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The World of Outlaws/Brad Sweet conspiracy theory is UNHINGED | Daily 10-22-2023

It's conspiracy theory Sunday on the Daily. We'll talk through last night's events at Devil's Bowl Speedway and why the criticism literally makes no sense at all. We'll also get into Trophy Cup, some Outlaw late model and MSCS news, plus weekend winners. Let's go!

It's Sunday, October 22nd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

I'm going to start today off with last night's World of Outlaws show at Devil's Bowl Speedway. It was the final ever race at the track, and we ended up with an insane finish. David Gravel just nipping race long leader James McFadden at the line for the $20,000 score. Incredible final sequence, and there are some really great photos floating around of the moment. But when we should be celebrating the end of an era and enjoying a great finish, all I see today is complaints about how Outlaw officials handled the early open red. So here's the scenario. Brad Sweet and Kasey Kahne, obviously car owner and driver, get together on an early restart and cause a huge pileup on the front straightaway. Sweet's car is brought to the work area, and officials make the red flag open. While cleanup is happening, the 49 team is able to replace the front wing, top wing, frontend, and other parts and pieces and get Brad's car back out on track. Later, after a blown left rear tire to add to it, Sweet is able to drive back to seventh at the finish. Now here is where things go unhinged. People are angry at the Outlaws for supposedly helping Brad, and allowing him extra time to fix his car so he can stay in the championship fight. To those people I ask, how in the world does the series benefit by helping Brad win the title? Have you been paying any attention to what's been going on the last few weeks and months? I'm just going to say the quiet stuff out loud here so you understand what's at play and the context. This guy, as in Brad Sweet, is getting ready to announce a competing sprint car series for next season. He's already nabbed two former WRG employees to join his series, and behind the scenes he's been actively lobbying for Outlaw teams to join his series next season, and competing with the series for tracks and dates for 2024. If you are the Outlaws and WRG, Brad Sweet is public enemy number one. So why in the world would they be trying to help this guy win the title, so he can cash a $350,000 check at years end, and then start a CART/IRL type split in sprint car racing? The argument is about as ridiculous as they come. If anything, it should be the opposite. If the Outlaws were going to manipulate this, they would screw the 49, so the 2 can win, and that way you hurt this guy. Let's bring this back to reality and explain a few things here. First, Devil's Bowl had one tow truck on the property. Call that whatever you like, but one tow truck means crash scenes are going to take a while to cleanup. Just ask Riley Goodno. If you were watching on DIRTVision, the work to Sweet's car was nearly complete, and Johnny was on the mic talking about how they were still cleaning up. If anything, going Open Red actually hurt the 49, because there were no extra crew members around to help in the work area like there normally would be. Also, the open red literally doesn't matter. Under standard red flag conditions, the team would have been still allowed to fix the car anyway, but they would have done it with extra help. Remember that teams are guaranteed two minutes in the work area as a baseline, not limited to two minutes. If a crash scene takes five minutes to clean up, teams can use the entire five minutes. It's happened many many times before. With only one tow truck, that red flag was going to be lengthy no matter the open red or not. With a lengthy red period, and extra help, Brad gets out of the work area 100% of the time last night. If you want to complain about something, I might give you the rear bumper situation, although the bumper was still technically attached when the car was pushed off. Officials had plenty of chances to look at it, and they seemed to be fine with it though. That's a judgement call no matter what, and I don't have beef with it. Looking at this entire siutation, the anger and argument are nonsensical, bananas, completely backwards. And all it shows me is that there is a ton of disdain and vitriol towards the Outlaws no matter what they do. Damn the context, situation, background, logic, reason, or level headed thinking. Let's just go with a conspiracy theory that doesn't make sense, even on a very basic level, because it allows us to get mad about something. I don't get it. Gravel and Carson Macedo leave Devil's Bowl with the final two wins. And now with World Finals looming, Sweet heads to Charlotte in two weeks with a 50 point lead and three features left.

At the Dirt Track World Championship last night, we only got through Lucas qualifying before things were called off. Rain all day led to a heavy track that turned rutted, and a nasty steel block late model crash during their second B-Main was the tipping point for officials. So with still the steel block feature, plus the rest of the Lucas festitivites still to come, the schedule for today is hot laps at 3PM and the rest of the program to follow. I'd still like to maybe go live this evening to watch, but I'll keep you posted on if that happens or not.

Out in California on Saturday night, Trophy Cup 29 went to Corey Day. He finished second in the main event and was already the event points champion, but there was drama after the feature. Logan Seavey took the checkered flag as the race winner, but he came up light at the scales, and that promoted Day from second to the win, with Justyn Cox and Dominic Scelzi joining him on the podium. It was the first Trophy Cup score for the 17 year old Day, and he took home $29,000 for the win. Just to add to the Saturday night drama, somebody did try to steal a golf cart from the infield at Tulare during the open red. According to social media, he later bailed on foot and tried to get back into the grandstands.

Other weekend winners included Cory Hedgecock bagging $28 grand in the crate late model at All-Tech, Kyle Hardy won the $23,000 at Bedford in the super, Dillon McCowan and Tyler Stevens picked up Comp Cams wins, while Billy Moyer Jr. just snagged the series title by two points over Kyle Beard. Troy Wagaman won the Saturday 410 show at BAPS, and Robert Ballou picked up a pair of non-wing wins. Dave Darland finished seventh in his final ever race.

A couple of interesting World of Outlaws Late Model news bits for you. First, series director Steve Francis will return to the seat of a dirt late model coming up this week at Charlotte. He'll drive a 602 late model owned by World Racing Group CEO Brian Carter during the World Short Track Championship. Francis hasn't raced since 2017, having transitioned from competitor to series official between Lucas and now the Outlaws. The Outlaws tech director in Kenny Kenneda will crew chief the car for Francis. The Kentucky Colonel was the 2007 Outlaw champion, and he tested Carter's late model recently at Charlotte.

Also, it appears as though we have our first two drivers confirmed for the full World of Outlaws Late Model season in 2024. Ryan Gustin will transition from Rocket Chassis to Longhorns and become a teammate to Todd Cooney next year. Gustin is currently fifth in the Outlaw standings with three wins on the season, while Cooney is down in 14th in his first full year out on tour. Cooney runs Longhorn by Wells chassis, and that's what Gustin will use next year also. 2023 was the third full season on tour with the Outlaws for Gustin, and he continues to show improvement. Three wins, plus more top fives, more top tens, and a better average finish over a year ago. We'll see if the chassis swap pays off for him.

If you're a non-wing sprint car fan, some not so great news from the last few days. The Midwest Sprint Car Series, or MSCS, announced late on Thursday they are ceasing operations with the 2023 season already complete. Started way back in 2001, the series competed this year at Haubstadt, Paragon, Bloomington, Lincoln Park, Circle City, and Gas City. Drivers like Justin Grant, TMez, Brady Bacon, and Kyle Cummins were MSCS winners this year, but it was teenager Kayla Roell who took down the championship in her rookie season. She topped Aric Gentry and Brady Short in the final standings. MSCS owner Tom Helfrich, who also owns Haubstadt, said quote "In recent years, there have been fewer drivers who were able to follow the entire series because of other commitments and more choices to race elsewhere. The sport itself has changed since 2001, and we feel we are at a point going forward that we cannot continue to deliver the value we feel is up to our standards, and that is the main reason for our decision" unquote. Helfrich made sure to mention that nothing will change at Haubstadt going forward. Definitely a bummer to lose a series, but we understand it's a tough business.

Alright, that's it for the show today. Hope you guys have a great Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.