln re-upped with the service in 2021 on a multi-year agreement. In the years since a lot of track officials, not just around Lincoln but around other tracks too, and other people around the sport, like some fans and drivers and team folks will share their anecdotal reasoning and tell you that since these deals were signed, attendance has dipped. Makes sense right? Sign streaming deal, attendance goes down, must be streaming's fault. But this is where correlation and causation comes in. I'm not doubting here that attendance is down in recent years. Without knowing hard numbers, as tracks aren't sharing this stuff publicly, if we assume attendance is indeed down, and it aligns with these streaming agreements, we are completely ignoring a whole slough of other factors facing race fans that buy tickets. Because, during this same period of streaming's big rise, we've also dealt with a global pandemic that kept people at home for long periods of time, especially those who are older and more inclined to have health issues. Sound like any race fans you know? We've also seen job losses, historic inflation, and a global economy that's pulled back, maybe into recession territory depending on who you ask. So less jobs, less money, and it's been safer to just stay at home. Those things seem like they could also have a big impact on who chooses to buy a ticket and who decides to stay at home.
No national series racing across the streaming services this weekend, but plenty of local and regional action is on tap across FloRacing, Speed Sport, RacinDirt, XR+, and Hunt the Front. To see the full daily streaming schedule through the weekend, head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
Enjoy the weekend out there, we'll see you guys back here on Monday!