DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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Where did this sprint car team go? | Daily 2-13-2024

We have quietly lost a very good 410 sprint car team, and I'll share the details today, plus we'll talk Monday rainouts, what we saw from High Limit at East Bay, and more. Let's go!

It's Tuesday, February 13th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

Mother Nature not very nice to our racing down in Florida last night. Both Volusia and East Bay got things started, but were not able to finish because of a band of rain that came through the state. High Limit has pushed the rest of their program to today. They'll run the C-Main, Dash, B-Main, and feature from Monday, and then once that's complete they will roll right into the Tuesday program. Hot laps are scheduled for 4PM eastern with racing to follow. Monday tickets are good for the rescheduled racing today, but after the Monday feature, they will boot everyone out, and then only Tuesday ticket holders are allowed in. You can see full details over at highlimitracing.com.

As for Volusia, we'll get the regular Tuesday program for the USAC sprint cars, plus the makeup for the Monday main event. The late model feature was pushed to Wednesday, making it an even four features for those teams coming up, along with the first night of the Super DIRTcar Series. Remember these early late model nights are Volusia are DIRTcar sanctioned, and not for Outlaw points. I did see some stuff yesterday about Ruben Mireles not being on the mic yesterday for the late models, and that's according to plan. Nothing weird happening there. It's the same reason you didn't see Johnny Gibson on the mic a few weeks ago for 360 sprint cars at Volusia. Those main announcers stay with their series, and it's one way that WRG helps illustrate these DIRTcar nights are different than the Outlaw nights that are coming up later this week. Those types of details have become important over the years for these bigger, longer events we see from WRG. DIRTcar Nationals is actually an interesting illustration of how different the sport is based on divisions. If you attended all 12 nights of the DIRTcar Nationals, you not only experience different racing, but also very different vibes as the series and car types come in and out through the weeks. If you want more info about the rainout from last night at Volusia, head over to dirtcarnationals.com.

Jumping back to High Limit, what did you guys think of what you saw on the opening night, even though we didn't get the show completed? I know they said they were sold out of reserved seats, and they ended up with a big field, 56 cars. It definitely seems like there are quite a few guys who are racing Monday and Tuesday, who will also stick around for the 360 portion of WinterNationals later this week. I think that's why we have some lesser known names in the field. I tweeted about this yesterday, but the old All Star command center trailer is now rewrapped as the High Limit command center trailer. I've been asked previously what exactly High Limit got out of the deal to buy the All Stars, and this trailer was one of those things. So if you are nostalgic, it lives on. With Mike Hess at the helm of competition, you wouldn't expect there to be any major issues on track, and with organization, and that was mostly the case last night. Matt Weaver even tweeted about how the drivers' meeting felt very Outlaws and procedural. Hess has certainly led hundreds of those over the years. I'm curious too if you guys have any thoughts on the seeding for last night's qualifying. I know Jeremy Elliott did his 90 at 9 this morning about the system. If you aren't aware, hot lap and qualifying groups with High Limit are set by officials seeding the drivers, and not by a random pill draw like we see with the Outlaws. A group of High Limit officials get together and rank the drivers who are pre-entered, and then groups are created to put an even amount of guys of all ability levels in each. The aim is to hopefully remove some of the randomness and even out the groups. Because of that, I was a bit surprised that Brad Sweet and Kyle Larson ended up in the same group. I'm sort of indifferent though on that part of the High Limit format. I feel like regardless of how the groups are constructed, you still have to go out and be fast, and the cream will rise to the top no matter what. I also wanted to spotlight the Kevin Newton heat race interview. He was on the chip, and I don't know that he's ever been interviewed like that before. It certainly felt like he wanted to take advantage of that fact. Hat tip to him for transferring into the feature through his heat. When we do get rolling tonight, Tanner Thorson will lead Kyle Larson to the green in the dash, with Brad Sweet, Cole Macedo, Sam Hafertepe, Rico Abreu, Justin Peck, and Anthony Macri all vying for the feature pole. Some guys with work to do, include Kasey Kahne, Chris Windom, Brent Marks, and Aaron Reutzel. They are all trying to grab a top four spot in the B for a feature transfer.

I did want to update you guys too on the situation around one of the national touring sprint car teams, and that's Crouch Motorsports. We know that Brenham Crouch is full time this season with High Limit, coming off that IRA championship in 2023. Crouch is facing a steep learning curve and significant competition this year as he joins a national series for the first time. A year ago though, out of that same shop, there were two sprint car teams for Crouch. One for Brenham, and the second started out with Buddy Kofoid in the seat. But in May of 2023, Kofoid and Crouch split, and Cory Eliason spent the rest of the season in that car. Eliason though, was dropped from the 11 before World Finals, and at the time, team owner Leighton Crouch said quote "I have made the decision to go a different direction with the #11 car in 2024" unquote. He also said that they would announce future plans at a later date. Well that later date has never come, and now it sounds like the 11 team is done for the time being. I took some heat here and there for talking about this team through the offseason with so many rumors floating around. I didn't really understand it though, as this 11 car won with both the Outlaws and the All Stars last year, and it was capable of being a front runner this year with either national tour. Why shouldn't we be talking about a race winning car not having a driver lined up? As the offseason progressed, many drivers were rumored to be in talks with Crouch, including Donny Schatz at one point, but with the season now started, that team is nowhere to be found, and all the major drivers who were on the market or could have been, are all in rides. I was told recently that the two Crouch owned teams are now just one, and that the resources for the 11 have been folded into the car for Brenham. That includes crew chief Brad Alexander, who led both Kofoid and Eliason to wins a year ago. I'm not sure what went sideways for Crouch, because clearly by his own words they had planned on having the 11 car return for 2024. It's always a bummer to lose a seat from the available pool, and hopefully they can maybe figure something out for the future. Brenham made three of four features at Volusia against the Outlaws, but has some work to do tonight to make the High Limit main event at East Bay.

That's it for the show today. You've got plenty of options on the big streaming services tonight, so hit up the daily schedule over at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

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