When the 2024 World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series season opened in Florida last February, many sprint car team owners and drivers were still on the fence.
Should they follow the Outlaw tour, commit to the shorter schedule of the new High Limit series or adopt a “pick-and-choose” schedule until they could see how having two top-line series shook out?
Everyone eventually made a choice. And when surveyed a year later, most, but not all, are happy, though some are adopting a different schedule based on their experiences last season.
“Some of the rule changes last year seemed to hurt us and we struggled to qualify well early in the season,” observed WoO stalwart Logan Schuchart. “We had to work out of a hole for a while but were a consistent fifth to 10th place car. We made some changes over the winter to help with qualifying. When you run sixth to 10th, you have to improve. You’ve got to run on the podium and then the wins will come.
“But all that aside, I think the sport is going in the right direction. I’m still proud to be with the World of Outlaws because I love the brand, the prestige of the series and the challenge of going after the point title. With two podiums at the DIRTcar Nationals, we’re back in contention.”
Schuchart’s Shark Racing teammate, Jacob Allen, concentrated on the High Limit races last season on the premise that both could do better when not competing against each other. And while he had a successful season, Allen is looking at another change this season.
“I ran with the Outlaws for 10 years and the change was good: new places, different tracks, different people,” Allen said. “The competition didn’t matter because both series are tough as hell, though the High Limit schedule allows you more freedom. The Outlaw schedule only gives you a couple of weeks off.
“David Gravel can run 60 times a year and make $400,000 but I need to race 90 times to make enough money. The High Limit schedule gave me time off to go elsewhere and hustle to support my family. I brought my average income per night up and at the end of the year we were OK. Racing is a sport but it is also a business and you have to keep that in mind.”
That said, Allen will make another change, adopting a “pick-and-choose” schedule similar to his father, Hall of Famer Bobby Allen, followed back in the day.
“Pennsylvania is the hub of sprint car racing and Ohio has great racing as well. I’m done with trips to California,” Allen said. “I don’t want my kid growing up in Love’s Travel Plazas. That’s hard on everybody. I love my family and we all need balance.
“What I have to do is figure out how to get more top fives and wins,” Allen noted. “Whether it’s High Limit or the World of Outlaws, there’s only so much money to go around so for guys off the podium, it can be a struggle. Not everybody has big dollar owners and sponsors. I race well and win some but I’m done with being on the road forever and racing at some track out in the middle of nowhere. I’m going to race like my dad did. I’m 30 years old and I’ve come to see that a good family life is what makes you rich.”
A year ago, WoO king Donny Schatz was outspoken in his opposition to the new landscape but after a year of observation has mellowed some.
“It didn’t change my life any,” he said succinctly. “It didn’t hurt the sprint car world like I expected and it actually gave the new guys coming up a chance to prove themselves.
“What I haven’t figured out is how the promoters pay some of those big winner’s purses. We had a track and thinking about it is scary. And while you always hear about how much it is to win, the other guys have to survive too. It seems like a few guys win most of the big races.”
When asked to look in his crystal ball and predict the future, Schatz contemplated for a moment before responding.
“I think this year will be a repeat of last year, but after two or three more years, things will shake out,” the 10-time WoO champion said. “I don’t know how long some of the teams can keep going as expenses rise. I do know that Tony Stewart has never made any money off us over all the years we’ve been together. There are six rookies with us this year and four or five on the other side and I’ll bet a few won’t make a full year. People thought that when Brad Sweet and a few others left us it would get easier but that is definitely not true.”
Pennsylvanian Brock Zearfoss was one who stuck with the Outlaws last season in hopes of improving his finishes, but it didn’t quite work out.
“It turned out the Outlaw races were tougher, if anything,” Zearfoss said. “A few good teams left but we still had 12 or 13 really good cars. Overall, we didn’t lose any talent.
“This year, I’m going to concentrate on Pennsylvania. Not from a lack of performance but because it’s so hard to have crew people when you travel so much,” he continued. “We’ll race at home and on the road both and try to get back to winning. I won once last year, the season closer at BAPS, but we were steady with the Outlaws and got better as the year went on.
“High Limit didn’t really change my life any except that it made the Outlaws step up a little so that we raced for more money,” Zearfoss added. “The downside is going to California. That hurts because it’s a big expense to be on the road for eight weeks, especially when it rains a lot and you only race a few times.”
On the other side of the coin, 20-year-old Emerson Axsom found the split series to be a benefit as he transitioned from non-winged to winged racing.
“It made it easier for new guys like me because it split the winged car fields in half,” Axsom explained. “All the good guys weren’t at the Outlaw shows, plus it gave us more places to race. While the Outlaws were in California, we could race closer to home.
“Eventually, we’ll pick one series to concentrate on but I’m young and we’ve got lots of time. We’ll see how the rivalry plays out but there’s some good people at High Limit. I think they’ll be around over the long run but who knows?”
When asked about leaving USAC, where he’d won some and showed great potential, Axsom parses his words carefully.
“I think I could have been big in USAC eventually but the world considers the winged guys the best on dirt. You can make money there but it’s tough,” Axsom said. “With the winged cars, both the floor and the ceiling are a lot higher.”
Longtime USAC kingpin Brady Bacon has an outlook similar to Axsom’s but a more complicated plan of attack as his racing program evolves.
“I’m going to do a mix of winged and non-winged shows and split the winged schedule between two teams,” Bacon explained. “We’re only going to run where it makes sense, because travel has become a huge expense. Besides some Outlaw and High Limit races, from where we live we can do POWRi and All Star shows without a lot of travel expense and not have to compete against the Outlaws every night.
“Our dollar potential is way bigger that way,” Bacon noted. “Our performance may not be as good right away as with USAC but to get 15th-place Outlaw money you have to run third with USAC. And you always have the potential to do well in some big-money races. USAC’s big races pay 10 grand to win and at most shows they pay $1,200 for fourth. We get that to start with the Outlaws.”
Tyler Courtney, Hunter Schuerenberg, Chris Windom and Axsom have already made a successful transition to winged cars.
Add the youngsters already concentrating on winged cars in the pipeline from the various 360 series around the nation and there seems to be no lack of talent to support both major 410 series in the immediate future.
Drivers may come and go but as always, racers will aspire to be at what they perceive as the top level of the sport.
