Difficult Task

The lead story on the sports page of my Burlington Hawk Eye this morning included pictures of a near empty section of grandstand at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during this past Sunday's Brickyard 400 leaving the speedway president to wonder how to bring fans back to the track. For the Indy 500, just the fantastic racing that was staged over the final twenty laps back on Memorial Day weekend should help the track close back in on selling out the 225,000 seat facility in 2015. But for the NASCAR weekend, just holding the meager attendance that was there for the Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup events even for next year will be a difficult task. In both races the winner (Ty Dillon and Jeff Gordon) made their "move" on the final restart and then drove away to the win in events that saw very little on track change of positions and even Gordon stated that it is a race won on pit strategy and restarts.

I went to the Brickyard back in 2005 and had seats in the next to the top row of the turn one grandstands. It was a warm day with just enough of a gentle breeze to keep you from getting too hot and about every forty seconds you would be able to see your favorites drive by once again and then disappear from view. I did something that day that according to my mother, whom I know is one of the seven people who reads the Back Stretch regularly (Hi Mom!), I never did even when I was just a young boy at the races. I fell asleep! But I did wake up in time to see Tony Stewart take the win.

I have no interest in returning to Indy to watch NASCAR, but I do believe that my son deserves to get his first ever trip to the Indy 500 soon and I will look forward to taking him!

It is a bit unusual to have a Hobby Stock driver appear to target one event a year, but that seems to be the case with northwest Iowa's Andy Boeckman. Absent from the results for most of the 2014 season, Boeckman's name has reappeared recently as he is likely gearing up for the opportunity to win his fifth IMCA Super Nationals title in Boone. Boeckman now has three feature wins on the season including this past Sunday night on the short track at Raceway Park in Jefferson, South Dakota, and then on Monday night at the big half-mile in Webster City.

On a typical Friday night you will find more than twenty IMCA Modifieds at both the Fairmont Raceway in south central Minnesota and at the Hancock County Speedway in the north central Iowa town of Britt. So where do they all go on Saturday night?? Jackson, Minnesota, doesn't even run the division any more and the Algona Raceway, which essentially sits between those two Friday night tracks, has struggled all season to even have ten Modifieds. This past Saturday night, Algona could only muster five Mods. What makes this even more of a mystery to me is that both Britt and Algona are promoted by the hard working Joe Ringsdorf. It has been thirteen years since I have been up that way, but the drivers seemed to like the place back then so I wonder what has changed.

One track that I want to make a return visit to soon is the Clarke County Speedway in Osceola. I had the honor of announcing the first-ever event at the track that Tim Nelson essentially carved out of the back forty behind his car dealership and I have watched with interest as the facility has grown over the last couple of years. They run every other Saturday night and this past weekend there were 17 Hobby Stocks, 12 B-Mods and 23 Micro Sprints in action along with a couple of other divisions with less than ten competitors. I have really grown to like the Micros since my visit to Port City Raceway last summer and so a trip over to Osceola is on my "to do list".

On my immediate "to do list" though is my favorite ten nights of the season beginning tonight with the opening night of the Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals. Hope to see you there!

Video Killed The Radio Star

Remember when Music Television, better known as MTV kicked off with this song and changed how we listed to music?

Today I was paying my weekly visit to The Hlog, written by Cedar Rapids Gazette Sports guru Mike Hlas and saw this entry on how the Iowa Hawkeye football program is, for the first time in memory, struggling to sell out games as the 2014 season nears. Looks like more and more people are coming to the same conclusion that I did six years ago.

While I still feel that next day video on the net along with Pay Per View is more of a threat to short track racing than most will acknowledge, I must say that I am considering adding a year's subscription to XSAN to my wish list for Christmas. I guess spending a race night in a booth with Barry Brauns and seeing his passion for racing softened me a bit.

That being said I got a kick out of the whining going on about the prices that will need to be paid in order to watch the Knoxville Nationals live on the internet. Frankly my opinion is that the cost to watch an event live on the internet should always be equal to, or higher than the cost of buying the ticket to actually be there.

This is kind of cheesy, but cute.

Stay tuned, it looks like we will have a new blogger who is based out of the Quad Cities added to the Positively Racing crew soon.....

The Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals takes the green tomorrow night (Thursday) at the Knoxville Raceway. Hope to see you there!

Updates: All Iowa Points and All Missouri Points

This weather is absolutely spectacular and I hope that it holds out for the next eleven days as I am geared up for two Knoxville National events sandwiched around an Open Late Model Shootout at West Liberty.

For today though let's take a quick look at the current All Iowa Points standings heading into August and, if you click on the link for each division, it will take you to the complete rundown.

The Late Model division is a two-horse race again between the two drivers who finished at the top of the standings in 2013 as well. And, with two of Todd Cooney's regular tracks (Des Moines and Webster City) wrapping up their seasons soon, it looks as though Justin Kay will go on to win his second straight title.

It is also a two man show in the Modified division where Chris Abelson leads Jesse Sobbing. The interesting thing here though is that these two guys often race against each other and that will continue on through the end of the season. Lately Abelson has prevailed more often than not in those head to head battles and that is why he now leads looking for his first AIP title. If Sobbing can come back it will be his second straight Modified championship and fifth straight AIP championship overall having won the Limited Modified race in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

At least six drivers still have a shot at winning the Limited Modified championship with Dubuque's Austin Moyer leading the way right now. Clint Luellen is just four points back while Tony Dunker and Brett Lowry have also already topped the century mark. Defending champion Carter Vandenberg ranks ninth and unless he catches fire over the final three months we will have a first-time champion in this division.

Just a few weeks ago the Stock Car division was completely up for grabs, but that was before Damon Murty went on a tear. The defending All Iowa Points champion has not only picked up the pace at his weekly tracks, but he has also hit the road to take wins at fair races in Dubuque and Columbus Junction. The only thing that could stop him from making it two straight now would his farming that always takes precedence and usually shuts him down at the end of September while others can still accumulate points through the final Saturday in October.

Dustin Griffiths is looking for his first All Iowa Points championship in the Hobby Stock division, but he will need to earn it over the final three months as he is being chased by three-time champ Shannon Anderson. Benji Irvine and Cody Nielsen also remain within striking distance.

Austen Becerra owns a 35-point cushion over Nate Coopman in the Four Cylinder class and as long as he keeps racing in the division past the end of weekly racing and into the Specials season, the young driver from western Illinois should earn his first All Iowa Points title. Becerra recently hot lapped an IMCA Stock Car at the Quincy Raceways.

Dan Keltner holds a solid advantage over Charlie Brown in the Mod Lite division, a class that due to some tracks running with less than five cars, may join the Four Cylinders by using the graduated point scale based upon car counts in 2015.

In the three Sprint Car divisions, Ian Madsen could become the first Aussie to win an All Iowa Points championship if he can hold back eleven-time 410 champion Terry McCarl. This week's Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals could go a long way in determining the AIP champion in the division where Gregg Bakker and Jon Agan are currently tied for the lead with Justin Henderson, Jack Dover and Russ Hall lurking close behind. And in the 305's, Clint Benson seems poised to earn his first AIP championship.

The All Iowa Points chase us currently scheduled to wrap up with the October 25th running of "Shiverfest" at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson.

And for you fans down in the "Show Me" state, here are the top ranked drivers in the current All Missouri Points.

		Missouri Points
		Late Model
Pos.		Driver	Hometown	Points
1	.	Dwight Niehoff	Lockwood	39
2	.	Tim Manville	Highland IL	38
3	.	Randy Korte	Highland IL	36
4	.	Vance Wilson	Bowling Green	36
5	.	Terry Phillips	Springfield	32
6	.	Jake Williams	Lockwood	31
7	.	Payton Looney	Republic	30
8	.	Jon Binning	Warrensburg	27
9	.	Kenny Mudd	Winfield	24
10	.	Gage Wineland	Syracuse	23
11	.	Justin Asplin	Birch Tree	23
12	.	J.D. Hubert	Cross Timbers	22
13	.	Zeke Langley	Ashland	21
14	.	Shane Essary	Galena	20
15	.	Jon Melloway	Hallsville	17
16	.	Darrell Mooneyham	Aurora	16
17	.	Tony Jackson Jr.	Lebanon	16
18	.	Chris Cox	Jefferson City	15
19	.	Tommy Cordray	Browning	15
20	.	Bobby Pierce	Oakwood IL	14
21	.	Michael Kloos	Trenton IL	14

