DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript

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EMERGENCY DAILY: High Limit / All Star acquisition officially done

The All Star and High Limit deal is done and official, so let's talk about what we know, and what's next...

It's still Monday, October 23rd, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

Silly Season is blowing up with driver, series and track changes planned for next year but first lets give away some sprint car tickets, shall we? Thanks to BAPS Motor Speedway, I've got a 2 pack of free tickets to the Les Stewart Sprint Showdown at BAPS Motor Speedway on November 11th. The energy around Central PA’s final Sprint Show of the season continues to grow as BAPS Motor Speedway will pay out their highest purse in track history. They have also added in a "Night Before the Sprint Showdown Fan Fest." Friday November 10th is all about the fans with a $500 to win chili cook off sponsored by C&H Recovery, a blazing hot bonfire and a live pre-show hosted by Jeremy Elliot and Mike Mallet of Sprintcarunlimited.TV. While special guest driver interviews are planned, I am sure Jeremy will have some thoughts to share on silly season news as well. Right now, BAPS is offering fans the chance to purchase one adult general admission ticket with the second adult ticket for $5 off. Just go to bapsmotorspeedway.com to find the Sprint Showdown Event Link or contact the speedway directly. Back to the ticket giveaway though, please only participate if you live nearby or plan on traveling. Just comment below that you would like to hit up BAPS Motor Speedway for the Les Stewart Sprint Showdown. The winner will receive two free General Admission tickets as well as two free BAPS souvenir t shirts. If you have already purchased your discounted tickets, BAPS will reimburse you, so don't worry if you've already go tickets. I'll announce the winner of the free tickets on the Wednesday show. Follow BAPS on twitter and Facebook for all event times and notifications of drivers expected to compete for the $85,000 purse coming up quick on November 11th.

This is Daily show number two today, so if you missed it earlier, we talked the Lucas finale at Eldora earlier. Let me know your thoughts on everything in that comment section. I wanted to do a bonus episode though so we could dive into the High Limit acquistion of the All Stars being officially official. The release went out around 3PM eastern time. I had heard late last week that an announcement was probably coming any day, and it sounds like things were made official today at the FloRacing headquarters near Austin, TX. Brad Sweet already being in Texas coming off the Outlaw weekend certainly made that convenient. The release from High Limit is fairly basic and what you would expect. Quotes from Tony Stewart and Brad and Kyle, but not heavy on any other details. Tony thanked his employees and said the time was right to pass the torch to Kyle and Brad. More announcements about the future for this new deal are forthcoming, including a schedule. In a story over at sprintcarunlimited.com, Jeremy Elliott had some more quotes from both Brad and Tony, and there were a few interesting tidbits in there. Tony said quote "There are some series owners who don't give a flying "F" about the competitors, and their actions have shown that. So, for me, if it was going to go to anybody, it’s going to go to two guys who are passionate about the sport and its longevity" unquote. Tony also said that he won't have any ownership in High Limit or any official role. If you haven't checked out either the release, or Jeremy's story, I would recommend doing so.

This news has been one of the worst kept secrets all year, and now that it's finally done, we can start talking about the future issues, like the schedule, teams, and how this will co-exist with the World of Outlaws. This deal though ends more than a year of back and forth about the future for High Limit and the All Stars. I had heard last year at World Finals that Tony was shopping the series, and that conversations between Tony and the High Limit side had started earlier in the year. All through the summer, the deal was on, the deal was off, but it really seemed to pick up steam publicly around the Knoxville Nationals. I initially mentioned it on this show on July 4th when I talked about Donny Schatz and TSR, and obviously we've talked about it multiple times since then. Now that High Limit owns the All Stars, this clears the way on several fronts. First, streaming. It makes a lot more sense for FloRacing to support one 410 series and not two. I think those that pay attention saw that this season. High Limit felt much more front and center in 2023 than the All Stars did on the Flo platform. FloRacing has been consolidating their offerings anyway, and this makes sense as they pare down to just the most lucrative series and events. It also means one less series to compete with for dates, tracks, and drivers. There are already rumblings about which drivers could join which side, and what races are being snapped up. Both drivers and dates will be an ongoing battle in this new split world of sprint car racing. I do think the All Stars would have had a difficult go of it trying to fit in somewhere between these two national players, and this deal means they don't need to fight that fight and Tony is unloaded of one property.

I do think some out there hope nothing really changes here, except ownership and maybe some details like purses, but that won't be true here. I don't know about naming, or exact details, but I wouldn't be shocked to see two championships emerge under this banner. One season long, national series that's 60ish races, plus the midweek component as it's own title. The midweek schedule keeps Kyle involved and racing on Flo during the quieter weekdays. But this larger All Stars High Limit series will be national. The Gold Cup at Chico, now under the control of Brad and Kyle and Colby Copeland, will no doubt flip to being a High Limit show. And I think there are some other races that will change as well. Rumors are rampant about other dates, and I'm sure we'll know more in the coming weeks. I think which side, meaning High Limit and the Outlaws, releases their schedule first will be an interesting battle coming up.

As for drivers, we'll see how good of a salesman Brad Sweet is. You know he'll be full time with this new deal, and we'll see where that leaves his boss Kasey Kahne. Can he convince any current Outlaw teams to join him? What will the major All Star teams do? Will someone else jump up and decide to make the move to a national tour. The sprint car driver market isn't done moving yet, and who ends up in what car could also affect this. Both sides will be presenting their cases and their best compensation packages to teams.

From my own perspective, I do have concerns with all of this. Can the ecosystem support two national players? The CART/IRL split was ugly, and basically destroyed open wheel racing in this country. When I was a kid, IndyCar was the thing in the US, and now it's a shell of what it was, especially when compared to NASCAR. Will that happen here? Both sides will be well funded, so neither side will bleed out quickly. What does this mean for regional racing, especially around Ohio? What will happen with things like Ohio Sprint Speedweek? We know some smaller players are already sniffing around there like we've talked about. I hope everyone involved understand the gravity of what is they are doing, because the future of the sport is at stake, and it wouldn't take much to really hurt the whole thing.

That's it for now. Feel free to leave your comments below. This will be an ongoing conversation on this show in the coming weeks and months, especially as the picture becomes more clear.

Thanks for rolling back through for this special bonus Daily episode, we'll see you back here tomorrow.