DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Outlaws off Port Royal schedule; Shark divides teams between High Limit, Outlaws | Daily 11-29-2023
The ugly reality of the sprint car national tour split spills into the open, plus Shark Racing divides their cars for 2024, and a lot more today. Let's go!
It's Thursday, November 30th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
I alluded to this particular situation a few days ago, but yesterday, thanks to Jeremy Elliott and sprintcarunlimited.com, we got it confirmed. Port Royal Speedway in Pennsylvania is officially off the World of Outlaws calendar for 2024. After World Racing Group CEO Brian Carter appeared on MRN's Winged Nation after World Finals, it seemed as though Port would be one of the tracks that would host both sprint car series next year, like Eldora will. But in the weeks since, things have apparently changed. The first sign of issues was when the World of Outlaws late model schedule was released and it didn't have Port on it. The track had hosted WRG's late models every year since 2017, with one year off in 2020. Rumblings started then that there might be trouble between the two sides. And Jeremy was able to confirm it with both the track and the series. With the way the quotes read from Brian Carter, WRG decided to not schedule the sprint cars because of the decisions the track made around sanctioning the Weikert and the Tusky 50 with High Limit. And in response, Steve O'Neal and Port Royal then decided to also not host the World of Outlaws late models. Port already has a streaming deal in place with FloRacing, so the Weikert and Tusky going High Limit after being All Star shows wasn't exactly a shock. Now, instead of an October trip to Port, the chatter points to the Outlaws hitting up another Central PA race track on that weekend.
In the hours since, as you could imagine, the response from some of the fan base hasn't exactly been positive. But like I tweeted yesterday, did we really think that splitting sprint car racing at the national level was going to be nice and friendly? Because it certainly wasn't all rainbows and butterflies in the past when splits happened with USA and the NST. And that was never going to be the case here. High Limit hasn't exactly played nice on their end, and neither will World Racing Group. Tough decisions will be made. People will end up with hurt feelings, feel betrayed, and lines in the sand will be drawn. This tactic of making tracks choose has already been playing out elsewhere, but Port Royal losing shows was the first high profile track where it's been now revealed publicly. I certainly don't love any of this, I actually think it sucks. But it was clear from the start where this was going to go. Everyone is going to try and make the best decisions they can to protect their piece of land, and there is going to be ugliness in the middle. It's not called show-friends, it's called show-business. If you are one of those upset about this situation, I would ask you to place yourselves in charge of the race tracks, or in charge of one of the sanctioning bodies, and think about how you'd respond when it's your money and your business on the line. Would you be okay with a track flipping your sanctioned dates or scheduling with your biggest competition? Would you be okay with a sanctioning body pulling an event? The answer is clearly no to both. I don't blame Steve O'Neal for being upset and dropping the late models, and I don't blame Brian Carter for deciding to not schedule the sprint cars. Yes, Port had the Outlaws and All Stars in the past. But let's be clear, the All Stars and High Limit are not the same thing. One is clearly being viewed as a direct threat to the World of Outlaws, and the other one wasn't. Is making tracks choose a side the best course of action here? I'm not really sure, but I understand why it's happening. This split is ugly. It's going to continue to be ugly. And Port Royal won't be the last time a line is drawn.
As for series announcements, yesterday it was Logan Schuchart revealing he's back with the World of Outlaws for 2024. He and the Shark Racing 1S become the fifth officially confirmed Outlaw team, joining David Gravel, Brock Zearfoss, Gio Scelzi, and Sheldon Haudenschild. You can add Bill Rose to this mix as well, but we haven't gotten that from the series just yet. Logan finished 2023 fifth in the Outlaw standings, with six wins in 71 races, plus the big million dollar score at Eldora. Statistically, 2023 was very similar to 2022, with the same number of wins, and similar amounts of top fives and top tens. The average finish was a just a tick better this year. The 1S has become one of the main Outlaw contenders on a nightly basis over the last 10 years on tour, but they haven't been able to quite get back to the level of performance they had in 2020. That season Logan finished runner up in the championship battle, and had his best season, with seven wins, an average finish under six, and 46 top tens in 54 races. That squad needs to find a bit more consistency if they are going to be in the same conversation next year with the likes of David Gravel and most likely Carson Macedo.
