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Eldora drops Million format, Larson starting to dominate High Limit | Daily 6-7-2023

The Eldora Million format is out and we've got the bullet points, plus Tuesday results for the Short Track Super Series and High Limit, and we'll talk about Kyle Larson's High Limit situation. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, June 7th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

High Limit round number five is in the books, and we are just about half way through this first 11 race season for the midweek series. They had an incredible crowd last night at Eagle Raceway near Lincoln, Nebraska, and the images were pretty wild. A massively full parking lot, and the crowd that gathered around Kyle Larson after the feature was big. Nice to see a Tuesday night show like that draw such big support. I think there is a lot to unpack from the night and I've got a question or two for you to ponder today about High Limit. The race ended up being the third straight series victory for Larson and he's clearly in control at the moment. We'd had four different winners through the first four series events, but now that Larson is back racing the sprint car on a more regular basis, he's found his footing and is just that much better than the rest of the competition. I think there was some hope early on that this wouldn't turn into the Larson show every night, but that has shifted rapidly over the past three events. It's an interesting phenomenon with Yung Money right now, because we are very much witnessing one of the greatest to ever climb into a race car at his absolute peak, but one guy winning all the time can create some backlash. And it's made even more compelling by the fact that he's doing all of this with a series he co-owns. It definitely shifts the dynamic a bit, and I've seen plenty of comments about how he either shouldn't be racing at all, or he shouldn't be allowed to run for points. I've been told that when Tony Stewart was running All Star shows regularly, his own series people were not cool with him running for the championship. So that's a question for you today. Where do you stand on Larson running for the title in his own series? It's not in question that this thing was very much setup to accomodate Larson's ability to run during the week, and he had a heavy hand in selecting which tracks are on the schedule. He's never run for a sprint car championship before, and this is finally an opportunity for him to do that. But if he does eventually go on to the title, will we look differently upon the accomplishment because of his ownership? I'm not sure. And as much as I understand the move and think it's probably the right one for World Racing Group and the Outlaws, I do think it would be tougher on him and more fun to watch if Larson was up against all of the best sprint car drivers, instead of the full time Outlaws being missing because of the restrictions. It's a different game if Brad Sweet and David Gravel and Carson Macedo and Logan Schuchart and Sheldon Haudenschild and Donny Schatz are all also standing in his way.

Watching last night's feature, Rico Abreu led the first 17 laps from the pole before Brent Marks took over out front. I felt like Marks was probably the best car and probably could have held Larson off, but he ended up being a victim of the hole in turn one that caught out quite a few guys through the program. He hit it, started bouncing, and flipped while leading. That handed the top spot to Larson on the ensuing restart. He did have to hold off a pretty ferocious challenge from Rico in the closing laps, including multiple sliders, but he was able to get away after a failed slider from Rico with four to go. So Larson the winner over Rico and a hard charging Gio Scelzi, who went 17th to third. There have been plenty of comments about how Larson should start in the rear for these races, but maybe instead of that he should start up front. Through the first six High Limit shows, we haven't had a single winner come from the front row starters. We've had two wins from third, one from fourth, one from eighth, and one from ninth. Also, and this is a tad nitpicky I'll admit, but I did hear there were maybe some grumblings from teams regarding the night's pill draw procedure for qualifying. It was a split field night, and the High Limit rulebook says that the top ten in points are supposed to be seeded equally between the two groups. That was not the case with three top ten runners on one side, and seven on the other. I'd be curious to hear an explanation from the series as to why this happened. When racers own the series, things like this have to be avoided. They just had potential fairness issues a week ago, and the conspiracy theorists will latch onto stuff like this. Looking ahead, the next High Limit race isn't until July 25th at Grandview. Drop me your thoughts below on all the things I've talked about today.

Elsewhere last night, there was heartbreak for Alex Payne with the Short Track Super Series. He was on his way to his first career touring series win, but made a mistake on the final lap and slid over the turn two cushion, which allowed Cory Costa to slip by and take the victory. Payne settled for second and was devastated afterwards. He's won before in weekly competition at Outlaw Speedway, but has yet to grab a victory with either the Short Track Super Series or the Super DIRTcar Series. The win for Costa was his first in series competition. Mat Williamson was fourth on the night, while Matt Sheppard ended up 11th after a late flat tire. The Short Track Super Series is back in a few weeks at Devil's Bowl Speedway in Vermont.

Moving on, Eldora Speedway dropped the format for the upcoming Eldora Million sprint car race. Wednesday will feature split field programs with drivers earning points through the night to setup heat races the next day. Heat races will feature an invert determined by a spin of the wheel, and the night's features are $12,000 to win. Those prelim features will also have an invert based on the wheel. On Thursday, the top three from each of six heats will advance to the Million, with everyone else headed for Cs or the B. The top six from the B will tag the tail of the feature. The drivers who advance from heats will draw for starting positions in the main event, with the race going 50 laps, including a break around lap 20. Eldora will also utilize the choose cone for all restarts, so that should mix things up a bit, especially coming out of the break. The event also has a special tire rule, that includes teams having to buy specially marked tires at the track on both Wednesday and Thursday. That marked tire must be run in both qualifying and the feature on Wednesday, while teams have the option to use new marked Thursday tires for the heat, to start the feature, and at the break. Along with all of this, the entry process is open, and teams have until July 7th to take advantage of early entry benefits. The cost to enter the Million is $250. The track tweeted that Donny Schatz was officially the first entrant. I've been asked a few times about what the car count could look like, and I honestly think I wouldn't expect much different then a normal Kings Royal weekend. The race does pay a million to win, but it's $6000 to start. That's certainly pretty good, but if you compare it to an event like the Knoxville Nationals, teams come from all over to that event because you can make decent money all week even if you don't run well. The first non-transfer car in the Saturday Knoxville B-Main gets $10,000. That's what a standard Outlaw show pays to win. I'd guess maybe into the 60s for total car count. You can see all the details on the Million format and rules over at eldoraspeedway.com.

Looking ahead to tonight, Indiana Midget Week continues at Gas City I-69 Speedway. Jacob Denney and Buddy Kofoid have won the two opening rounds, and Denney leads the week long points over Kofoid and Jade Avedisian. Kofoid has won the two previous trips to Gas City, while Cannon McIntosh was a winner there in 2020. I don't know that there is any reason to believe Kofoid won't be near the front again tonight. If you can't get to Gas City, all of the USAC shows can be watched live over on FloRacing.

In dirt racing podcast land this week Winged Nation is talking the sprint car hall of fame, LoudPedal previews Indiana Midget Week and Ohio Sprint Speedweek, Open Red has Noah Gass, Passing Points has Tanner Conn, Quicktime has Tyler Drueke, Dirt Tracks and Rib Racks has Brian Hayden and Ivan Glotzbach, All Gas No Brakes has Dale McDowell and more, Dunewich on Dirt has Matt Gilbert and Austin Sosby, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters from Dirt on Dirt, the Dirt Nerds, Dirt Track Confessions, Hoogie's Garage, Dirt Track Weekly, and Non-Wing Worldwide. To see all the shows and episodes, head over to dirtrackr.com/podcasts.

That's all for today, make sure to go check out today's streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com if you are in the market for something to watch tonight.

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