It was in December of 2021 that World Racing Group announced their expansion into the world of non-wing open wheel racing with the formation of the Xtreme Outlaw Series. The Xtreme brand would feature two different tours for non-wing sprint cars and midgets, and was the latest addition to WRG’s portfolio of major series that already included the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and Late Models, the Super DIRTcar Series, and the DIRTcar Summer Nationals.

That first season in 2022 acted as a trial run above all else in an effort to figure out what worked and what didn’t, and the changes were abundant going into 2023. Most notably, the sprint car side of the series was axed after year one, and the focus was placed solely on the midgets. They went from just 10 races in 2022, all but two of which were co-sanctioned with the POWRi National Midget League, to a 34-race championship in 2023 with a large majority of nights being independently sanctioned.

Anytime a new series is formed, the conversation immediately turns to how the tours already in existence will be affected. WRG made every effort to ease those concerns with their scheduling, releasing a slate of events that featured zero conflicts with the USAC National Midgets. Both sides made it clear that the goal moving forward was cooperation rather than competition.

Nearly one year later, just three race nights remain in Xtreme’s first season as a fully-fledged national tour. And for all intents and purposes, it has been a success. The championship battle between Jade Avedisian and Cannon McIntosh is one of the closest across all of dirt racing this season, with just 11 points separating the two heading into the final weekend of the season at Port City Raceway and I-44 Riverside Speedway. There has been plenty of parity, with nine different winners through 26 races thus far. And an average car count of 23.4 this season is right in line with other national midget series in recent years.

With the season winding down, we now have answers to many of the questions people were asking last winter. Oversaturation on the national midget calendar was a valid concern, with 68 races on the original schedule between USAC and Xtreme. While more racing is always great for the fans, no one wanted the success of Xtreme to come at the expense of the long-standing midget racing tours in the United States.

Thankfully, those concerns have not been realized. In USAC’s case, their nightly participation has been mostly unaffected, as their average car count has actually increased slightly year-over-year. Through the 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora, the USAC midgets have had an average car count of 28.5, compared to 27.3 at this point in the 2022 season. Interestingly enough, the number of full-time USAC competitors has risen considerably, with 12 drivers chasing points this year versus just seven in 2022. On the POWRi side, things have also remained steady, with that series having an average attendance of 23.7 this season compared to 23.6 last year. This information shows us that if there is a point of oversaturation in the world of midget racing, we haven’t reached it yet, and there are many teams that capitalized on the opportunity to run full-time in more than one national series.

Of course, not everything went to plan for the Xtreme series this season. Races with car counts in the mid-teens at tracks like Brushcreek, Paragon, and Red Hill are obviously not ideal. However, it’s all part of the process for a new tour in learning which tracks produce successful events and which tracks don’t, and one can assume that the 2024 schedule will be put together with this experience in mind.

The addition of more and more races to the calendar is far from just a midget racing issue. Whether it’s the High Limit Sprint Car Series, FloRacing Night in America, XR Super Series, Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series, or anything else, new tours have been popping up left and right in recent years across all dirt racing disciplines at the national, regional, and local levels. As long as tracks, teams, and promoters can work together, and see other series and tracks as a partner rather than an enemy, there’s no reason the sport can’t continue growing and expanding years into the future.