There are still a few races remaining on the 2023 Dirt Late Model racing schedule, including the XR Super Series events at All-Tech Raceway and the Gateway Nationals in St. Louis, but the season is quickly drawing to a close. As many who follow this sport know, the term off-season is a misnomer in that the work for the next campaign begins almost immediately after the previous year ends, or even before. As a result, many drivers and teams are already preparing the cars they will be putting to use when their first race of 2024 rolls around.
This past season was very much a transitional one for Dirt Late Model racing. There was more money on the line and more high paying events than ever before. With what essentially amounted to four national touring series sanctioning races, haulers covered more miles on the highways than had ever been the case.
So will those teams be racing as often and for as much money as they did in 2023? Furthermore, when and where will they compete for paychecks?
The schedules are coming out slowly as tracks and teams leak information.
The World of Outlaws CASE Construction Late Model Series has released its full slate but the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series has not to date announced its plans for 2024. The Castrol FloRacing Night in America Series has not yet released its news while the XR Super Series has plans for six races in 2024 already posted.
The World of Outlaws have also revealed significant increases in their points fund payouts for the top-13 finishers at the end of the season along with ‘Winners Circle’ supplements thus firing the first shot in what is likely to be a heated competition for drivers and teams to either move to or stay on their tours. There are publicized attempts such as schedule releases and points fund payout numbers put out there with the intention of drawing competitors as well as informing fans.
At the same time, however, there are behind-the-scenes movements in the way of phone calls, texts, and emails from each series to those coveted operations in hopes of landing them to their tours. The series can sometimes help team owners land sponsors to offset the costs of traveling and racing over the long haul of a season. Tires can be given away or sold at lower prices to help defer costs for teams. And there are other things that can be done such as pit passes provided and strategic scheduling that cuts down on the number of miles to be covered.
Competition among the series, which is no doubt being carried out to at least some degree on behalf of the streaming services, seems to be proving beneficial to the racers as more money and extra incentives are provided,
Teams are aided by the fact that, at least over the past few seasons, the two major tours have not sanctioned competing events against each other during the early season Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks portion of the schedule. That would allow teams to decide which series to follow, if either, after those initial weeks depending on their positions in the standings when they emerge from Florida in late February.
Of course, sponsors and other financial factors play as much of a role as early season performance in determining the season-long path. And remember that last year the World of Outlaws gave a major points boost to teams who committed to run their schedule in the early going which could, obviously, play a role if either or both series do something similar next year.
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, for the first time, employed a ‘Chase for the Championship’ format to determine its season-long titleist while the Word of Outlaws did not. The benefits and drawbacks of each are likely being pointed out to the teams by each tour.
It will be interesting to see what steps the two primary national tours take to lock in the coveted drivers over this current off-season.
Again, keep your eye on this Facebook page for more information regarding the release of the new MotorsportsReport.net website. We are currently targeting a January beginning.
No comments:
Post a Comment