		Missouri Points
		Winged Sprints (410 & 360)
Pos.		Driver	Hometown	Points
1	.	Jonathan Cornell	Sedalia	69
2	.	Tommy Worley Jr.	Bismarck	43
3	.	Kyle Bellm	Nixa	36
4	.	Joey Montgomery	Fredericktown	31
5	.	A.J. Bruns	Lincoln IL	21
6	.	Randy Martin	California	20
7	.	Tyler Blank	California	19
8	.	Jason Johnson	Eunice LA	18
9	.	Josh Fisher	Smithton	17
10	.	Joey Boyd	Farmington	13
11	.	Kent Buckley		13
12	.	Mitchell Moore	Edgerton KS	11
13	.	Jay Russell	Elwood KS	10
14	.	Joe B. Miller	Springfield IL	10
15	.	Cody Baker	Lone Jack	9
16	.	Sean McClelland	Tulsa OK	9
17	.	Tayor Walton	Warrensburg	9
18	.	Danny Lasoski	Dover	8
19	.	Evan Martin	California	8
20	.	Jerrod Hull	Sikeston	7
21	.	Jimmy Hurley	Springfield IL	7
22	.	Kasey Burch	Farmington	7
23	.	Keith Burch	Farmington	7
24	.	Kory Bales		7

		Missouri Points
		Modified
Pos.		Driver	Hometown	Points
1	.	Mitch Keeter	Webb City	81
2	.	Jason Russell	Henley	58
3	.	Terry Schultz	Sedalia	58
4	.	Dennis Elliott	Mount Ayr IA	48
5	.	Zach Sanders	Kearney	47
6	.	Matt Dotson	Hallsville	44
7	.	Jim Moody	Odessa	41
8	.	Jody Tillman	West Branson	40
9	.	Jackie Dalton	Carthage	39
10	.	Jamie Daughetee		39
11	.	Bobby Pearish	Joplin	38
12	.	Rusty Griffaw	Festus	38
13	.	Steve Muilenberg	Sparta	38
14	.	Michael Long	Quincy IL	35
15	.	Nick Ivy		34
16	.	Brian Green	Pierce City	33
17	.	Matt Eaton	Park Hills	33
18	.	Tim Setzer	Archie	31
19	.	Gunner Martin	Blue Springs	30
20	.	Brent Thompson	Park Hills	29

		Missouri Points
		Limited Modifieds
Pos.		Driver	Hometown	Points
1	.	Kris Jackson	Lebanon	80
2	.	J.C. Morton	Springfield	59
3	.	Chad Clancy	Smithville	58
4	.	Trevor Drake	Webb City	55
5	.	Rex Merritt	Billings	52
6	.	Andy Bryant	Fort Scott KS	50
7	.	Brad Smith	Belton	47
8	.	Logan Martin	West Plains	45
9	.	Kyle Stolzer	St. Genevieve	43
10	.	Chad Staus	Otterville	38
11	.	Jacob Ebert	Oak Grove	38
12	.	Dean Wille	Warrensburg	37
13	.	Matthew Rose	Liberal	37
14	.	Jason Brigman	West Plains	35
15	.	Jim Cameron	Cameron	34
16	.	Ryan Middaugh	Fulton	33
17	.	Ryan Edde	Urbana	32
18	.	Chad Lebsock	Centralia	31
19	.	Toby Thompson	Mountain Grove	31
20	.	Bobby Williams	Pittsburg	30

Thursday Notebook: July 24, 2014

There are a bunch of special events and Fair races going on tonight and while I cannot make it to any of them due to other commitments, I hope that you can and that Mother Nature treats each of them well.

Another week and another blogger trying to find one general reason for "what is wrong with racing". I admit it, I am just as guilty as I have done my fair share of the same thing as you will see if you work your way back through the Back Stretch archives. This particular missive goes for something that is plainly obvious, racing is expensive, using the old argument that the races of today pay essentially the same as they did decades ago. The difference with this one is that the writer is specifically talking about "big time" Late Model specials and so he does have some valid points. Those who want to use the "it pays the same now as it did in 1974 argument" for weekly racing are only looking at what the winner's share of the purse was. Due to better paybacks, including tow money, plus the proliferation of classes from one or two, to five, six or seven, today's "total" weekly purses are likely five times higher than they were in the "good old days" and I have written about that in more detail somewhere along the line. If I find it, I will link you back to it again.

Two things stuck out to me though as I read this article. One is that I feel that he is being a bit hard on promoters acting as though they are stuck in the past and not looking to bring new sponsors into the sport. "Sponsors are leaving NASCAR because it has become too expensive for them. Why isn’t someone from our sport going after them?" A couple of specific examples would have been nice, but my first thought was that if a sponsor that had been spending money in NASCAR and getting that type of exposure including live television and a nationwide audience would likely be a tough sell even for a national dirt late model series that draws what, four or five thousand people a race and really doesn't travel across the entire country. I think that dirt racing almost needs to look in the opposite direction taking that little business that is on the rise and showing them how our sport can help facilitate the process. Who will be the next Casey's General Stores? A sponsor that has continued to increase its support of our sport and one that we race fans in return, can also support their growth.

Call me repetitive, but the one line that I enjoyed the most though was this one. "I didn’t include heats because I can count on one hand the number of passes I’ve seen in heats in the last 4 years". I wonder why?

The author, 4m.net member ShawnStreet, concludes with "Creativity, or lack thereof, is killing our sport." Personally, I am waiting for a Dirt Late Model series to spring up that qualifies and then handicaps the starts to PROMOTE racing and even tie in the purse structure to how many cars a driver passed during the night. For example, win from the front row and you get $5,000, but win from the fifth row on back and you get $10,000. Perhaps I need to go find one of those sponsors leaving NASCAR and see how creative I can be?

The final stats on the 2014 UMP Summer Nationals. Of the twenty-eight races completed, twenty were won from the front row, seven from the second row and one from the third row. The 2014 Hell Tour champion Shannon Babb was the driver who made that stellar fifth to front run at the Farley Speedway after race-long leader, and front row starter, Billy Moyer blew a tire with nine laps remaining. I was there in person at three of the events and I watched the rest of them on video and I will say that some of those races where the winner started on the front row were still pretty darn good, especially the one at 34 Raceway where eventual winner Billy Moyer started on the pole, but slipped back to fourth on the opening lap. You do have to admit though that it is an interesting stat that 27 of 28 of the events were won by a driver who also won a heat race and, keep in mind, that the heat races were lined straight up by qualifying times. How do these stats compare to the other touring Late Model series? I don't know, but perhaps this Fall and Winter I will take the time to research as it will be need for my sponsorship proposal.

The argument from a week or two ago stating that negativity on the internet will eventually kill our sport at first got a lot of support on forums and through "shares" on Facebook before the tide slowly turned and several people started to say that it was essentially a bunch of bull****. If you clicked on the link that I just provided you will see that I too was a bit skeptical of how committed to this attitude the anonymous writer was going to be after revealing the attitude that he or she had toward promoters, race officials and the other drivers. I'll say it again, the internet is not the problem, it is only the facilitator for people who cannot take the time to consider the entire situation.

I have been amused though to watch just who is striking back at the theory that negativity on the internet is damaging the sport. You guessed it, the same people who have consistently used forums and Facebook to piss, moan and generally complain about some injustice that they feel had been done to them. Surprise, surprise.....

