THE VILLAGES, Fla. – With the haulers and motorhomes back in the North and Midwest, it’s time for a quick look back at some of the happenings during the Florida visits of the World of Outlaws and USAC.
The USAC sprint series may be missing Kevin Thomas Jr., Chris Windom and Tyler Courtney, but Buddy Kofoid and Emerson Axsom will more than fill the void. Both are personable, with two-time winner Axsom a great interview despite being just 17-years-old.
Kofoid hauled Keith Kunz’s new Toyota backed sprinter from the mid-teens to the top five on a rubbered down track on opening night for the sprinters at Bubba Raceway Park. He sounded like a veteran when he told us he let the others wear their tires down early on, then cranked it up and picked them off one by one. Few drivers his age have that much patience. He also tipped that racing a wingless sprint car took some getting used to, adding “they’re nothing like a midget.”
Axsom won that night, then took the $10,000-to-win finale away from Chase Stockon by also exhibiting patience, letting Stockon run high, wide and handsome until he wore the outside groove out, then coolly driving under him to take the lead. Both youngsters are on their way to the big leagues, so go see them locally while you still can.
NASCAR Cup Series star and sprint car rookie Alex Bowman certainly honed his dirt track and car control skills at Volusia, getting better and better each night despite a rough track and top-shelf competition. His performance caused one photographer to tell us that he has always doubted whether NASCAR’s stars are as talented as billed, but Bowman changed his mind.
I’m sure we weren’t the only ones, but we missed our annual chat with Dave Darland. And not having him in the thick of the action was a downer as well.
When Kasey Kahne hit the wall a ton at Volusia, there was an audible gasp from the crowd, followed by the usual applause when it was announced that he was OK. But in the nights after, a number of fans approached us and asked what we thought about him running the sprinters again after having a great career in sprint cars and the NASCAR Cup series.
Most felt he had nothing to prove and should stick to his ownership role with Brad Sweet’s car. But like Tony Stewart and Kyle Larson, the sprinters are “real racing” to Kahne and the competitive fire appears to still be burning inside him.
Great to see the Michael brothers crew chiefing a pair of well turned out sprints, Sean with Chris Dyson’s car driven by Thomas Meseraull and Curt with young Briggs Danner and the Mike Heffner-owned sprinter.
Speaking of T-Mez, he is, in a few words, a piece of work. Extremely aggressive on the track, he’s a lively interview with an interesting background and a true racer at heart. He kicked off World Racing Group’s new non-wing series with a convincing win and had a podium finish with the USAC warriors.
We had an interesting conversation at Ocala with a long-time supporter and crew man for the late Roger Rager, including the popular Minnesotan’s Indianapolis 500 runs. The question he asked us – why USAC sprints draw smaller crowds, get less attention and pay less than the World of Outlaws when he feels the racing is better – seems simple. But it is anything but.
World Racing Group head Brian Carter has told us on a number of occasions that their main effort is to build a brand so that when the Outlaws come to town, it’s like having the circus arrive way back when.
To see the results of their efforts, one has only to watch the grandstand crowd and the hordes in the pits on the first night of the WoO at Volusia. The All Stars got rained out of both of their shows this year, but in the past they put on great shows featuring both their regulars and many WoO teams. Then the next night, under WoO sanction, the atmosphere was electric and the stands were packed rather than half to three-quarters full for basically the same show.
The comparison to USAC is similar. The Ocala facility is much smaller than Volusia, but USAC struggles to fill the stands despite having very talented racers who put on a show that, on most nights, features a great deal more action than the Outlaws.
One factor: for vacationing fans in the Daytona area, it’s a much longer drive to Ocala than Volusia. Another is that having Kyle Larson, Kasey Kahne and Alex Bowman as a draw along with the WoO heroes pulls in curious NASCAR fans while the USAC show relies on hard core mid-westerners on vacation for their fan base. But the bottom line would seem to be that the Outlaw stars are better known than the USAC stars.
Finances would also seem to be a factor. Winner’s purses are substantially smaller on the USAC side, hence the migration of Thomas and Courtney to winged cars despite great success in their first love.
From a fan aspect, our man from Minnesota has a good point in that the USAC racing is very good. Where they come up short is endless wheel packing, lengthy hot laps and time consuming single car time trials compared to the Outlaw shows generally having no wheel packing, limited hot laps and two cars at a time qualifying. Both sanctions would do well to look at DIRTcar modified procedures, where they get two hot laps in groups, then five cars spread out around the track at once, greatly speeding up the show.
We’ve said it before, but we’ll repeat: racers, media people and industry insiders have each other to talk to and time is not a big deal. But to fans in the stands, especially those with children, long, drawn out shows and endless track prep only to end up with the exact same surface a few laps into the feature is a real enthusiasm killer. The only vote they have is with their feet. Many choose to walk out and some will never return.
On a happier note, after much development, Donny Schatz’s Ford engine is now equal to or better than the Chevy based powerplants he races against, making both Schatz fans and those who love the blue oval happy again.