DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
Dirt racing news, results, discussion, analytics. Sprint cars, late models, modifieds, you name it. From national series, to top local shows. Brought to you five days a week. Email the show at info@dirtrackr.com.
Deep dive on recent high paying dirt late model races | Daily 2-22-2022
Coming up we get into big paying dirt late model races by the numbers. Let's go!
Today is Tuesday, February 22nd, two thousand and twenty two. Welcome into DIRTRACKR Daily. I'm Justin Fiedler.
This 2022 season is going to be an interesting one to follow in the dirt late model world because, as we've talked about, there is more money than probably ever available between the two national series, the big events through the year, and the new races and series from XR. The regular crown jewels we've come to expect like the World, the Dream, the Dirt Track World Championship, the Prairie Dirt Classic and more are all on the calendar, plus we've added shows like the Eldora Million and plenty of big money races at Bristol and elsewhere with XR. We've also seen payout and championship money increases from both the Outlaws and Lucas, and bonuses and extra cash on the line for loyalty and attendance. In response, we're going to see several big name drivers not follow series this year and instead chase that money, with guys like Brandon Overton, Jonathan Davenport, Jimmy Owens, and others giving up those championship chances. Something I've come to understand as my knowledge grows, at least on the late model side, is that the championships for these series just don't seem to matter as much to not only the drivers, but the fans as well. The bigger accomplishments on the resumes are those crown jewel wins, and not how many titles guys have. It's an interesting situation, because I do think on the open wheel side, the championships matter, and if you look at other motorsports and stick and ball sports, those titles are key to a driver's legacy. Just to give you an example, on Jonathan Davenport's website, the fact that he's won three Lucas championships basically has equal billing to the fact that he's won four World 100s. On the flip side, The only accomplishment you'll find above the fold on the front page of donnyschatz.com is that he's a 10 ten World of Outlaws champion. For me personally, I think a championship matters more, just because it shows a team and driver were able to get it done over a full season, not just a race night or two. But because those individual races matter on the late model side, I wanted to take a look at some numbers to see which guys really shine when the big cash is on the line.
So here's what I did. Between the two national series, I've got 137 World of Outlaws races and 104 Lucas races in the dirtrackr.com analytics database. This set obviously doesn't include the two big shows at Eldora, but does include crown jewels like the Topless 100, the Firecracker, and the races I mentioned earlier. So between the two series and the 241 races, I've got 34 shows that paid more than $16,000 to win. That $16,000 number obviously eliminates any standard Lucas or Outlaw show, and really pushes it to any races that pay $20,000 to win or more. So 16 Lucas races from 2020 through today, and 18 Outlaw races from 2019 through today. I collected race winners and average finish between the two series and here's what we've got. No surprise at the top of the win column, as Brandon Overton leads all drivers with five victories in these races. One with Lucas and four with the Outlaws. That's just shy 15% of those races that Big Sexy has won. Interestingly though, he doesn't lead the way in average finish. With Lucas, he's way down the order in ninth, with an average finish north of ninth. With the Outlaws He's second, with an average finish of fourth in seven races. Behind Overton in wins, we've got Tim McCreadie, Hudson O'Neal, Brandon Sheppard, and Ricky Thornton Jr. each with three victories. Jimmy Owens and Bobby Pierce have two, and Tyler Erb, Kyle Bronson, Mike Marlar, Payton Looney, Chris Madden, Dennis Erb Jr., Cade Dillard, Ashton Winger, Rick Eckert, Jonathan Davenport, and Kyle Larson each have one. So 19 different winners in those 34 races. Overton with the most Outlaw wins, Hudson O'Neal has the most Lucas victories. In terms of average finish, on the Outlaw side, Larson leads the way with a third place average, but that was only in two starts. Overton is second with that fourth over seven starts. On the Lucas side, Dale McDowell leads with an average finish of fifth, but again, in only two feature appearances. Tim McCreadie is second, with an average finish of 5.75, but that's in 16 races. There are a few other interesting names on the average finish list, like Ricky Weiss, Billy Moyer, and Max Blair, but they all have fewer starts. The rest includes the usual suspects, like Sheppard, O'Neal, RTJ, Owens, Chris Madden, and Devin Moran. None of these numbers really surprise me, except Davenport. He has just the single win, and doesn't appear in the top ten in average finish for either series. My data set is obviously smaller, and only includes a few seasons of races, and if I were to add the Eldora shows, or like his big XR win at Bristol last year, or go back further, his numbers would change dramatically. But it is of note that he hasn't been towards the front more often in recent years. We'll have to see if that turns around this season with his focus being on that pick and choose schedule, and not chasing the Lucas championship like he has in the past. I feel like the one name missing from the winners list, that does appear on the Lucas average finish list is Josh Richards. He's won so many of these races and championships on both sides, but these last few seasons have been a struggle for him between the Clint Bowyer ride and now his move to teaming up with Boom Briggs. The win list, for the most part though, does seem to be a who's who of the sport right now, with all the major names represented. You've got the top national guys, plus regional names like Bobby Pierce, and some up and comers like Ashton Winger. But of note here, half of the 34 races have been won by just five drivers, Overton, TMac, Hudson, BShepp, and RTJ. And if you go just a bit further, it's 2/3 of the wins by just eight drivers. So as you might expect, the big guys show up when the big cash gets rolled out. Looking elsewhere with the winners, nothing against Payton Looney, but his Show-Me 100 win back in 2020 is probably the biggest fluke on this list. In his four other Lucas appearances, all at Lucas Oil Speedway in recent seasons, his best finish is 27th. I wouldn't be putting any money on Looney to grab another one of these big wins.
Drop me a comment below on YouTube, or via social media and let me know your thoughts on these stats. Is this what you expected it might be? Is there a driver you think could break through and grab a big win this season that hasn't yet? I do plan on doing something similar to this on the sprint car side later on, because there is plenty of money on that side as well, and I probably have a much bigger sample size to choose from, with the Outlaw set of races the biggest in the database. I might try and share some of these numbers to social media a bit later on today as well.
The only thing on the streaming schedule today is FloRacing 24/7. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.
That's it for the show today, have a good Tuesday. If you have thoughts about the topics on today's show, leave them in the comments below or tweet at me.
Thanks everybody for tuning in, I'll see you tomorrow for more DIRTRACKR Daily!