DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Bigger purses, more tow money for World of Outlaws teams in 2024 | Daily 11-7-2023

The World of Outlaws are pumping a bunch of cash into the sprint car series for 2024, and we'll talk about the details today. Plus some big names are headed west with USAC, I've got a Jake Swanson update, plus some cars racing at BAPS on Saturday. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, November 7th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

The national touring sprint car season is complete, but the fun is just getting started as we look towards 2024. The High Limit series posted to social media last night that they will have some sort of announcement today. No details on what it could be, but we are waiting to see their schedule, plus how they plan to setup this new series, including the midweek races portion, purse and other money, and things like race format. If the news doesn't break until later, and there is some good stuff in the announcement, we could potentially do a second daily show today. And if you don't do so already, make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel and hit the notification bell. We are in a for a busy offseason, and I'll be ready to bring you all the details as news breaks. Hitting that subscribe button will help you not miss future episodes. As I write this show today, we are currently 243 subscribers short of our goal for the year of 25,000.

As we await today's High Limit news though, we already have some clarity on the World of Outlaws and World Racing Group plans to sweeten their sprint car pot for next season. In recent seasons, contrary to the narrative that's been pushed elsewhere, WRG has made strides towards making their series better for competitors, including the elimination of midweek races, which the competitors asked for. They also trimmed the west coast schedule down, raised purse money for standard shows, and elevated the point fund to go with their bonus program. Of the teams that were full time in 2023, the top eight all cleared over $100,000 in just point fund payouts to go along with their race winnings. Logan Schuchart was obviously a million dollar driver this year with his Eldora win, but David Gravel was into the seven figures as well. And thanks to comments from WRG CEO Brian Carter to Jeremy Elliott and sprintcarunlimited.com, we know that more is coming. For 2024, the Outlaws will keep the four-race restrictions in place, that will certainly cause some nasty comments, and the point fund and bonus program remain the same. But more money for the teams is coming in other areas. First, purses will be raised around 20 percent across the board, with a standard Outlaw show going from a total purse of around $58,000, to near $70,000. WRG is also effectively doubling tow money for full time teams, meaning instead of $400 or $500 a night, it will now be between $800 and $1000. Tracks on the schedule will be absorbing some of the increase in the purse money, but WRG is covering the bump in tow money. If you don't know what tow money is, it's a per race payout the teams get to help with travel and other expenses. It's paid out weekly, on top of any prize money won on a given night. Depending on the number of races completed, the tow money bump could be worth as much as an additional $30k or $35k. We talked back on the Sunday Daily show about the Outlaw schedule potentially having four races that pay $100,000 to win or more, but Carter told Jeremy that could jump to maybe as many as six or seven events. So in this new world order of dueling sprint car series, WRG and the Outlaws have set their position and made their pitch here to teams looking to be full time next season. Yes the restrictions are still there, but they are again pumping a significant amount of money into the system. We'll see what we are able to learn from High Limit's announcement today, but you have to assume they will take a different tact and sell teams a different philosophy on the schedule or payouts to differentiate themselves from the Outlaws. Drop me a comment, let me know your thoughts on these increases from the Outlaws.

Moving on to some other open wheen stuff. The USAC midget west coast swing begins a week from today at Bakersfield, and there will be some added competition over those final few nights. Buddy Kofoid will return to the seat of a Keith Kunz ride to compete at every event through Turkey Night. The 2022 series champion has six appearances with USAC this year, including two wins. Also, Australian team owner and sponsor Sean Dyson will campaign a pair of cars through Ventura for Spencer Bayston and Carson Macedo. Macedo has run similar late season midget schedules the past few years, and he was a winner at Merced in 2022. Bayston also has scattered USAC starts in recent years, with a best finish of second at Merced a year ago after leading 25 laps. I also want to point you today to the Factory Kahne Instagram account and a fresh post from yesterday. No caption was written, but it's clear it's a midget, and the sponsors in view including Four C's construction, and what appears to be the Sander Engineering logo. This could be pointing towards a return to midgets for California driver and newly crowned NARC champion Corey Day. We know that Day drove earlier this season in a freshly designed Willie Kahne sprint car. Willie obviously the owner of Factory Kahne as well. Day last competed in a USAC midget at Placerville in 2022, and he was a winner during Indiana Midget Week in 2021 driving for Clauson Marshall. Corey Day also a competitor at Chili Bowl in each of the last two events, finishing 17th in his debut in 2022, and seventh in a C Main in 2023. We'll see what races Day and the FK midget show up to.

In response to the Jake Swanson situation from yesterday, and his apparent departure from the Team AZ 21AZ car, it seems like there is a lot of feeling out there that Swanson will end up in the Scott Benic owned 2B for next year. That 2B was the same one that Logan Seavey drove to a pair of victories in 2023, including at Circle City and as a part of the non-wing sweep at 4-Crown. Benic is a long time car owner, and has previously had drivers like the late Bobby East and he won a USAC national championship with Levi Jones. Seavey ended the 2023 season ninth in the standings having appeared at all 38 races with the 2B. I guess we'll wait and see if we get a formal announcement from either side.

Over the past few weeks, you guys that watch regularly know I partnered up with BAPS Motor Speedway to help promote their $25,000 to win race, and that show is this weekend. I've had some ask me about possible entries, and the track has been sharing a few to social media over the last couple of days. If you are headed out to BAPS on November 11th, they are expecting at this moment both Shark Racing cars in Logan Schuchart and Jacob Allen. Regular midwest competitor Garet Williamson will be at BAPS driving John Trone's 39 car, and you can expect Devon Borden and Justin Peck. If you are a 410 winged sprint car fan, this will be just about your last chance to see action in 2023. We'll update you later in the week as we know more about who'll be in attendance.

That's it for the Daily today, make sure to hit up the streaming schedule at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight. If you've made it this far in the episode, please do me a favor and drop a message below for my mom. Today is her birthday, and she's instrumental in DIRTRACKR, as she maintains the streaming schedule for me. So if you find that valuable, you can thank Momma Fiedler for that. Alright...

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