And just a little bit ago, we got the announcement for Logan's Shark Racing teammate in Jacob Allen. Jacob will return to full time competition in 2024, but he'll go the other direction. Instead of being back as a member with the World of Outlaws, Jacob becomes the second confirmed High Limit full timer for next year. He joins Brad Sweet as the only other publicly locked in High Limit driver for 2024. This had been rumored as a possibility, that Bobby Allen and Shark would split their two cars between the series, and with the last year that Jacob has had, I think High Limit makes a lot of sense for him. The schedule will probably be a bit shorter, and the freedom should give him some added days off when he needs them. And I think this isn't a bad plan for Shark, as they are at a point in their evolution where they can do this now. We are well past the version of this team that ran both cars out of one trailer. If Jacob can get back to the form we saw him at in 2022, he could win with High Limit next year.
One quick race track note in Ohio, Millstream Speedway recently got bought by Matt and Beth Cogley, and they announced yesterday that Rich and Shelly Farmer will help them promote races at the track in 2024. The Farmers are back promoting Fremont Speedway, and will supposedly bring a few special events to Millstream next season as the track continues to get improvements. As for the larger sprint car picture in Ohio, with speedweek and the series stuff we've talked about here recently, there is still a lot to figure out. I'd love to give you more details, but it's all still incredibly fluid and changes from one day to the next. There is some division there among the tracks, multiple Ohio speedweeks are still on the table, and who knows what else could happen in the coming weeks and months.
Looking at the weekend ahead, the big dirt late model shows we were hoping for have been rained out. The XR Super Series was supposed to close 2023 with a single day doubleheader at All-Tech, scheduled for Saturday. But cold temperatures and a wet forecast have forced the cancellation of that one. With the season complete for XR, that means Bobby Pierce claims the series championship over Ricky Thornton Jr., making it three titles for the Smooth Operator this year. He wrapped up the Outlaw championship a few weeks ago, the Flo series finale rain out resulted in him taking that title as well, and now the same with XR. One hell of a year for Pierce as he now gets ready to take on the Gateway Dirt Nationals in a few weeks. Also, Buckshot Speedway in Alabama has pushed their Holiday Hustle for super late models back to December 9th because of weather. That $10,000 to win show will be streamed by Hunt the Front.
And since we are talking late models, check out this photo that was going around social media yesterday. This is Brandon Sheppard's B5 with a special testing Longhorn Factory Team wrap on it. Since All-Tech was rained out, the team posted they were going to go test somewhere before they head to the Dome. I really like this look, and I also like Longhorn Factory Team instead of Longhorn house car. I hope that sticks.
If you want some sprint car racing this weekend, you do have a few options. Perth Motorplex, Toowoomba, and a few other tracks are in action down under. And some drivers we see over here are already there getting some laps in, including James McFadden and Logan Seavey. Clay Per View is a good place to start if you want to watch from afar. Also, down at Volusia, 360 sprint cars headline the Battle in Barberville through the weekend. That event also includes UMP and 3/4 modifieds, and it will be live on DIRTVision.
Before we close out, over in the DIRTRACKR merch shop, I've left all the shirts on sale following the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. I've got limited sizes left, so the logo shirts are still marked down to $15. Just smalls and mediums remain in stock. And if you haven't picked up a DIRTRACKR hoodie yet, I've got one large and no XLs left. I do have a few 2X and 3Xs still available, but they won't last long, and there won't be any restocks. You can browse the merch over at shop.dirtrackr.com
That's it for the show this week. Hope you guys have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here on Sunday.