DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Uncertainty about Roth's sprint car plans, High Limit adds to broadcast team | Daily 1-7-2024

On the show today we'll talk sprint car plans for Roth Motorsports, High Limit snags a fifth World Racing Group employee, Justin Sanders' future, weekend results, and much more. Let's go!

It's Sunday, January 7th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

We'll start your Sunday off with some weekend race results. Down at the Wild West Shootout, things got under way last night with the first of six race programs. In a feature that went caution free, Cade Dillard picked up the first $10,000 winner's check of the event. He started outside front row, rolled the top to the lead at the start, and was able to keep Bobby Pierce at bay in the closing laps. It was a tight battle to the end, with Garrett Alberson also in the mix, and top three working through lap traffic. Tyler Erb finished fourth on the night, with Kyle Larson charging from 14th to fifth in his first dirt late model race in several months. Dillard actually won twice on the night, also picking up the $2000 modified victory over Johnny Scott and Terry Phillips. This past week I had a moment on the Daily show where I said that Brandon Sheppard would likely be Bobby Pierce's closest competition for the Outlaw title in 2024, and I shared part of that to TikTok. I had a comment on that TikTok from someone saying we shouldn't sleep on Dillard as an Outlaw contender as well. We've certainly seen Dillard finish top three in Outlaw points in the past, but that team would have to take a very big step forward to go from 10th and no wins in 2023, to a championship contender in 2024. To put a number on it, Pierce's average finish this past year was just a tick over fifth, to go along with 14 wins. Dillard's average finish was over 11th. That would take a turnaround of pretty epic proportion to jump that far in one season. The 97 was certainly fast last night, but let's see how that team does as the year starts to play out against the Outlaws. The Wild West Shootout continues tonight with another $10,000 to win show for the super late models. If you aren't headed to the track, watch it live on FloRacing.

At the Talladega Short Track, Ryan Gustin was a $7500 winner at the Ice Bowl. It was his first time out in his new deal partnered with Todd Cooney. He got around Christian Hanger for the lead before half way, and then held off Oakley Johns at the end. Hanger, Ray Cook, and Sam Seawright were the rest of the top five. The next time we'll see Gustin is for the Outlaw opener at Volusia for the Sunshine Nationals in a few weeks.

In recent days down under we saw Brad Sweet win again during Western Australia Speedweek, topping Trent Pigdon and Brock Zearfoss at Bunbury. And at Toowoomba, we had three different winners in three nights. Carson Macedo won the opener over Brock Hallett, and Lachlan McHugh won night two over Ryan Newton and Jock Goodyear. The $30,000 finale went to Goodyer, who led all 35 laps, topping Jy Corbet and Carson Macedo. This week, 410 sprint car shows down under include Lismore on Tuesday, and weekend action at Avalon and Perth.

Here in the US, Chili Bowl practice is going on all day in Tulsa, with the first prelim night set for Monday. We should be somewhere around 370 cars for the event. chilibowl.com at the moment has 373 on the pre entry list. If you are playing the pools, for entertainment purposes only, you've got the rest of the day today, and Monday before hot laps to make your selections. I know a lot of you wait until practice day to decide, to try and get an idea of pace for some of these drivers and teams. If you want to go further on your Chili Bowl research, a month of DIRTRACKR Plus is only $4.99 and gets you all the stats and info on the event you can handle. See more details and sign up over at dirtrackr.com/getplus.

