DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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World Racing Group makes new streaming hire from UFC orbit | Daily 9-25-2023

Back at it on this Monday, we're talking an interesting new hire for World Racing Group, especially when it comes to DIRTVision. Plus an incredible season for Zeb Wise, Logan Seavey's sweep, and a lot more. Let's go!

It's Monday, September 25th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

Apologies that there was no Sunday show. I wasn't feeling well, and we are still a little banged up today, but we are pushing through. Back on Friday I added another new hat option to the merch store. You've seen me wear it a few times here on the show, it's a heather gray Flexfit with a sprint car on the front. The sprint car is a cool rubber patch, and it has the DIRTRACKR logo on the back. If you guys like these, maybe we'll expand into late models or other car types in the future. So at the moment at shop.dirtrackr.com there are three hat choices, including the new logo truckers as well. You can check out three different stickers, the two shirt options, plus the can koozies. Visit shop.dirtrackr.com, or click the links below this video.

I do want to talk about some stuff from the weekend, and we will do that, but I'm going to start first today with something interesting I noticed in the last few days. World Racing Group has filled a c-suite level position that could have big implications for the future. Listed as the Chief Media and Marketing Officer, the new hire's name is Charles Mellilo. And that probably doesn't mean anything to you, but a quick internet search shows this guy has quite the resume. Besides a background in corporate finance, he comes to WRG from Endeavor Streaming where he was a senior vice president and managed relationships with the NFL, NBA, UFC, WWE, ESPN, and more. If you don't know the name Endeavor, you certainly should. It started as a talent agency, but now has several spinoff businesses like streaming, but it also represents the NFL and NHL, and owns the PBR, WWE, and UFC among others. One of Mellilo's accomplishments listed on his LinkedIn profile is being involved in the creation of UFC Fight Pass, which is the UFC's own streaming platform for fights and other content. UFC is obviously a juggernaut at the moment, and this could be a key moment in the future for DIRTVision, if Mellilo is able to use his streaming knowledge to help WRG grow and expand that business. When Brian Carter was on Winged Nation late in 2022, he made sure to emphasize that WRG is a live events company, and that they are focused on having full grandstands for events like the World of Outlaws. But the growth of DIRTVision and the recurring revenue model have really stabilized the future for WRG. Live events are great, but there is a ton of risk and there aren't guarantees. Looking back through the history in dirt racing, most racing series have operated for years on razor thin margins, and many lost and lose money regularly. That was true of WRG as well. But streaming has changed that trajectory. I'm a little curious as to why a guy with a resume like his is interested in dirt racing, as we are talking the market is orders of magnitude smaller than what he's dealt with in the past. But in the ongoing streaming wars, this will be something to pay attention to in the future as DIRTVision continues to change and evolve.

Looking back over the weekend, I have a couple of things I want to hit on. The first is Zeb Wise and his first ever All Star championship. He had the driver's title already sewed up, but the owner's championship came down to the finale at Eldora during 4-Crown. Just a few points separated the 7BC and 26 and Zeb made it happen. Tyler Courtney led early from the front row, but Zeb was able to work his way into second by half way with Rico Abreu leading. And then when Rico had issues late, Zeb was there to capitalize and score the victory. It was a $10,000 win and they locked down another $80,000 for the championship. Looking around the sport, I think there is a solid case to be made that Zeb made the biggest leap of any driver from 2022 to 2023. His average finish was nearly halved. He had nine wins versus two a year ago, and substantially more top fives and top tens. During a season where many drivers have struggled on the new Hoosier sprint car tires, Zeb thrived and brought Rudeen a title. I loved the emotion we got from Zeb and the big hug from rival Sunshine in victory lane. These two were obviously teammates previously at Clauson Marshall. And I think it's important to point out that this season was marred by injuries for both Zeb and Courtney that happened at Eldora. Zeb won five of the last 11 races, and the final two to get it done. Big congrats to him and that team.

As for the All Stars, even though the championship season is over, we still have the Tusky 50 left. Once that is done though, a lot of question marks surround the series and its competitors for 2024. I've heard the rumors just like you have, but I wouldn't expect any sort of clarity or resolution until maybe as late as the PRI show in December. It's been a wild year already for sprint car racing, and we are not even close to done yet with changes and moves.

Also at Eldora on Saturday night, we had Logan Seavey do something we've only seen happen twice before, and that was a driver sweep all three non-wing divisions at Four crown. He went second to the win in the midget feature, led flag to flag in the sprint car show, and went fifth to the win in the Silver Crown main event. He joins Jack Hewitt and Kyle Larson as the only other drivers to accomplish the feat. It's been an incredible year for Seavey, winning the Chili Bowl, Indiana Midget Week, and now this sweep. He's in the driver's seat for the national midget championship, and leads Kody Swanson on the Silver Crown side with just one race left. He's had an up and down career so far, but has really seemed to find his footing in 2023 and probably doesn't get talked about enough.

With Lucas, Ricky Thornton Jr. stayed hot, picking up his first career Jackson 100 on Saturday night. He's now got 21 Lucas wins this season. Just two races remain now before the Dirt Track World Championship. Lucas heads to Raceway 7 and Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway this week, so after Saturday we'll know for sure the final four. I still think Overton gets it done for the final spot.

And with the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, Brad Sweet continued his march towards that fifth title. He gave up some ground to David Gravel and Carson Macedo on Friday at Eldora, but came roaring back on Saturday at Sharon, leading all 30 laps for win number nine on the year. With 12 races left, Gravel trails by 80 points. So that's about 40 feature positions. Macedo is 49 feature spots back. It's going to be difficult for those guys to catch the 49 if he doesn't have trouble. There is also a nice battle right now for fourth in the standings between Logan Schuchart, Gio Scelzi, and Donny Schatz. A nice little subplot to follow all the way to World Finals.

That's it for the show today. The streaming schedule is quiet with just the 24/7 channels going on today. Find the streaming schedule any time over at dirtrackr.com/watchtonight.

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