DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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What it costs in 2023 to go big time dirt late model racing | Daily 10-8-2023
What does it cost these days to go big time dirt late model racing? We'll look at the numbers, plus talk weekend racing including a big win for Brian Brown, an All Star sweep of the Outlaw weekend, Robert Ballou ruffling feathers, and the end for a legend. Let's go!
It's Sunday, October 8th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
Today is the final day to take advantage of the 30% off deal I've been running for DIRTRACKR merch this week. Everything in the shop is included, like the hats and shirts. Use code "OCTOBER" at checkout at shop.dirtrackr.com, or click the link below in the video description. The code expires tonight at midnight eastern.
The big topic we are getting into today is the costs to go dirt late model racing. Way back in December of 2022, I did a show where we talked all about the costs on the sprint car side of the sport, I'll link to it below if you haven't watched it yet. It's actually the second most viewed video on the DIRTRACKR YouTube channel, and I've had quite a few requests for a dirt late model version. If you're curious what my most viewed video is, it was the daily show we did about tire doping. I wanted to dive into this today, because there was an interesting Facebook post about this exact thing just a few days ago. Money around dirt racing continues to be a very hot topic, both around the costs to compete and the money available to be made through things like payouts. The quite lengthy post I'm referring to came from Shawn Martin, who owns the Viper Motorsports 96 machine that Tanner English drives currently out full time with the World of Outlaws Late Models. I know you can't really read the post on this screen, I just wanted you to see how long it was. The Viper team has also previously fielded cars for Max Blair and Darrell Lanigan. It hasn't been an easy season for Viper and English, as they currently sit just ninth in the Outlaw standings, with ten top fives and 22 top tens in 34 races. They did get a split field prelim win at Talladega back in April, and they recently picked up a $10k MARS victory at Brownstown. Based on some quick math, the team is probably somewhere around $200k in earnings for the year. I've got them at $135k with the Outlaws, another $23k with Lucas, and they've made scattered starts with MARS, the Flo series, XR, and a few others. In Martin's post, he revealed the team is spending $3350 a night just to drop the car out of the trailer, when just a few years ago in 2020 it was much less at $2150. The 96 is pretty close to 90 races at this point in the season, which puts them just over $300k in expenses. Among other points, he says the teams that race nationally should at a minimum be racing for purses that are $15,000 to win, $5000 for fifth, $3500 for tenth, and $2000 to start. He also says that races that are $5000 to win aren't sustainable anymore, and specifically called out the early season nights at East Bay where races are $5k and $7k to win. As you might expect, the post garnered quite a bit of attention, and at the moment I write this it has 134 comments and over 200 shares. Going back to his expense numbers at $3350 a night. Martin didn't say this specifically, but talking to some friends on the late model side, that number is really just for race day expenses. Figure in logistical costs, crew pay, equipment, tires, fuel. That number does not include what the teams spend on cars, engines, shop rent, insurance, plus their toter home setups. Complete rollers can be anywhere from $55 to $70,000 and you'll need at least a few. And you'll pay probably another $55 grand per engine, and you gotta have a couple of those in the hopper as well. Factoring in all of that, the top dirt late model teams are spending probably somewhere between $750,000 and a million a season to compete. When we compare that to the sprint car side, the numbers are fairly comparable. When I did my initial sprint car costs video, I had things right around $700k, and after talking to some folks in the aftermath, it's clear that some are spending closer to a million, but that it's also possible to do it for less. And the same is true on the late model side. When comparing the two sides for costs and prize money, it's also interesting here to point out just how much more the late model teams race than the sprint car teams do. The majority of the top sprint car teams have raced right around 70 times this year. There are just a few closer to 80 races, like Buddy Kofoid and Danny Dietrich. The big late model teams though are all around 90 races at this moment, including English, Jonathan Davenport, Ricky Thornton Jr., Bobby Pierce, and Brandon Overton. And there are still plenty of races left to go. Drop me a comment, let me know your thoughts on all of this. If you weren't aware of the costs, do these numbers surprise you? Curious what you think.
