DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Ricky Thornton Jr.'s plans; High Limit up to 12 teams; Alex Bowman, World of Outlaws driver? | Daily 12-14-2023
Today we'll preview the Gateway Dirt Nationals, Ricky Thornton Jr. is 99% sure, High Limit gets another, plus updates on the Chili Bowl, Alex Bowman Racing and more. Let's go!
It's Thursday, December 14th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
One of the last big dirt racing weekends of the year is upon us, with more than 140 late models set to do battle inside the Dome at America's Center in St. Louis. This weekend's Gateway Dirt Nationals will also feature a stout field of modifieds. Thursday and Friday are split field prelim nights, with 25 lap, $5000 to win late model features, and the top three from each guaranteed a starting spot into Saturday's main event. That Saturday show will feature $10,000 to win for modifieds, and $30k for the late models. Looking at some Gateway history, Scott Bloomquist won the very first race there in 2016. Then it was back to back for Bobby Pierce. 2020 was cancelled for covid, so it was back to back for Tyler Carpenter in 2019 and 2021 wrapped around that cancelled year. And then last season it was an emotional win for Tyler Erb, who had just lost his dad to a heart attack four days before the event. Inside the Dome, the track build started last week, and was officially complete by Friday via social media photos. And the move in process for race team haulers started yesterday, there's actually a neat timelapse over on the FloRacing social channels of that process. All three days, on track activity starts around 3PM central time, with opening ceremonies set for 5PM. I feel like this is one of those events that's incredibly difficult to handicap. So much can happen, or not happen on that little tiny race track, that it's difficult to pick favorites or winners. So I'll leave that to you down below in the comments. If you aren't headed for St. Louis this weekend, you can catch all the action live on FloRacing.
If you're a dirt late model fan, I would make sure to be following Kyle McFadden on social media this weekend and beyond. You can find him on Twitter @ByKyleMcFadden. He's one of the Flo and Dirt on Dirt staffers, and he'll be at the Dome all weekend covering the action. He's been pumping out some good stories the last week or so around some of the offseason moves for the main guys, and yesterday he had comments from Ricky Thornton Jr. about his 2024 plans. There have been hints and rumors along the way that RTJ could flip to the Outlaws, I had heard at World Finals that he was being pitched by Steve Francis and that he was open to the possibility. But this week after the Lucas banquet at PRI, things feel like they are probably headed for status quo. RTJ told McFadden quote "We aren't 100 percent sure what we're doing just yet. I say we're 99 percent sure we're back with Lucas. But it's not 100 percent yet" unquote. Kyle did a story about the reaction to the changes to the Lucas playoffs, and he talked to the driver of the 20RT for that piece. If that holds, Thornton would join a field that already includes Tim McCreadie, Max Blair, Hudson O'Neal, Boom Briggs, Garret Alberson, Daulton Wilson, and Ross Robinson. We talked earlier this week about Brandon Overton and his potential to be back, and we still aren't firm yet on decisions for Devin Moran and Jonathan Davenport.
On Wednesday in sprint car racing, High Limit added team number 12 with the announcement that Parker Price Miller had signed on as a full time series member. PPM will campaign his own 9P machine next season, joining an ever more deep field of regulars. In his career, he's won with both the Outlaws and the All Stars, but just two victories a year ago. One with the OVSCA at Atomic in April, and he won a 360 Knoxville Nationals prelim night in August. He spent time in multiple rides in 2023, driving his own car, plus the McCandless 29, and he filled in for Zeb Wise at Rudeen following Zeb's injury at Eldora. Overall last year, 75 races, with 15 top fives and 29 top tens. So at the moment the full High Limit field is Brad Sweet, Kasey Kahne, Jacob Allen, Cory Eliason, Zeb Wise, Brenham Crouch, Rico Abreu, Justin Peck, Spencer Bayston, PPM, Chris Windom, and Corey Day. Notables we are still waiting for include Tyler Courtney and Brent Marks, and I think the Crouch 11 is a possibility as well. I've been told that High Limit is expecting as many as 16 or 18 teams, so more to come here.
One team that I got asked about this week was the Alex Bowman owned 55 sprint car team. They ran a pretty good schedule a year ago, first with Bowman in the seat before he got injured in that High Limit show at 34 Raceway, then with Jake Swanson and Hunter Schuerenberg in the car down the stretch. That injury for Bowman caused him to miss time with his NASCAR Cup Series ride at Hendrick Motorsports, and it played a significant factor in his season coming apart. I inquired earlier this week about the team's sprint car plans for 2024 and was told they were not shutting the program down. And then Bowman was on Sirius/XM NASCAR radio with Dave Moody, and he revealed they won't run as many races as they did in 2023, but instead here and there where Bowman wants with other drivers in the seat. He said he's going to not race a winged sprint car for the foreseeable future, instead choosing to focus on his Cup ride. It sounds like Hendrick management had some influence there as well. He did say though, which I thought was interesting, that when his Cup career is over, he'd like to run full time with the World of Outlaws. He's not the first NASCAR driver we've heard say similar things. Bowman's race team is still fielding midgets at the Chili Bowl, with Jake Swanson and CJ Leary entered, and a third car listed as TBA.
Speaking of the Chili Bowl, as of yesterday we are at 320 total entries with still plenty of time to add more before January 7th. As usual, loads of motorsports talent sprinkled through the list, including NASCAR drivers, plenty of sprint car guys, some dirt late model racers, and the usual suspects in non-wing and midget racing. We'll talk a lot more about the Chili Bowl later on as we get closer, but you can see the full list of entries over at chilibowl.com.
I did want to hit on a few schedule releases today from the last week or so. First, the 39th year of Summer Nationals competition will feature 29 late model races and 25 modified shows from June 12th through July 27th in 2024. As it was last season, the tougher schedule remains in place, but with the weekly championships sticking around. Each of the five late model weeks will have a $10,000 champion, with a total of $125k distributed in point fund money through the summer season. This move to weekly champions seemed to be a win last year, and allowed for some more freedom for teams to come and go when it worked for them. You can see the full slate over at dirtcarsummernationals.com.
The NARC 410 series out in California is ready to go for 2024 as well. 26 races up and down the west coast, from March 9th at Hanford to November 2nd at Stockton. Obviously very California heavy, but still that trip north to Oregon and Washington in June, culminating in the Super Dirt Cup at Skagit for the three day show that pays $62,000 to the winner. With defending champion Corey Day off to do High Limit, the NARC title will be wide open next season. It was pretty tight down through the top five in the standings at season's end, with Justin Sanders, Dominic Scelzi, Justyn Cox, and Bud Kaeding all staying within striking distance. That NARC schedule is posted at narc410.com.
One more sprint car news item for you before we close out today. Jeremy Elliott at sprintcarunlimited.com reported yesterday that Dylan Norris is set for 60 or 70 races with a new family owned team for 2024. If you might remember, Norris recently parted ways with the Gobrecht Motorsports team, with that group shutting down completely. Norris will start the season down south with High Limit, and then pick and choose from there, with a heavy focus on Central PA. He did tell Jeremy that Ohio Speedweek and the Maverick series in Indiana are other possibilities. If you don't already, I would encourage you to check out Jeremy's website. He does have a paywall, but it's only $35 for the year. That's less than $3 a month, and he's one of the few who has breaking sprint car news throughout the season. I've been a paying subscriber of Jeremy's for three or four years, and I think it's important to support those creating content around the sport where possible. It's why I pay for all the streaming services, and share podcast episodes and websites and YouTube channels for others in the space.
Alright, that's it for the show this week. A quick programming note for the coming days. I've been grinding pretty hard the last few weeks, and I'm going to take a few days off coming up, and then around Christmas. But don't worry, you will still see content coming out of my channels. I've got two interviews in the can and ready to share this weekend. There will not be a regular Sunday Daily show, but there will be a Daily on Monday which I've already recorded. That will be one you won't want to miss. A friend in the industry gave me all the numbers and all the tea on an interesting subject. So stay tuned for that. My plan is to do something similar around Christmas. Maybe not have daily shows, but instead a bunch of interviews to share. I will be back next week for regular content Tuesday through Thursday like normal.
Hope you guys have a great Thursday out there, we'll see you back here for interviews over the weekend, plus a cool Daily on Monday.