Stewart Solves Sprint Scuffle, New Yorkers Mis-Trust Meteorologists

The big news of the day is that Tony Stewart has settled the battle between the All Stars and the new Renegade sprint car series before it even started by purchasing both and merging it into one. Obviously this is great news for sprint car fans who were concerned that fields would be split with both series not living up to their potential due to the direct competition. For me though this announcement goes even deeper and shows that Stewart has not allowed the tragedy of last August to make him pull away from his love for dirt track racing. And that is a good thing for all of us.....Sprint Car, Late Model, Modifieds, Street Stocks, Midgets....race fans.

The newly merged All Star schedule will be released in "the coming days" and it will be interesting to see if the Wednesday July 29th date at the West Liberty Raceway remains.

Since it was east of our common coverage area I had not really paid that close of attention to the emergence of the Renegade Series so for a much more informed "take" on Stewart's purchase of the series I refer you to Positively Racing's Eric Arnold and T.J. Buffenbarger who is better known as T.J. Slideways.

As further evidence that our society is going insane, many New Yorkers are upset with meterologists after predictions that as much as 24 to 36 inches could fall on the city came up short. Only eight inches of snow actually fell and that made millions mad. "Only" eight inches of snow? That still seems pretty significant to me and it wasn't like the storm didn't happen as predicted, it just happened up the road a bit in Connecticut and Massachusetts. So they missed it a bit, big deal!! I might understand some grumbling if eight inches were predicted and 24 inches fell, but this is ridiculous.

Doesn't it give you some kind of inner peace to know that despite all of our advancements in science and technology that we still have difficulties predicting the weather more than just a few hours out? Ah Mother Nature, how we love you, yet curse you......

Don't look now but meteorologists are saying that we could get a significant snowfall in our area this weekend. He's not perfect, nor do I ever expect him to be, but Terry Swails is my "go to" guy. (Note: As I went to create the link I see that even Terry, an admitted snow lover, is disappointed in how the new models have taken the snowfall out of the forecast. See how quickly things can change?)

In yesterday's entry I talked about how drivers from both Bloomfield and Tipton should have no trouble finding reasonable alternatives to compete at weekly in 2015 and almost as if on cue promoter Mike Van Genderen today announced a "Tow Card" incentive for both Oskaloosa and Donnellson.

A few days earlier the Darkside announced that they would be admitting the drivers in both the IMCA Hobby Stocks and the 4-Stocks into the pits at the Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa for free the entire season. It is kind of sad, although likely needed, that they had to qualify the announcement by saying "before any other drivers complain about this".

There is definitely some promoting going on here in the offseason and that is a good thing.

A New Venue For WAR and More On Bloomfield and Tipton

Last August Troy Harrison wrote a great tribute to Sammy Swindell after he announced his retirement and the freelance writer out of Kansas has done it again with his summary of Jeff Gordon's impact on our sport. Take a few minutes and give it a read.

I sent another schedule update to the Webmistress today as the 2015 slate for the Wingless Auto Racing or WAR Sprint Cars was released and as I scanned through this one I came across a name of a track that I did not recognize. There are five race dates scheduled for the U.S. 50 Motorsports Park in Warrensburg, Missouri, and since they were each on a Saturday night I wondered if the Central Missouri Speedway in Warrensburg had changed its name. A check of the CMS website disproved that theory so I did a Google search on the U.S. 50 Motorsports Park and after funneling through their Facebook page I ended up here.

The History page states the following:

"Formerly known as Lasoski Speedway this track has been around for 15 years as a national level go kart facility. In 2015 the track is headed towards a huge expansion including widening the track and adding a catch fence. US 50 Motorsports Park will be home to Micro Sprint Racing and other forms of open wheel racing in 2015!! We will still offer karting events and 4 wheeler racing, including series races such as the MoKan series, MWEDT and other traveling tours."