In my story from Knoxville on Saturday night I closed it out with something that one of the track's two new announcers said that was completely opposite of what has been done in the past. What I failed to do was to also provide some support to the two young men who are now handling the announcing duties at the famed Sprint Car facility, Kris Krug and Kyle Luetters. Being a new announcer at Knoxville is no easy task no matter how much experience you bring to the table and, when your partner is also "new" to the speedway, that just puts the spotlight on you even brighter. The last time this scenario played out at Knoxville was in 1998 when this ol' "taxi cab" announcer was paired up with Tony Bokhoven who had moved from pitside to the booth that year. We were no Jack Herwehe and Tim Trier, nor did we ever feel that we could be, and thank goodness there was no social media in those days where people could openly complain about our learning process. Kris and Kyle, keep up the good work and develop your own style, you are doing just fine! Just please don't ask people to stand up at the start of a race again. :)

How about that Truck Race at Eldora last night? Three and four-wide action, slidejobs, wall banging, on the track lead changes, what more could you want? As I was watching this though I had to wonder, how do the people who normally watch the trucks race feel about this? Are we just dirt track fans that are taking pride in the action that the surface can provide, or did the folks who like the standard pavement racing enjoy it as well? The drivers sure seem to love it which makes you wonder if NASCAR will next look into a similar event with perhaps the Nationwide Series?

And did you notice that it was Iowa's own Toby Kruse who handled the pre-race introductions trackside at Eldora? One of the best announcers you will find anywhere Toby does not take to the mic as often as he used to now that he is also a track owner and promoter.

Christopher Bell topped an impressive field of MOWA 410 Winged Sprint Cars as Illinois Sprint Speedweek kicked off in Highland last night. Bell is quickly becoming "the next Kyle Larson" and he just recently filed an entry to run for Rookie-of-the-Year honors at the 2014 FVP Knoxville Nationals presented by Casey's General Stores. A short track phenom who won the World of Outlaws show at the quarter-mile Jacksonville Speedway a month ago, it will be interesting to see how Bell adapts to the big half-mile at Knoxville.

Enjoy your racing weekend and hopefully it starts early tonight! Nothing for me this weekend, but I do believe that a Casey's pizza sounds good right now.....

Knoxville Returns To Action; Henderson, Zomer and Kline In Victory Lane

Having been rained out five of the last seven weeks, drivers and fans alike were excited to return to the Knoxville Raceway Saturday night. And, with perfect weather forecast, and delivered, the pits were full with ninety-seven Sprint Cars across three divisions and a large crowd filed in on 3M night at the speedway. With the two weeks of Nationals quickly approaching several drivers were doing double duty and two of them would find victory lane on the evening while the third winner was hoisting a trophy at Knoxville for the very first time.

Wayne Johnson and Ian Madsen brought the field down for the green in the twenty-lap feature for the 410 division with Johnson racing to the lead. As one of the six drivers who raced in both the 410's and the 360's on the night, Johnson was hoping to improve on his DNF in the 360 main, but his lead was short-lived as Madsen drove by him on lap three. The caution waved on lap seven when Brad Loyet slowed at the top of turn two and on the restart it was Justin Henderson who would now race to second and try to keep pace with the Aussie Madsen. The interval between the top two remained between five to ten car lengths until lap fifteen when lapped traffic became a consideration. Madsen handled it well but when he would have to change from his preferred line it gave Henderson the opening that he was looking for and when the white flag waved you had a new leader. Madsen tried to find his way back to the front on the final lap, but it was not to be as Justin Henderson recorded his sixth career feature win at the Knoxville Raceway. Madsen was second, Johnson took third, Dusty Zomer wrapped up a solid night for him in fourth, more on that in a moment, and Brian Brown made a bold move in turn three on the final lap to steal away the fifth spot from Sammy Swindell. Clint Garner, Terry McCarl, Davey Heskin and Craig Dollansky completed the top ten.

Calvin Landis would set the pace for the opening laps of the 18-lap main event for the 360's before yielding to Dusty Zomer on lap three. Zomer then quickly opened up a full straightaway lead before the race was slowed on lap six for debris off of Sawyer Phillips' car in turn one. Once back to green Zomer again put some good distance on the field and he would have no problem cruising to the feature win. The battle for second was a good one though that saw Justin Henderson nip Landis at the finish line by a fraction of a second. Jamie Ball posted a solid fourth-place showing ahead of the veteran Jeff Swindell, Joe Beaver was sixth followed by Lee Grosz, Russ Hall. Jarrod Schneiderman and Jason Johnson.