Alright, let's talk through a bit of the weekend's racing action. Jumping back to Thursday night and the Tuscarora 50. It turned into the biggest win of Brian Brown's sprint car career. Chase Randall was impressive on the night, leading the most laps before finishing third. But for Brownie, it really seemed like the seas parted and it was just his night. Brent Marks crashed out of the lead while trying to get by the lap car of TJ Stutts. Rico in the mix late, he went out with mechanical issues. Buddy Kofoid was running second late before appearing to have mechanical issues as well. And that left Randall and Brown to fight it out, with Brownie getting by on a late restart and driving off to the $60,000 score. Kyle Larson went 14th to second, but couldn't track down the 21 in the closing laps. Brown has won a bunch in his career, including with the Outlaws and All Stars, the ASCS, in Central PA, and obviously a ton around Knoxville. This Tusky 50 win wasn't the most lucrative single race for Brown, as his second place runs at the Knoxville Nationals were worth more, but this was the first crown jewel win. And he did it against an incredibly stacked field. A signature moment for Brownie for sure.
The rest of the weekend at Port Royal under the World of Outlaws banner was actually taken down by two All Star competitors, with Tyler Courtney winning on Friday night, and Zeb Wise taking the victory on Saturday. Sunshine hadn't won an Outlaw race since his massive Kings Royal win in 2021, and he did it pretty handily on Friday. He's now led laps in two of the last four Outlaw races, and was second on Saturday. As for Zeb, Saturday night he outdueled Lance Dewease, and held off Courtney at the end to score his first career Outlaw win, just weeks after he secured his first ever All Star championship. In 46 previous Outlaw appearances, Zeb was actually without a top five finish, and only had five top tens. And at a point in time where Donny Schatz continues to struggle with the Ford power, I think that engine really played a big role in Zeb's championship, and he was clearly fast with it last night. As for the Outlaw title fight, David Gravel was able to take a chunk out of Sweet's lead. The gap is now 68 with eight race nights left. That's about 34 feature positions. Next up for the Outlaws is 81 Speedway and Lakeside Speedway next weekend.
On the late model side, Bobby Pierce swept the Outlaw weekend between Brownstown and Fairbury. His championship lead was extended yet again, and he's got just six races left to hold on for his first ever national touring series championship.
Down at Swainsboro, Josh Putnam claimed the first ever Hunt the Front series title thanks to a fifth place run last night. Ashton Winger and Carson Ferguson picked up the weekend wins, and Joseph Joiner was actually leading the standings headed into Saturday. But a 14th place result saw him slide to second in the final rundown. The championship season is complete, but the Hunt the Front series still has two races left in 2023. They are sanctioning the National 100 late in October, and the Gobbler at Duck River in November.
In New York, rain has played havoc all weekend on Super Dirt Week, and the three modified features have now been pushed to Monday. The only race we've completed so far is the pro stock main event, where Luke Horning picked up the win. The 358 feature will roll off at 11AM, with the sportsman and big block modified features to follow.
At Lawrenceburg last night, Justin Grant picked up a dominant $20,000 win in the Fall Nationals with the USAC sprint cars. He lapped up to eighth place, and his margin of victory was nearly seven seconds over Robert Ballou. With Brady Bacon down in 19th, Grant is now in the driver's seat for the series championship with just two nights left on the season. In podium interviews, the Mad Man made sure to stir up a little controversy last night, telling Drake York quote "everybody's tires in the pit area are blistered but the guy who won the race." He also talked about maybe one of these days getting a quote "level playing field." He was clearly referring to Justin Grant and possible tire doping, and it's pretty on brand for Ballou to get folks stirred up about things. There is a history though with Grant and failed tire tests. Don't forget that JG was penalized back in early 2022 after a failed tire test with the Xtreme Outlaw series at Volusia. The USAC sprint car finale is coming up in a few weeks at Red Dirt Raceway in Oklahoma.
As we close out today, happy trails to the People's Champ Dave Darland. He announced via his Facebook page over the weekend that after 52 years of racing, he's calling it a career. He's going to run next Friday night, October 13th at Kokomo and then be done for good. In his decorated career, Darland won all three USAC national championships, made over 1300 USAC starts, and leads the sprint car series in wins all time. He was a 2017 inductee into the national sprint car hall of fame. In his social media post, he said it's time for his family and five grandkids now.
That's it for the Daily today. Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.