DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.

Clash of the Sprint Car Schedules: World of Outlaws Vs. High Limit | Daily 12-3-2023

Schedule madness on the show today. We'll go deep on High Limit and the Outlaws, comparisons between the two, plus 2024 slates for the northeast and ASCS. And we'll talk sprint car hall of fame voting. Let's go!

It's Sunday, December 3rd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

So a lot of schedules dropped over the last few days since we did the Thursday show. We've got both sprint car lineups, plus Lucas and the northeast modified series. We'll start first with the sprint cars because it seems like that's where most of the comments are coming from. On a pulled out look, I think both schedules are pretty good. The Outlaws maintain a lot of their traditions with crown jewels and their usual stops, with a few adjustments in between. And High Limit's first crack is going to make a lot of folks happy, and it's very clearly their own. And I think that's biggest takeaway from the High Limit side, and something I've been trying to communicate over the last several weeks. Regardless of what some fans wanted and hoped for, this was never going to be the All Stars, plus a west coast swing. Brad Sweet, Kyle Larson, Mike Hess, Kendra Jacobs, they are trying to build their own thing. And this schedule very much reflects that. There are some cues taken from the All Star setup, and a few similar dates and tracks, but as a whole it's much different. I know there are complaints about the lack of a real focus on Ohio, but again, not the All Stars. The gaps in the 60 race schedule for High Limit will allow teams to race the big weekend at Huset's, the Summer Nationals at Williams Grove, the Ironman 55 at Knoxville Nationals, and the National Open at the Grove. As promised, multiple off weeks through the year, and the midweek series is back. 11 races on the midweek schedule, all at least $20k to win, and a focus on a much smaller geograhpic area. No midweek shows in California for example. That west coast swing did become a very significant part of the High Limit schedule, with 11 of 60 races in the three western states. That will be a very busy two weeks for teams, and there is some significant money on the line with $100k to win at both Skagit and Silver Dollar. The third $100k to win show in 2024 will be at Eldora for what they are now calling the Joker's Jackpot. Overall, I saw Jeremy Elliott say that there is $4.7 million in purse money available. If you want the Outlaw comparison, on a brief trip through the DIRTRACKR database, I have the Outlaws at $5.6 million for 2023 in just feature payouts, with maybe a few shows in there not represented. So probably a little closer to $6 million. My big criticism of the High Limit schedule is that six week break after the initial trip south. Any momentum you are able to get going early in the year will be lost by the time they are racing again in April. We saw that this season with all the late model rainouts. You almost forget about the racing entirely. I get they are trying to avoid crappy spring weather, but no other racing series or major sport takes that type of break during the season. I didn't love it with the All Stars, even though they weren't points paying races, and I don't like it here.

On the Outlaw side, about what we expected across the board. Some new stops along the way, and the return of some tracks missing for several years. Port Royal in October gets replaced by Selinsgrove. All California tracks on the west coast swing, with Stockton, Hanford, Bakersfield, Merced, and Tulare. That Tulare race is $83,000 to win. The Outlaws did make some significant additions in Ohio, including the Wayne County show promoted by Sheldon Haudenschild, and stops at Attica, Fremont, Atomic, and Sharon, plus Eldora. There is a fairly heavy focus on multi-day weekend events, and it should help teams with travel and expenses. Both the Outlaws and High Limit are avoiding the fourth of July weekend.

When we talk about both together, there were lines drawn a lot of places, and we talked about Port Royal. 34 Raceway was also left off the Outlaw calendar completely. There are several tracks though that will host both, including Eldora, Tulare, Hanford, Riverside, and Atomic. High Limit was shut out of some states and areas though, including Wisconsin and a few areas in the midwest. I will be curious to see how the west coast trips go. After really only having a few big time 410 races in 2023, now there will be a significant increase out there, and I hope the fan base and local and regional teams can support all of it. The other thing that's going to continue being a problem with two national schedules, is some tracks are going to get dates each year that probably shouldn't. I'm not going to be crappy and call them out specifically, but there are a handful of places that got dates on these schedules that absolutely shouldn't have. I'm sure you won't have a problem finding those yourself. Both sides tell us they are focusing on safety and the fan experience, but then we get some questionable tracks. I don't love that. As for who was left out, Bridgeport and Lawrenceburg are the two big ones. Lawrenceburg is just too in flux right now I'm sure, with the transition to a new promotion group. Bridgeport is surprising though, having hosted High Limit and the All Stars in 2023, and the Outlaws in 2022. They'll still do their own, unsanctioned stuff, but that was an interesting shutout. I know you guys will have a lot of comments of your own, so feel free to voice them here.

