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.

Lucas alters Chase, Ohio Speedweek survives, Emerson Axsom's plans | Daily 12-11-2023

Lucas keeps the chase format for 2024, but makes big changes. Plus a look at the Lucas roster for next season, cooperation wins out for Ohio Sprint Speedweek, some other recent 410 changes, and a non-wing driver flips to winged. Let's go!

It's Monday, December 11th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

As of me recording this show, I'm down to just a single 3X hoodie left in stock over at shop.dirtrackr.com. If you get to it in time, I'll throw in a sticker with your order. I do still have a few logo shirts left in a few sizes, and the DIRTRACKR rope hats, plus stickers. If you are grabbing Christmas gifts, order soon so they can get shipped in time.

One of the more polarizing elements of the 2023 season was the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Chase for the Championship. It took heat when it was announced at PRI back in 2022, and it really took a beating in the end when Ricky Thornton Jr. didn't win the title after having the most dominant season in series history. Obviously Hudson O'Neal your 2023 Lucas champion. When the Lucas schedule was released almost two weeks ago, there was no mention of how they would handle the championship format for 2024, but back on Friday at PRI we got the announcement. The chase is staying for next season, but with several key differences. The biggest being that the title will no longer be settled in a one race, winner take all format, but instead over the final seven races. In 2023, whoever finished the highest at Eldora during the Dirt Track World Championship was the guy, but next year, the final four drivers will battle it out over a seven race playoff, starting at Brownstown in September for the Jackson 100. The other final race stretch includes the The Night the Stars Came Out at Atomic, the Pittsburgher, the Grand Finale at East Bay, and the Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora. There is again a million dollar point fund with chase bonuses included, and $200k to the champion. Teams won't get bonus points at the cutoffs, but they will still get those bonus payouts. The four cutoffs are the Show Me 100 at Wheatland in May, the Diamond Nationals at Wheatland in July, the Rumble by the River at Port Royal in August, and the Late Model Knoxville Nationals in September. It doesn't say this explicitly in the release, but I'm assuming, like they did in 2023, that once that final four battle starts, everyone will be put back to zero, with all four drivers tied to start the final seven race stretch. As for the reaction to the news, it's pretty mixed from what I saw. I think there are plenty out there who still don't like any sort of playoff format, but if you didn't like what we saw at Eldora, this is a pretty significant step back from that. And I think that has to be the biggest takeaway here. That Eldora finale was insane, but it's hard to justify someone else walking away with the hardware when a guy like RTJ had the season he did. I appreciate Lucas wanting to up their program and try something different, and I also respect this decision to make the changes. They are saying we still want this playoff, but we know what happened last year probably wasn't great.

The next question for Lucas is who are their full time drivers. And this is where I think the series could do better. We've been getting the driver announcements on the sprint car side and with the World of Outlaws Late Models, but we don't get them in an official capacity from Lucas. I think that's a promotion and marketing miss on their part. As of today, looking around at a few different places, here are the drivers I think we can expect for 2024. It sounds like Tim McCreadie, Max Blair, Hudson O'Neal, Boom Briggs, Garret Alberson, Daulton Wilson, and Ross Robinson are back for sure. We don't know yet what plans are for RTJ, Devin Moran, and Jonathan Davenport. They were three of the four chase finalists. We do know that Brandon Overton told FloRacing's Kyle McFadden that he wants to do Lucas again, but that they probably need some more sponsorship help to do it right. Looking through the rest of the Lucas field from 2023, there is chatter that Tyler Erb could go pick and choose. We know Earl Pearson Jr. is in search of a new ride after his Jason Papich owned team shut down. And Spencer Hughes departed PCC, and will run this season with JCM Motorsports in a pick and choose situation. So Lucas sits at seven right now, and if those other three return, we'll be at 10. From there, we'll see if any other teams make the jump, or if any flip from the Outlaws. The 2024 Lucas season starts January 25th at Golden Isles.

In Ohio over the weekend, we did get a very good resolution for the future of Ohio Sprint Speedweek. With the end of the All Stars via the High Limit acquisition, things have been incredibly fluid in the Ohio sprint car scene over the last several weeks. The rumors pointed towards two separate speedweeks, and possibly two competing regional series, with Aaron Fry's FAST Series already in place, and a startup ready to challenge them. That startup series was supposedly hours away from being announced at one point, before it died on the vine. You might remember back to November 18th when Ross Paulson posted to Twitter that he was backing out of the project to start that second series. With Speedweek though, we got great news over the weekend that the entire area was coming together to make this happen as a unified deal. At PRI late last week I heard rumblings a deal could be imminent, and Saturday I got the word that it was done. June 7th through the 15th in 2024, with nine races in nine days. Attica, Fremont, Waynesfield, Wayne County, Hilltop, Sharon, Muskingum County, Millstream, and Atomic are the nine dates. The week will be split on the streaming services between FloRacing and DIRTVision, and this thing was a group effort by everyone around the state, and from both the Flo slash High Limit side and the World Racing Group side. I feel like this level of cooperation doesn't happen often in dirt racing, so big kudos to them for getting this done. The FAST Series confirmed everything on Sunday via social media. I know this wasn't easy, but the sport as a whole can't grow until we see more of this with tracks and series working together for the betterment of everyone.

I think it's important to note too, the end of the All Stars and the shifting ground with High Limit has created ripple effects elsewhere in the sprint car ecosystem. Besides Ohio, another example is in the midwest. The MSTS, which has been a 360 series running at tracks like Jackson Motorplex, Off Road Speedway, I-90, Park Jefferson and Huset's, will expand into 410 racing for 2024. They will keep the 360 series, but add 410 events to their schedule to capitalize on the number of teams racing 410s in the area. Cody Ledger won the MSTS 360 title in 2023, topping Brant O'Banion and Micah Slendy. No word yet on a schedule or other details like purse money or championship format.

And down south, the Short Track Nationals, which had previously been held at the now defunct I-30 Speedway, but are now part of Texarkana 67 Speedway, will become a 410 event for 2024. Posted on the track's Facebook page, the event will take place November 1st and 2nd and pay $20,000 to the winner. They are hoping to draw some big names to the event, and it's important to point out that the track will host High Limit earlier in the year, and this event will be after the High Limit season ends. So that possibility does exist as I don't think it conflicts with any other big 410 shows. World Finals isn't until a week later. What this means though for the ASCS, I'm not sure. These two dates are still on that schedule, so will this be a dual sprint car weekend, or is the 360 part of this event off? I'm not sure of that just yet. But this move and the MSTS are two more examples of things changing rapidly in sprint car racing that don't involve the national level specifically.

Before we close out, a final news item for you today. One of the bright young stars on the non-wing side of sprint car racing is making the jump to full time winged competition for 2024. Emerson Axsom announced Sunday that he has parted ways with Clauson Marshall Racing and will campaign a winged car out of his family's shop for 80-100 races next year. There was nothing in his social media post about what that schedule could look like though. This new deal will be in partnership with Dale Klassmeyer and Scott Petry. Axsom ended the 2023 USAC National Sprint Car season third in the standings, with three wins in 38 races and 31 top ten finishes. He was full time on the USAC side in both 2022 and 2023, and has made scattered winged starts in between. Back in 2022 he had several good AFCS runs, including top fives at both Fremont and Attica. And he made seven starts in 2023, with a best finish of third at Benton, Missouri with the POWRi winged series. He also appeared with High Limit at Kokomo, the All Stars at Atomic, and the Outlaws at Haubstadt.

That's it for the Daily today. Make sure to stop by dirtrackr.com for all the latest news from around the sport and checkout the streaming schedule.

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