Back on Friday night, David Gravel was live again on YouTube with another guest, and if you haven't checked these out yet, I definitely encourage you to do so. Especially at a point in the year where there isn't much going on, these Gravel shows are a good watch. The Friday guest was Tyler Courtney, and they talked about a bunch of different topics, including Sunshine's decision to go High Limit, the state of the sport, Chili Bowl, and a lot more. One thing I wanted to hit on that Gravel mentioned, was the plans for Roth Motorsports for 2024. They are really the last major team who hasn't announced anything yet. Gravel and Sunshine were talking about the current list of full time teams for both High Limit and the All Stars, and Gravel said he'd heard that both Buddy Kofoid and James McFadden were going full time on the Outlaw side in those two Roth machines. The Kofoid part jives with what I've heard as well. Supposedly that deal is already signed with the Outlaws, but I don't know why it hasn't been revealed yet. As for McFadden, the rumor in recent weeks has been that Roth was going to split the cars, with McFadden going High Limit as Buddy went full time Outlaws. Both cars will again be powered by Toyota engines, and I saw comments actually from California sprint car driver Chase Johnson recently somewhere that Toyota expects to start selling their engines sometime in 2024. This comment from Gravel though was the first time that I'd heard talk that McFadden could be back with the Outlaws. I know he and his guys were not happy about how things played out with the tire doping penalty in 2023, and you have to think that could play at least some role in their decision making process. Just like we saw with Shark, splitting the two Roth cars would allow the team to toe the line and potentially be in position to grab a High Limit charter for the future. So that would make sense. Dennis Roth though has long campaigned cars with the Outlaws, and Toyota has a significant presence among the WRG owned series, so it's not hard to make a case for both going Outlaws as well. Hopefully we'll hear more on this front soon. You can watch Gravel and Sunshine over at youtube.com/davidgravel.

One other sprint car driver I've been asked about is Justin Sanders. Besides his usual ride out west with Mittry, Sanders came east a lot in 2023 to run for both Kevin and Jordan Swindell early on, and then Macri after Anthony departed the 39M. I know there have been discussions with some different teams for 2024, but back on Friday, Jeremy Elliott shared in a piece at sprintcarunlimited.com that Sanders will stay close to home this season. With Corey Day off to do High Limit, Sanders will be right at the top of the list of guys to challenge for the NARC championship, but it would be a shame I think to not see Sanders run more nationally. I think when we look around the country at some regional sprint car guys ready for that next step, Sanders is definitely at the top of that group. I think Sanders is an example of someone who could be hurt by the lack of no middle series like the All Stars. He could certainly take the jump to full time High Limit or Outlaws and be fine, but I do think his progression would be helped by a season or two competing at a step below. Let him learn life on the road first. As 2024 progresses though, I wouldn't expect the silly season stuff to slow down, and Sanders should be on the top of the call sheet for car owners looking for a better option.

Finally today, some more staff news for High Limit. The sprint car series has filled out their broadcast crew with the addition of Tony LaPorta to be their full time pit reporter in 2024. He'll join Chase Raudman on those FloRacing broadcasts and on the PA system at High Limit shows. TLP has spent the past two seasons creating content at WRG after being the main USAC announcer for the 2021 season. LaPorta moved over to USAC after several years on the mic with IndyCar and IMSA, and took heat early in his tenure for struggling through his opening weekend. It didn't take long though for him to find his stride, and I thought at the time that his ouster was pre-mature. I thought he could have been a good candidate for the main announcing job at High Limit, but this pit reporting gig is the next best thing. I think he'll do well in that role, especially as he's gotten to know so many of the winged sprint car teams and drivers the past two seasons working with the Outlaws. It doesn't go unnoticed though that TLP is now the fifth fairly high profile employee to move from WRG to High Limit as they have ramped into a national series. In the past 12 months, we've seen Brian Walker swap PR roles, Mike Hess and Anthony Corini go from the Outlaw tower to High Limit, and Chase Raudman and TLP slide into those new annoucing spots. I've said before that if you were starting a big time sprint car series, the best place to snag talent is the already existing incumbent, and High Limit has played that card several times now. These are all guys who will be able to slide into their new jobs with minimal transitions, and that will be big for High Limit when the season starts. On the flip side, WRG has a strong history of finding and growing talent, and I wouldn't expect them to skip a beat. Walker was replaced by Alex Nieten, and Raudman's pit reporter spot is going to Conner Wade. TLP's job is posted at the moment, and I don't know of a replacement yet for Anthony Corini. The Outlaws will be okay there though, as long time series scorer Eloy Gutierrez is still in the mix. As for race director, Don Grabey came back to fill that seat for the Outlaws late in 2023 after Hess was ousted, but I've heard a new name will take that spot for 2024.

Alright, that's it for the show today. dirtrackr.com is your place for news, the streaming schedule, and a lot more. So add it to your rotation of daily internet stops.

Hope you guys have a great rest of your Sunday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow!