DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Big pickups and a surprise for the World of Outlaws and High Limit sprint car fields | Daily 12-19-2023
Brent Marks, Bill Balog, and Carson Macedo make sprint car series choices, and we'll react to all of them, plus the Knoxville Nationals gets richer, and we'll talk weekend indoor racing. Let's go!
It's Tuesday, December 19th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.
We are back at it today after a few days off. If you missed it over the weekend, I posted two new conversations episodes, one with sprint car driver Zach Hampton, and one with previous World of Outlaws crew member, and current NASCAR mechanic and sprint car driver George Loux. I know these guys aren't household names, but I would encourage you to check these two shows out. Me and Zach talked a lot about trying to grind it out as a sprint car driver at the highest levels and there is a ton of insight in there. And George has seen the sport from all sides, as a sprint car crew member for Kasey Kahne Racing, to now trying to fit in as many races as he can as a driver in between his day job. Guys like George are what the sport really looks like outside of the national spotlight. As we look ahead to the next few weeks on this channel and podcast feed, the rest of this week will be normal stuff. Dailies on current events as usual. Next week we'll mix it up again with some more interviews, so even around the Christmas holiday, there will still be plenty of content coming your way.
Looking back on this past weekend, there are plenty of things to talk about and react to, which I figured would happen with me taking a short break. We had more sprint car news, wild racing at the Dome, and some other news bits.
First, the sprint car series announcements continued with High Limit growing to 13, and the Outlaws now sitting at 11. The High Limit pickup was the addition of Brent Marks on Friday. This was one we'd been waiting for, and knew was a very strong possibility. Marks has been one of the top pick and choose guys in the past few years, but now returns to a series full time. He's previously been out on the road with the World of Outlaws, and did a brief stint with the All Stars in 2021. That All Star run ended after he parted ways with CJB Motorsports that April. Since then, he's been back in his own car and has really developed into one of the top sprint car drivers in the country. I think a jump to High Limit is very on-brand for Marks, who can show up and win anywhere at any time, but also likes to take some weekends off. The High Limit schedule will allow that team to still do that, while also chasing a championship. As we start getting closer to being done with team announcements, the focus will start to shift towards who will be in the mix for the High Limit championship, and that first round of charters, and I think Marks will be right in the hunt with Brad Sweet and Rico Abreu out front, and very strong candidate for that first round of charter teams. If the 19 squad though is really going to bring the fight to the NAPA 49, they will need to take a significant step forward in consistency. His 2023 top ten percentage of 77% trails Brad Sweet's by a significant margin. Sweet's was 87%.
On the Outlaw side, their field went from 9 to 11 with the additions of Bill Balog and Carson Macedo. Balog is obviously the surprise of the group, and a name I hadn't even heard in the mix. It sounds like he wasn't really expecting it either, but did get some added sponsor help to make the move, with that coming together very recently. I've got a Slider piece from Jordan Wilman coming out later today that has an interview with the North Pole Nightmare, and he explains further. Stay tuned for that. Balog was a full time All Star in 2022 and 2021, before reverting back to a pick and choose schedule this past season. So he's no stranger to a touring sprint car series. In 2023, he won twice with the All Stars, and six times with the IRA, where he is a ten time champion. He does have an Outlaw win on his resume as well, at Beaver Dam back in 2016. Balog will go up against Landon Crawley for the Kevin Gobrecht rookie of the year award, and he pushed the Outlaw field to double digits. With a couple of defections to High Limit, I wondered if we'd get a few to join the Outlaws, with the prospect of more money available, and I think this is an opportunistic move for the 17B car.
And yesterday it was Carson Macedo and the JJR 41 announcing a return to the Outlaws for season number six. There was chatter that this team was mulling a jump to High Limit, but staying with the Outlaws is big for that side. Sans Brad Sweet, all of the main series stars are now returning, including Macedo, David Gravel, Gio Scelzi, Logan Schuchart, Donny Schatz, and Sheldon Haudenschild. That's six of the top seven in the 2023 standings back. As he has been the past few season, Macedo will again be in the mix for the Outlaw title, and even with that group needing to replace two crew members, I would not expect them to skip a beat. Crew chief Philip Dietz is one of the best in the business, and still doesn't get the credit he deserves among the sport's best wrenches. Macedo's season in 2023 was derailed by that frightening crash at Knoxville, and later a fractured vetebrae at Skagit, but he still managed to finish third in the standings. I think we could have a serious slugfest for the Outlaw championship in 2024 with this group. One interesting note in the Outlaw release for Macedo, they mentioned the addition of the Scott Boyd family as one of the JJR 41 supporters for next season. If you aren't aware, Scott Boyd is one of the partners in SLS Promotions, and he owns Karavan Trailers. The initial word around Kasey Kahne was that he wasn't going High Limit racing because of that Karavan Trailers sponsorship, but things clearly changed there. I'd heard Kahne had lost Karavan, and now it seems as though Boyd has shifted his support to Macedo and the 41. SLS promotes a significant part of the Outlaw schedule in the midwest, so it would make sense that Boyd would want his sponsorship on display at those races. It's an interesting example of the interwoven nature of these sponsorships and business deals. As for what's next, word is still out there that the Outlaws will get at least one more, and that High Limit has a few more in the bag. So not done just yet.
One other sprint car note. Knoxville Raceway very quietly slipped in a 2024 Knoxville Nationals announcement with their ticket mailings in recent days. The 63rd Nationals will pay $190,000 to win next August, which is another $5000 bump, up from $185k a year ago. Hat tip to Ashley Zimmerman on the spot. Ashley contributes regularly to Dirt Empire Magazine, and she tagged me in her social post sharing the news.
As for weekend racing, Brandon Sheppard your winner at the Gateway Dirt Nationals. He started outside front row and led all 40 laps to score the $30,000 win. It wasn't all easy though, as BShepp had to fend off a last lap slider attempt from Ricky Thornton Jr. who went full send into turn one. RTJ wasn't able to get across the nose of the B5 though, and he ended up sliding up into the wall, and Sheppy got away for the victory, which was his first inside the Dome. Tanner English joined Sheppard and Thornton on the podium. The night's modified feature was also a fun show, with Drake Troutman able to keep Ricky Thornton Jr. and Mike Harrison at bay for the duration. Harrison got big sideways at one point and tagged RTJ, and I'm guessing that the damage from the contact eventually ended RTJ's night. Harrison and Jordan Grabouski were also on the podium. The Gateway Dirt Nationals have become quite the spectacle over the years, and I saw somewhere this weekend the event compared to the WWE. I certainly don't want all of dirt racing to become like that, but I do like that Gateway has developed it's own personality and brand as an event. I know some don't like that about the weekend, with the outlandish interviews and never ending soundbites alongside the rough and tumble on track action. But here and there on the schedule it's fine, and if you don't like it, it's pretty easy to not watch.
Indoors at Du Quoin, Thomas Meseraull had a big bounceback from a tough west coast swing with the new midget team. He won the POWRi Junior Knepper 55, taking the lead with 13 to go and topping Cannon McIntosh and Zach Daum. TMez started fifth, and patiently worked his way forward before getting to the lead. The early part of the feature was pretty messy, but it settled out and we had some clean racing towards the end. Next up for indoor season is the Tulsa Shootout coming up at the end of the month.
That's it for the Daily show today. Make sure you're subscribed to our email newsletter, The Slider. It's free, and I've got a few pieces in the hopper right now, including that Bill Balog interview. You can sign up over at dirtrackr.com/theslider.
Hope you guys have a great Tuesday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.