Once the High Limit schedule was out, we then got the Lucas late model dates not long after. I'm sure that wasn't an accident or coincidence. 63 races, 21 that will pay $20,000 to win or more, and 12 that pay $50k to win or more. We get the similar setup down south to start the season, all the regular crown jewels, and the season will end again at Eldora for the Dirt Track World Championship. The teams will also return to East Bay in October for what still seems to be the final ever races at the Florida track. No mention in the release about how the championship will go in 2024, which I assume means we'll have to wait until PRI to get that announcement. As is usual with schedules, some new shows, some tracks left out, but there isn't a ton of change for Lucas here. I am a little surprised we only have the two High Limit crossover shows. They include the second trip to Golden Isles in February, and the dual Atomic show in October. I definitely thought there would be a few more. Both national late model series have solid slates again, and now we'll wait on driver and team announcements, and how Lucas will structure their championship. I have not heard any rumors or chatter about possible changes to the chase format, so we'll see what they come up with.

In the northeast, both the Short Track Super Series and Super DIRTcar Series have released their schedules. 13 $10k to win or more races for the SDS, and 11 for the STSS. Orange County has been dropped from both schedules, which makes sense with that facility's future in doubt. And Brett Deyo decided to quit competing with Super DIRT Week, moving the Short Track SuperNationals into September. An interesting development too, no mention of the higher paying Elite Series for the Short Track Super Series. There will though be the addition of a new championship featuring both regions in one.

And back to sprint car racing, the 360 American Sprint Car Series will have 49 races from late January to early November in 2024. Mostly three, four, and five thousand to win races, with big cash avialable at Knoxville and Wheatland later in the year. Very much the tracks and area you expect from the ASCS, and two interesting tie-ins with High Limit. the dirt track at Texas Motor Speedway has two High Limit shows next year, including the season finale, and the ASCS looks to be the tune up for those, racing at Texas the week before both of those High Limit events. I think a big question for Texas will be how the track surface gets into shape, and some added races there should hopefully help things out. You can see the full ASCS schedule over at ascsracing.com.

Tomorrow on the Daily, we'll get into some of the other news items from the last few days, including some driver and announcer changes. I wanted to mention this here so you guys don't think I'm glossing over stuff. It's going to be a busy week again I think, so keep it locked right here.

Before we close out today, I've got one more thing for you. I've somehow been invited to vote for the 410 sprint car awards through the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame. Big thanks to Bob Baker at the hall of fame for the call to do so. I submitted my nominations last week, and I thought it would be fun to share who I included. I was a bit late in getting my submission in, so I had to think quickly, so if you notice any glaring omission, that might be why. The first is the wild card award, which is the driver that impressed me the most with their exciting performance in 2023. I put Corey Day here. NARC championship, an Outlaw win, and maybe the top young sprint car talent in the country right now. For builder/manufacturer of the year I put Dave Sharpley and Sharp Advantage. Safety is so important, and a lot of drivers thanked Dave this year for keeping them safe during massive crashes. For media member of the year, I put Jeremy Elliott. It's insane to me that he's never won this award, and the guy dedicates his entire existence to covering 410 sprint car racing. Moving on, my team of the year was Rico Abreu Racing. Led by Ricky Warner, with Zack Middlebrooks and Brady Forbrook, these guys brought a fast race car to every show they were at. It was a career year for Rico, and these guys were a huge reason why. My promoter of the year nomination was Tod Quiring. I know he's won before, but his group just keeps on making improvements to their tracks and adding huge money to the sport. That will continue in 2024 as well. Rookie of the year was an easy one, I've got Chase Randall. I don't know that anyone else was close there. The final award was the toughest for me. Outstanding contribution to 410 sprint car racing. I put Kevin Rudeen for this one. The guy has fielded teams for so many years, continues to up the ante with his Rayce Rudeen Foundation race, made a massive investment in Skagit Speedway and their big sprint car shows, and he does a lot more that I think some will never even know about. Going forward, ballots should be out soon, and I'll bring you guys along for the ride, and we can talk about each category again. Stay tuned for that.

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