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High Limit reveals format, accidently leaks 17th driver? | Daily 1-17-2024

High Limit sets their format for 2024, but did they also leak a 17th full time driver? We'll show you the evidence, plus the ASCS field starts to fill out, it's a big week in Australia, and more. Let's go!

It's Wednesday, January 17th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily.

If you haven't had a chance yet to watch, make sure to tune into the first episode of The Rico Rundown, which dropped yesterday evening on the YouTube channel. I'm going to be taking you inside the Rico Abreu Racing team all season, as Rico and the boys get ready to tackle the High Limit series and the biggest events in sprint car racing. This first episode gets you up to speed on Rico's trip to Western Australia, and he's not done yet down under. Give it a watch, and let me know what you think. I'm super excited for this, and grateful for the opportunity to partner with Rico.

On the High Limit front, they revealed their race format yesterday, and it's sort of a mix between the Outlaw format, the All Star format and some small tweaks. They will qualify everyone together like the Outlaws do, not by heat. But they will take the fastest qualifier in every heat and push them to start fourth, with everyone else starting straight up, just like the All Stars did. Under most circumstances, you'll see the heat winner plus the fastest transfer go to the night's dash. And if the quick qualifier from that heat that starts fourth is able to win the heat, they will start up front in the dash, bypassing the redraw. The B will line up like the Outlaws do it, with the two fastest qualifiers that didn't transfer, starting on the front row. The other wrinkle here is that on a two day show, the top three or four drivers in the first feature don't have to qualify the second night. They will be placed into heat races as effectively the fastest qualifiers. I am a bit surprised with Mike Hess and Brad Sweet involved here that they went with any sort of invert in the heat races. Hess was the Outlaw race director when they decided to drop heat race inverts for the 2016 season. And the first year of High Limit as a midweek series did not include any heat race inversions. They were lined straight up like the Outlaws do it. Formats are always a bit divisive, kind of like schedules, but the reaction seemed to be mostly positive to this setup. If you are curious how that heat race inversion effects heat race finishes, here are some numbers. Over the past seven Outlaw seasons, 63% of heats were won from the pole, with 93% won off the front row. With the All Stars over the previous five years, 55% of heats were won from the pole, with 85% won from the front row. So there is a bit of a difference here. What may skew these numbers for High Limit though is that added benefit for the fourth starter to race to the front to get that good dash spot. That should be some added motivation. I've seen questions about provisionals and the choose cone for High Limit, and Mike Hess confirmed to me that both are in place for 2024. A provisional system was not used for the midweek series in 2023, but there is an argument to be made for one to be in place for a year-long national series that has so many committed teams. I know some hate provisionals, but they don't bother me at all. Also, the choose cone will be used for features only, allowing drivers to choose their lane on restarts, either high or low. Drop a comment, let me know your thoughts on the High Limit format.

Also of note with High Limit from Tuesday, it appears as though they may have tipped their hand with James McFadden. A promotional graphic for the Red Dirt Raceway show on a Tuesday night in April was posted that included a list of drivers. It had the 16 regular full timers we know about, plus Kyle Larson and Cap Henry who are slated to challenge for the midweek championship, plus quote "many more." But in the midst of all those other names was James McFadden. The social media post was fairly quickly deleted, but the internet never forgets. While some sources have pushed back against the idea, the sentiment I'd been hearing was that Roth would split their cars, similar to Shark Racing. Buddy Kofoid to the Outlaws, and McFadden to High Limit. Kofoid has already been announced as an Outlaw, but we have been waiting on what McFadden's status would be in the other Roth machine. This slip from High Limit seems to point to McFadden at the very least contending for the midweek title, if not the full schedule outright. At this moment as well, this graphic would make it clear that the series doesn't expect any more announcements in the near future, and that we will probably go to Florida with 17 High Rollers. That's what they are calling their full time teams. So stay tuned fam, we should be getting at least one more announcement here.

Another sprint car series that has released some full time names for 2024 is the 360 ASCS National Tour. Oklahoma driver Jeffrey Newell was the first to commit, late in 2023. He'll tackle the full schedule for the first time, and made nine starts a year ago with a win and four top tens. His victory came in dominating fashion at Lawton Speedway in June. Joining Newell as a rookie will be 23 year old Bradley Fezard. Fezard was previously a micro competitor, and starting in sprint cars in 2022. He's appeared 15 times with the ASCS the past two season, with a best finish of fifth, that came at Caney Valley in 2023. Terry Easum from Oklahoma as well makes it three rookies as he'll join full time as well in 2024. Easum ran just twice with national tour in 2023, and is jumping up from the Oil Capital Racing Series, where he has four career wins. He's also made scattered starts with the USCS and ASCS regional series. Kansas driver Kyler Johnson is full timer number four, he's returning to the ASCS for year number three. His rookie season saw him grab five top tens, and last year was an improvement with 13 top tens and three top fives. He ended up sixth in the final championship standings last season. Also from Kansas, the final season long chaser we know about right now is Zach Blurton. He's made scattered starts all over the midwest, and was a regular with the United Rebel Sprint Series. He's racked up 40 career wins with that tour, that utilizes the IMCA Racesaver rules. Blurton actually won on the ASCS National Tour in 2022, leading all 25 laps to beat Blake Hahn at WaKeeney Speedway. There is still plenty of time for this field to grow, as the ASCS season doesn't start until March 1st at South Texas Race Ranch.

If you want even more dirt racing content this week, check out the new podcast episodes from across the community. Passing Points has Kale Drake, Dunewich on Dirt has Steve Post, Turn 2 Terribles has Tony Jackson, Plum Wild has Ryan Avila, Getting up to Speed has Jayce Steinberg, and there are new episodes of the Dirt Reporters, the Dirt Nerds, Quicktime, Dirt Track Confessions, Hoogie's Garage, and TJSlideways' Open Wheel Spectactular. If you would like to check these out for yourself, dirtrackr.com/podcasts is a good place to start.

That's it for the show today. It's a big week of sprint car racing in Australia, so keep an eye on Clay Per View and FloRacing if you want to watch. The Presidents Cup at Avalon was rained out, they will try again on January 24th. The Kings Challenge is next, it's Thursday at Borderline Speedway in Mt. Gambier. Things will get rolling around 1AM eastern time here in the states on Thursday morning, and that field is expected to include Rico, Cory Eliason, Brock Zearfoss, James McFadden, Aaron Reutzel, Justin Peck, Carson Macedo, Chase Randall, Sheldon Haudenschild, and many more. And then after the Kings Challenge, teams will head to Warrnambool to start the Grand Annual Sprint Car Classic. They should easily be into the triple digits for sprint cars, with Friday and Saturday split field prelim nights, leading into the big show on Sunday. Here in the states, you can watch the Classic over on FloRacing.

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