Looking at the four pictures of the facility it looks like a nice go kart track that is going to require a LOT of upgrades, especially in regard to safety, in order to host full blown non-wing sprint cars! There is no guardrail or fence between the edge of the track and what appears to be the judges stand, only some tires to stop any stray karts headed for the building. There also does not appear to be any grandstand seating so it will be interesting to see if the planned expansion does yield a facility that is capable of hosting non-wing sprint cars in time for WAR's first appearance there on June 13th.

I am always intrigued by the attitudes of some whom, when a track shuts down its weekly operation, act like it should be a no-brainer for somebody else to just step right in and continue to make the "huge money" that comes with promoting a race track. And then, when nobody does, how they feel that it is the end of the world and a complete injustice for the drivers and fans who had supported that track for so long. Get over it people. As I noted yesterday, we live in the best area possible to be a short track race fan and our sport continues to have swings in its popularity. For many years life was good and we could have an overabundance of tracks operating in one region. Life is still pretty good, but there was not enough support to keep two tracks in our region operating weekly so they have scaled back for at least the 2015 campaign. Let's take a look at each.

In 2014 the Bloomfield Speedway ran weekly on Saturday nights and their average car counts by division were as follows:

Stock Cars: 16.7
Sport Mods: 13.9
Sport Compacts: 13.3
Hobby Stocks: 11.3

The track also had four nights where the Modifieds were also on the program and they averaged 7.0 cars in those appearances. These numbers along with the number of tickets sold were obviously not enough to have Chris Eggers signing on for a third year as a promoter and apparently the fair board did not have have a viable proposal for 2015. To their credit though, the board has scheduled four nights of racing at the facility to keep it active in the coming season and, if done right, I would guess that those shows will be quite successful.

So what is the effect on other tracks in the area? Yes, there will be some of those drivers that will sell out or park the car for the upcoming season, but the majority of them will continue to race. Look for some new faces at the Southern Iowa Speedway on Wednesday nights, the Lee County Speedway and CJ Raceway on Friday nights and on Saturday nights you will likely find some of those 2014 Bloomfield Speedway regulars at either Moberly, West Liberty or 34 Raceway. Yes, the tow will be longer, but if you want to race that is the hand that you have been dealt. At least the price of gasoline is nearly half of what it was last year!

We are still waiting to see if the Cedar County Raceway in Tipton schedules more than just the Sprint Invaders show at the 2015 county fair. It would stand to reason that the Friday nights when the Davenport Speedway is off for the Mississippi Valley Fair would be prime dates. Yes, they would still have Farley racing to the north and CJ Raceway to the south, but Tipton is closer to Davenport than either.

It is pretty easy to see why Tipton struggled on the P&L statement when you look at the average car counts from 2014. Their premier class, the one that paid the most money by position, the Modifieds had an impressive average of 18.5 cars per night. The support classes though struggled with 10.9 Sport Mods and 7.5 cars each in the Stock Cars and the Hobby Stocks. And the biggest problem with those kind of numbers is that you are paying out the most money at the top of the purse so it is likely that the last place Hobby Stock driver was taking home more money for his seventh-place finish than was the last place driver in the Modified division.

Once again, so what is the effect on area tracks? This one is perhaps easier to assume than Bloomfield as the Tipton regulars have Friday night options to the north in Farley, the east in Davenport and to the south in Columbus Junction. Heck, for some of the drivers it will be a closer drive to that new option than what they were making to race at Tipton, so again we are not talking about the end of the line for forty-five drivers and their fans!

In both cases the weekly programs at other tracks in the area will get a new shot in the arm and when (if) we get back to the point where the sport is on the upswing once again there will be an opportunity for these two fine tracks to get back in the business of weekly racing. In the meantime though, if you want that to happen, make sure that you mark those few race nights that they run in your 2015 calendar and be sure to attend. And oh yes, this time bring along a friend or two!

Special Events Galore; Poplar Bluff Goes Dormant Again; Pre-Season Top 25 Late Model Ballot

If you are a race fan here in the upper Midwest and you are not yet familiar with the Calendar Page at Positively Racing then now is the time to check it out. Checking the schedules for tracks in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri there are now more than 680 "special events" on the calendar for 2015. Amazing, isn't it? Proving once again that there is no better place to be in the United States if you a race fan who wants to take in a bunch of events each year. And that number is destined to grow well over 700 as there are still 65 tracks in the covered area that have yet to release their schedule for the coming season.

