DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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How cash and competition play into where dirt racers choose to race | Daily 6-20-2023

We know all the big teams will be at the big money shows, but how do drivers further down the order decide where to race? We'll dive into that today, plus an update on the ASCS streaming situation and Summer Nationals week two. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, June 20th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

It's a big week in sprint car racing with the High Bank Nationals at Huset's and the Super Dirt Cup at Skagit going down, with big money on the line. Huset's will pay $250,000 to the winner on Saturday night, which will be the most ever for a World of Outlaws race, and Skagit has $62,000 waiting for it's winner on Saturday. And this is just the start of a big year at the top, with the Eldora Million looming, plus the Kings Royal, and $185,000 to the winner at the Knoxville Nationals. Instead of talking about the top though, I wanted to focus more today on the teams further down the order and the decisions they face each week about where to race. I talked yesterday about a smaller car count for the Outlaws at Beaver Dam, and got a few responses to why that was the case. There is also some Twitter chatter this morning about Huset's vs Central PA, and I had an interesting text message exchange yesterday with a sprint car driver about his upcoming weeks. And all of it got me to thinking about why we see certain car counts with various series and the risk versus reward for a lot of teams. And I'm going to talk about this with sprint car racing at the center, but this idea is true of any dirt racing, from sprint cars to late models to modifieds. How do teams and drivers weigh their competitiveness versus what is possible for them to achieve at a lot of these races each week. Take Huset's for example. It's a really incredible week for the teams, with each prelim night $20,000 to win and $1200 to start and the finale $250k to win and $5000 to start. And right now, we are looking at a field in the high 50s or low 60s in terms of car count. That means though that 30 or 35 guys won't make the features each night, and the pay drops off significantly in the Bs and Cs. Four straight C main exits at Huset's only pays $750 total, and four straight B main exits would mean somewhere between $1100 and $3900 total. I think that shows pretty clearly that outside of a certan geographic and competitive window, it probably doesn't make sense for some teams to make the trip. And this isn't a shot at Huset's or any other track, it's just an illustration of what some of these other teams have to weigh. It would be great for a local or regional team to jump up and finish well in some of these races, but against the Outlaws it just isn't likely. We've had 30 Outlaw shows so far in 2023, and 28 drivers have a top five finish in those shows. But 201 drivers have attempted an Outlaw program, so that means just 14% have finished in the top five. And if you take it a bit further, 118 of the possible 150 top five finishes belong to just the top ten drivers on that list. That's almost 80% of possible top fives to just 10 drivers. There is a scattered Garet Williamson or Austin McCarl or Devon Borden with a top five, but it's few and far between. So when an event like this week, or the Eldora Million doesn't draw a massive car count, that's why. It's incredibly difficult to run well, and if you don't, the return on investment is small. If you're a midwest based team that could be on the fringes, that $7000 to win IRA and MOWA show on Saturday night at Fairbury might be a better bet. And there is no way you're getting the Ohio teams to tow that far with plenty of racing there this weekend, or the Central PA teams to head out with PA Speedweek getting ready to start. This whole discussion brings me to two questions for you guys today. One, do you care that much about car counts for the races you are going to attend or watch on streaming? Also, is the winner's payout a draw for you? Like does it matter if a show is $10k to win, or $20, or $100? Are you more likely to watch if the payout is better? Let me know your thoughts. We are going to hear a lot about the big winners in the coming weeks and months, but I wanted to use this opportunity to spotlight the choices that the vast majority of dirt racers have to make when deciding to get out and travel.

Looking specifically at that pre-entry list for Huset's, obviously you're getting all of the full time Outlaw guys, and a lot of the Knoxville and Huset's regulars like Brian Brown, Riley Goodno, Justin Henderson, Lynton Jeffrey, Tim Kaeding, Kerry Madsen, Carson and Austin McCarl, plus guys like Rico Abreu, Ryan Timms, Aaron Reutzel, Blake Hahn, and Kyle Larson. Supposedly Larson plans on racing Wednesday and Thursday, he's going to miss Friday because of Cup stuff at Nashville, and then he'll back back for Saturday. The list Huset's posted I think has 58 cars, but Walkapedia's list has 53. We know that Anthony Macri isn't coming, Ian Madsen is out of the 2KS, and there are a few others that won't be there. There might be an addition or two as well, as I've seen that maybe Tyler Courtney could show up. The High Bank Nationals get rolling tomorrow night.

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One streaming note for you today. The ASCS National Tour has been shown lately on RacinDirt since a strange departure from FloRacing a while back. Michael Rigsby had tweeted that the ASCS would return to Flo, but that doesn't appear likely now. The series announced yesterday that the remainder of the 2023 schedule for the 360 sprint car series will be on RacinDirt, and that the relationship will continue beyond that. Several other Terry Mattox owned or co-owned series are already on RacinDirt, like the OCRS and URSS, and regardless of what happened with Flo, if the ASCS was going to move, this makes sense. RacinDirt is run by Trenton Berry, and is currently also home to the USMTS and other local and regional racing. Yet another example of the fluid and ever-changing nature of the streaming landscape in dirt racing. The RacinDirt schedule is part of the daily streaming schedule over at dirtrackr.com, so you can always see what's playing over there.

If you want to watch some racing today, you do have some options out there. Week two of the Summer Nationals gets going at Moberly Motorsports Park in Missouri. Both the late models and modifieds will be in action, and things in the points will reset with another $10,000 weekly championship on the line. Some names to expect tonight according to Dirt on Dirt include Jason Feger, Ashton Winger, Billy Moyer, Shannon Babb, Drake Troutman and several more. The rest of week two includes Davenport, Spoon River, Brownstown, Pevely and Lincoln. Tonight's racing can be watched live on DIRTVision if you aren't nearby.

Skagit was supposed to have a tune up night tonight for the 410 guys in advance of Dirt Cup, but as of a little bit ago, that show is cancelled because of weather. The main event starts on Thursday.

Head over to dirtrackr.com/watchtonight to see what else is out there to check out today. There is other local and regional stuff happening across some of the other streamers.

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