DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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The case for why Bowman's injury WON'T change the Hendrick dirt racing policy | Daily 4-27-2023

Alex Bowman was injured in that High Limit sprint car crash and I've got thoughts today on what it could mean for the Hendrick drivers including Kyle Larson. Let's go!

It's Thursday, April 27th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

As is usually the case when news breaks, Alex Bowman's injury and upcoming absences from the Cup Series were announced yesterday while my show was uploading to YouTube. We did talk about the incident in the High Limit race on yesterday's show, and of the two situations, Conner Morrell's ride looked quite a bit worse, and his car was very badly damaged. On the Flo broadcast we did watch Alex Bowman walk away, but we know now that he has factured vertebra and will miss apparently three to four weeks while it heals. This comes very quickly after the return of Chase Elliott, who sat out several weeks from his Hendrick Motorsports ride after a snowboarding incident. Just like with Elliott, Josh Berry is being called up from the JR Motorsports Xfinity program to fill in. The reaction to this news has been about what you would expect, with a lot of the NASCAR fans questioning Hendrick allowing these guys to participate in extracurricular activities, and the very obvious jumps to Kyle Larson's status have been made. Will HMS now quickly put a stop to Larson's dirt schedule after what we've seen with Bowman and Elliott. But I don't know that I would expect Hendrick to do a 180 here and suddenly bar his Cup drivers from racing elsewhere, or participating in other outside activities. We are in a current environment where Joe Gibbs Racing has decided they won't allow Christopher Bell to run sprint car and midget events, and that's certainly their choice. They are paying Bell a lot of money and have a lot on the line with him, so it makes sense. But with the Hendrick drivers, the boss people and their associated partners have backed their drivers racing elsewhere. This hasn't been just about granting apprehensive permission. HendrickCars.com sponsors Larson when he runs sprint cars and midgets. Bowman's sprint car is adorned all over with Ally, who is his main Cup sponsor. They see value in these types of races and reaching these fans. Hendrick has also quietly offered support in various, important ways to the High Limit series. On top of that, this extra racing is great for raising these drivers' profiles. Bowman has gained a whole new level of respect and awareness from dirt racing fans because of his exploits at the Chili Bowl and with the sprint car. That is not nothing. We are also in a different age of Cup racing. In the past, missing races meant the end of your championship chances. You'd never be able to make up the points differential from sitting out multiple weeks. But now, with the playoffs and NASCAR granting waivers, that isn't the case. As long as these guys can win a race when they get back in the seat between now and the playoffs starting, nothing has really changed. And if you want to bring in the sponsorship stuff and those multi-million dollar deals, Hendrick's partners weren't hurting with Chase Elliott out of the seat. There was no lack of attention on Berry when he drove the NAPA car, and NASCAR had a whole campaign ready to go, including TV commercials when Elliott returned. I doubt NAPA missed out on any exposure through those several weeks. I think the easy thing here is to say that Hendrick will have a knee jerk reaction, pull the reigns back, and keep these guys from competing, but I don't think it's that simple. Is it possible that it could happen? For sure. I am certainly not guaranteeing it won't happen, and I don't have any inside information here. But I don't know if it's really that cut and dry, regardless of how social media responds. Race car drivers are by nature risk takers, and you can't keep them wrapped in bubble wrap during their down time. This was always a possibility when the door was opened, and these types of conversations around what to do and how to handle things took place well in advance of guys getting injured.

Before we move on, I want to try something in the comments today. I talked yesterday on the show about the High Limit announcers and maybe introducing music, and there are quite a few of you out there who seem to have very strong opinions about music on the broadcast. So if you are for music from the announcers playing during down time, just comment with the word music. If you are against music, just comment the world silence. We'll see how many we get both ways.

Looking ahead to the dirt racing weekend, the cancellations just keep on rolling in. As of yesterday the full USAC week is off, with both nights at Devil's Bowl now cancelled. So that's four sprint car races this week we lost between Texarkana 67, Rocket Raceway Park, and Devil's Bowl. The national sprint cars are back on May 5th and 6th at Eldora as part of the Lets Race Two weekend.

Also, the first of three races coming up for the Spring Nationals is cancelled with rain stopping action at Crossville Speedway. The Spring Nationals late models will try again tomorrow at Lake Cumberland, and then head to Clarksville on Saturday.

And then the big one is the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. They had shows planned for Georgetown on Friday, Hagerstown on Saturday, and Port Royal on Sunday, and all three of those races are now off. The Port and Hagerstown races are cancelled outright, and the Georgetown show has been rescheduled for August 24th. The next Lucas races on the schedule are May 4th through the 6th at Atomic, Ponderosa, and Florence. By the time we get to those races, it will have been almost three full months since we last saw Lucas in competition. If you can remember back that far, Hudson O'Neal is the most recent Lucas winner, way back on February 10th at East Bay during Speedweeks. It's been an absolutely brutal stretch for Lucas and I'm sure series director Rick Schwallie needs a hug right now. So with these three shows off, it leaves teams with options for other regional racing the next several days. There is the aforementioned Spring Nationals races, the newly refreshed MARS series is headed for Brownstown, Fairbury, and Red Hill. Comp Cams is at Old No. 1 and Riverside International. And the MLRA has two nights at Lake Ozark. There are also scattered other smaller local and regional races. If you're a late model fan, it's definitely disappointing to lose these three Lucas nights, but the weekend shouldn't be a complete washout.

If you do want some racing to watch tonight, might I suggest the USMTS modifieds. They are at Hamilton County Speedway in Iowa this weekend, and tonight is the first of three race nights. This Thursday show is $3000 to win leading into $5000 and $10,000 to win shows Friday and Saturday. Jake O'Neil is your current points leader over Tyler Wolff and Terry Phillips and this will be the first trip to Hamilton County since April of 2021. Dustin Sorensen and Phillips won those two features. Also on the card tonight are USRA stock cars, B-Mods, and hobby stocks with qualifying set for 6:15. If you aren't nearby, you can watch it live on RacinDirt.

Four shows on the streaming slate for today. RacinDirt has the opening night of USMTS modifieds from Hamilton County, there is IMCA racing from Kossuth County, and we've got FloRacing 24/7 and DIRTVision Now. To see the full daily streaming schedule with links to watch, visit dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

Hope you guys have a good Thursday out there, we'll see you back here tomorrow.