Devin Kline is in his first season of wheeling a 305 cubic inch winged sprint car as part of the Larry Ball Jr. led team and he looked nothing at all like a rookie when he pulled away from the field at the drop of the green for the fifteen-lap main event. With a full field on hand for the division the traffic was thick and while Kline handled it nicely, it still allowed for veteran driver J Kinder to quickly close the gap and with just five laps remaining Kinder went storming past for the lead. Most drivers, let alone a rookie, would have been done at that point, but Kline used the traffic to his advantage to regain the lead on the following lap and he then held on over the final four circuits around the legendary half-mile to score his first career feature win. Veterans Kinder and Steve Breazeale would settle for second and third on this night while the native Hawaiian Keoni Texeira was fourth. Kevin Hetrick picked up fifth-place money ahead of Stacey Alexander and Jeff Wilke while Mitchell Alexander, Kade Higday and Mike Philbin completed the top ten.

Knoxville Knotes......35 410's, 34 360's and 28 305's made up the 97-car field and, at least as far as my memory serves, that is as many as has been seen here since the track went to three divisions for the weekly program......It was also the first time that I could remember that a B-Main was needed for the 305 division. There have been nights where the class has drawn more than 24 cars, but attrition during prelims would trim the field to the point where the last chance qualifier would not be needed...... Besides Henderson, Zomer and Wayne Johnson, the other double-duty drivers were Jamie Ball, Bronson Maeschen and Jason Johnson...... Sammy Swindell has stepped away from the World of Outlaws schedule to focus on Knoxville and after setting quick time he dropped to seventh on the first lap of his heat race, then came back to take the fifth and final transfer spot. Sammy then started eighth in the feature and he was running fifth until the final set of turns when Brian Brown slipped under him on the bottom of turn three.....Rico Abreu was also looking to get some more Knoxville experience tonight and after failing to transfer from his heat, Abreu was the final transfer out of the B-Main putting him at the back of the 24-car feature field. Rico made some big progress early but then settled into a 14th-place finish......Young Harli White of Lindsay, Oklahoma, made her first-ever appearance at the Knoxville Raceway in the 360 division and if you are not familiar with her story, or if you just want to hear it again, check out this ESPN feature. Harli timed in 25th out of 34 cars and then  failed to transfer from her heat race. In the B-Main though she started fifth, moved to fourth and then held on to the checkers to earn the final transfer to the main event where she then got several laps of experience finishing 21st. I wouldn't be surprised to see her back in two weeks for the Arnold Motor Supply Knoxville 360 Nationals.....California driver Chase Johnson was impressive in his first Knoxville appearance finishing twelfth in the 360 main event......Odessa, Texas, driver Josh Baughman won the third 360 heat in fine fashion and then ran 20th in the feature......305 fast qualifier Matthew Stelzer had motor issues in his heat race that then scratched him for the rest of the night.....Nobody was more frustrated than infield announcer extraordinaire Mike Roberts when the PA system went down just before Devin Kline pulled into victory lane. It would have been great to hear Kline's immediate reaction to scoring his first win so early in his rookie season, but his joy could still be heard twenty minutes later when Roberts interviewed him while Dusty Zomer scrambled to strap into his 410 car after celebrating his win in the 360 division.....I was dumbfounded when just as the 410 feature field entered turn three looking for the green, one of the new Knoxville announcers encouraged the fans to get up onto their feet for the start of the main event. I hope that it was just because they had missed the parade lap while completing the feature lineup, but if not somebody needs to let them in on a tradition at the Knoxville Raceway that goes back to at least as far as legendary announcer Jack Miller. Miller could generate excitement from the crowd better than anyone else, but he always took a moment just before the feature would start to remind everybody that "when everybody sits, everybody sees" and when I first heard those words at age thirteen I really appreciated it because I was well short of the six foot three inches that I finally grew to. All of the announcers who have followed him, Tim Trier, Jack Herwehe, myself, Tony Bokhoven, Justin Zoch, Blake Anderson and others, have kept that tradition alive here because it is absolutely true. When everybody sits, everybody sees, including the kids who are so vital to the future of this sport. This is not NASCAR, this is Knoxville, where you do not have to create the illusion of excitement by having the fans stand up. The excitement starts with the drop of Doug Clark's green flag and everybody should have the opportunity to be able to see it!

Get out to the track of your choice soon and we will see you on the Back Stretch.