There was actually 66 tracks on that "to do" list for the schedule compiler (me) until today when I came across the following announcement on the Facebook page of the Poplar Bluff Speedway.

"Notice to Racers & Race Fans as of January 24th the Poplar Bluff Speedway has made the decision not to try and reopen for the 2015 season. We greatly appreciate the support that we have had. This saddens us to post this news as we all have a love for racing, we sometimes forget that the track is a business. Many friends was made and most likely some enemies too, but we greatly appreciate everyone that has been there for us at the Speedway. If anything changes or if someone wants to step up an give it a try we will notify you of the changes."

This is not the first time that this track has gone dormant as it actually bounced back to life a few years ago following years of inactivity. Crazy to think that Morgan and I were actually at the first race night ever held at this facility in southeast Missouri.

The track seemed to have found some life picking up cars from both the Malden Speedway and the West Plains Motor Speedway, both of which had shut down completely for 2014, but even with that prime opportunity to stand alone in the region obviously the results were not good enough to remain open. As far as I know Malden is still up for sale while West Plains announced back in December that they will be hosting four special events in 2015 (see calendar page) and perhaps that factored into the decision at Poplar Bluff.

Either way it shows that promoting races is still a struggle even in an area where there isn't four or five tracks within a 100-mile radius of each other competing for drivers and fans. Yet we still have people here in Iowa that just can't seem to understand why a facility like Tipton or Bloomfield cannot maintain a weekly show when there are multiple tracks within a short drive from each that are also racing, some even on the same night! Take a moment and be thankful that both are at least having some races this year. Bloomfield has scheduled four race nights while the Sprint Invaders will run during the fair at Tipton, plus there is the possibility that still more events may be scheduled at the Cedar County quarter-mile.

One of the racing bloggers that I check in on regularly is Ron Meyer's "The Rest Of The Dirt" and he and I have the honor of being a couple of the media members who send in a ballot each week for Dirt On Dirt's Top 25 Driver's Poll. Ron likes to share his ballot with his readers each week and while I will keep mine a little closer to the vest I will jump the gun on him this week and reveal my Preseason Top 25 list. I have provided the links to both Ron and Dirt on Dirt so make sure you check them out sometime.

Position
1	Scott Bloomquist
2	Jimmy Owens
3	Darrell Lanigan
4	Don O'Neal
5	Jonathan Davenport
6	Steve Francis
7	Chris Madden
8	Tim McCreadie
9	Rick Eckert
10	Billy Moyer
11	Josh Richards
12	Bobby Pierce
13	Dale McDowell
14	Mike Marlar
15	Shannon Babb
16	Earl Pearson Jr.
17	Gregg Satterlee
18	Jimmy Mars
19	Eddie Carrier Jr.
20	Casey Roberts
21	Donald McIntosh
22	Shane Clanton
23	Billy Moyer Jr.
24	Jason Feger
25	Rodney Sanders

Weekly Racing to Continue At BVR But Not at Bloomfield

More news on Iowa race tracks and their plans for 2015 are coming out and while the northwest quadrant of the state will be teeming with weekly tracks, there will be one less in the southeast corner.

Lee Meyer will return to promote the Wednesday night program at the Buena Vista Raceway in Alta, just west of Storm Lake. Meyer previously promoted the track from 2002 through 2007 and he will now serve as the manager for the Buena Vista County Fairboard as there are more and more tracks each year that are now operated by the fair with someone serving as the race director/promoter.

This will give drivers a unique opportunity to race five nights a week each week under IMCA sanctioning with Alta on Wednesday, Algona on Thursday, Denison or Spencer on Friday, Harlan or Britt on Saturday and either Raceway Park just across the border from Sioux City, or Mason City on Sunday.

Lots of choices......will there be enough drivers and fans to go around to make them all work? Guess that remains to be seen.

