DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Who's making money in sprint car racing right now, and who isn't | Daily 5-3-2023

Sprint car payouts have been much talked about lately, and we'll see where we are right now through this first part of the season for 410 drivers, including winners and losers. We've also got news from High Limit, Kasey Kahne, and more. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, May 3rd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

At this point in the year, we are probably about a quarter or 25% through the 2023 sprint car season and I wanted to look at just a few numbers today for 410 racing as a whole. Schedules and money are something we've talked a lot about, and both situations will remain fluid as the season progresses. At this moment, there are questions about James McFadden and Roth's future and we've already lost the first full time Outlaw driver, which I'll talk about here in a bit. All of these numbers I'm going to talk about are from sprintcarratings.com. If you haven't checked out Bill's work, he does a nice job keeping up with a lot of different sprint car stuff. As we are now into the month of May, the two sprint car drivers with the most 410 starts in 2023 are the two guys who made the most starts a year ago, and they are Anthony Macri and Justin Peck. Each has raced 22 times and it's not surprising they are at the top of that list. Trailing them are Buddy Kofoid and Danny Dietrich at 21 races, and Parker Price Miller at 20. For some reference, most of the full time Outlaw guys are at 18. In 2022, Peck ran 99 times and we know that his owner Tom Buch is shooting for 100 this season. Macri and Dietrich both ran 93 times. The Outlaw guys will end up somewhere in the 70s most likely depending on rainouts. As for money right now, we haven't really hit the big payout part of the schedules, but David Gravel tops the list at almost $88,000. Carson Macedo, Brad Sweet, Gio Scelzi, and James McFadden trail them. Gravel and Sweet have the most wins with four each so far. Last year, Brent Marks led the way at $642,000, but that record will be smashed this year with the million looming at Eldora this summer. As for winnings per race, Marks was at $7700 a year ago, with Kyle Larson second at nearly $7400. Nobody is close to those figures in 2023 yet, but again, the big paying shows aren't coming up here for a bit. The interesting thing about winnings per race, is I guarantee nobody could guess the top two guys right now on that list. I posed this question on the DIRTRACKR Twitter account this morning and got the answers you'd expect, Macedo, Macri, Gio, Sweet, Gravel, etc. It is skewed because of races completed, but according to sprintcarratings.com it's Corey Day and Justyn Cox. Both have completed four 410 races out in California with NARC, Day has won twice and has two seconds and is averaging just a tick under $6000 per race, while Cox is at $5000 per race thanks to that big almost $19,000 score at the Dennis Roth Classic. Gravel is at $4800, Macedo at almost $4700, and Sweet at $4500. Sweet is actually doing a bit better through these opening 18 races than he did all of last year, but remember he only won five times a year ago, and this season he's already at four wins. Cox will definitely come back down to earth as the season continues, as outside of that win, his other finishes were 7th, 15th, and 10th. Day though could have a very strong season depending on what his schedule ends up being. If he runs NARC full time he's going to give Dominic Scelzi a hell of a challenge for the championship, and there are big shows out there that he can win, including the Dirt Cup at Skagit. If he travels more, he'll be a problem wherever he goes. As for some guys who have struggled, a big one is Donny Schatz. Way down in ninth in Outlaw points, and just $32,000 in winnings, at $1800 a race. Schatz won nearly half a million a season ago thanks to that Knoxville Nationals score, and averaged over $6000 per race. He's gone seven straight races without an Outlaw top ten. It's also been relatively quiet for guys like Aaron Reutzel and Lance Dewease. Dewease does have a win, but has only made six starts, earning $10k. He won 10 times a season ago and averaged about $5000 per race. You can check out all these numbers and more over at sprintcarratings.com. I think sometimes that Bill must not sleep on the weekends keeping up with all the races. Drop me a comment, let me know your thoughts on all of this.

We were supposed to get High Limit Sprint Cars tonight at Kokomo, but after a lot of recent rain, they just couldn't get the track into raceable condition, so tonight is postponed. They are working with the race track to find a reschedule date, so stay tuned on that one. The expected field was going to be 49 cars and included Ricky Stenhouse Jr. again, Jake Swanson subbing for Alex Bowman, plus most of the other drivers we've seen with the series to this point. James McFadden was on the list, and I saw a bunch of comments about it, but this was not a sign they are falling off the Outlaw tour. McFadden had not yet run a High Limit race. We'll see High Limit again in a few weeks at Wayne County Speedway in Ohio.

I forgot to mention this bit of sprint car news as well, but Kasey Kahne is off the road again with the World of Outlaws. He tweeted over the weekend that he's going home for a few weeks and that he'll be back out again soon. He ran last week in the High Limit show at 34 Raceway and finished 26th after needing a provisional to start the feature. And he did run the Outlaw show Friday at Tri-City, but did mot make the main event, finishing 7th in the B. Through 14 Outlaw races so far this season, he had one top five, which was a third at Volusia in March, and four top tens, including most recently a ninth at Pevely. But he'd failed to make the show in two of the last three events. As we've seen from Kasey the past few seasons, I'm guessing he'll head home and regroup for a few weeks, and then we'll see that team go pick and choose for the rest of the year. I really hope he gets an Outlaw win before he decides to hang his helmet up. That guy has been through a lot and with as long as he's supported the World of Outlaws as an owner, I think he deserves a victory.

One other weather related note for you, tonight's practice session and tomorrow's racing for the USMTS modifieds and SLMR late models at Lakeside Speedway is cancelled. They are hopeful to still race Friday and Saturday, but series and track officials say that will depend on how much rain they get the next few days. We'll keep an eye on that one as we get closer to the weekend.

In podcast land this week, Winged Nation has Brady Bacon, Darryl Ruggles, and Dominic Scelzi. Open Red also has Brady Bacon, Passing Points has Landon Britt, All Gas No Brakes has episodes with Michael Gibson, Ethan Dotson and others. Hoogie's Garage has Tim Estenson, Dunewich on Dirt has George Loux, and there are new episodes of The Dirt Reporters from Dirt on Dirt, the Dirt Nerds, and Dirt Track Confessions. To find something new to listen to this week, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

The streaming schedule has four shows on it for today. DIRTVision has micros from Millbridge and DIRTVision Now. Speed Sport has IMCA racing from Antioch, and there is FloRacing 24/7. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

Hope you guys have a good Wednesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.