Down this direction, just a couple of days after Tipton announced that there will be no weekly racing there in 2015, the Mountain Dew Bloomfield Speedway issued a press release stating that there will be just four nights of racing scheduled in 2015 including back-to-back race nights during the Davis County Fair.

Promoter Chris Eggers gave it a good shot the past couple of years at Bloomfield running a weekly Saturday night show, but likely the economics just didn't work out for him and the fair board apparently did not have any offers that they wanted to, or could accept from other prospective promoters.

I love the track over at Bloomfield! I just wish that it had a little more seating capacity, but it is what it is and anybody who wants to try promoting the place down the road would need to structure the show to what would. And, and this is always a big "and", the drivers and fans would need to understand why things would not be as "big" as they have been in the past.

If "big" worked, then it would still be happening......

I have already shared one idea of how racing could happen at Bloomfield in this entry from a couple of years ago, and I might even have another concept that I might want to pitch them directly hear in the near future.

The ASCS Warrior Region schedule was released today and it included a Friday September 4th date at the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis. Stay up-to-date on the Special events in our area on the Calendar page at Positively Racing. The webmistress will continue to update the page when time allows.

Thirty years ago in February I was at Speedweeks in Florida and while at East Bay Raceway south of Tampa I saw a thirteen-year-old kid by the name of Jeff Gordon compete in a winged sprint car race. He was nothing spectacular on that night, noteworthy only because of his age, but we all know just how big of an impact he has made on the sport of auto racing. Using dirt, and some pavement open wheel racing to make a name for himself Gordon was a "new breed" of driver when he moved to NASCAR and his success opened the door for other drivers to take that similar path. Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Larson to name a few. 2105 will be Jeff Gordon's last full-time run for the Cup, but he has been careful to not use the word "retire". Either way it is good to see him go out on his own terms and still competing at a high level that he has consistently performed at for more than two decades.

Have a great weekend!

For Today At Least - Net Zero

Near the end of Monday's notebook I mentioned that a post had been made about the rebirth of the Mineral City Speedway in Fort Dodge and now there is confirmation in the form of a press release from The Messenger regarding the new Frontier Sports Park and the newly named Frontier Speedway.

A firm known as TJK Entertainment LLC that was founded by Fort Dodge residents Tim and Kellie Guderian after they won a $220.8 million Powerball jackpot about eight years ago has purchased the property and has some exciting plans for it even above and beyond the racing. I know, I know, the old saying of "you know how to make a small fortune promoting auto racing? Start with a big one" might be going through your head right now, but I have already purchased my Powerball ticket for tonight's drawing worth $208 million and one of the things on my to-do list with the winnings is also to purchase a race track. So hopefully I will have an announcement to make soon as well.

One thing that did jump out at me in that press release was where "Jerome Moulds, the newly hired director of operations and promoter of Frontier Sports Park, said racing there will begin in mid-February and continue throughout the year." Perhaps they plan some snowmobile racing to get things started?

Mineral City Speedway ran just a couple of events before shutting down last year so this is yet another track coming back to weekly life out in that part of the state. Recall that they already gained one with Spencer now running weekly on Fridays, Britt moving to Saturday and Algona shifting to Thursdays.

The news on this side of the state is not so good in regard to weekly racing, at least when it comes to the number of tracks that will be running weekly shows as it will remain to be seen if that quarter of the state can support that many tracks.

Late this afternoon former track promoter Kathy Dlouhy posted the following on the iowastockcars.com forum:

"I am posting this on behalf of The Cedar County Fair Board:

Unfortunately there will not be any weekly racing at Cedar County Raceway in 2015.
We are very sorry for the delay and the late notice but it was unavoidable. We are still working hard to get these issues resolved so we can move forward and possibly have some specials.
We will still have the Sprint Invaders at the fair on July 10th as planned. I will keep everyone informed of any news on specials.
This was one of the hardest posts I’ve ever made; it is truly a sad day for racing…"

Yes, it is a sad day for those drivers and fans who have been supporting the track in Tipton, but the problem is that there just has not been enough of either over the past few years to keep the track up and running weekly. There are still opportunities (see final paragraphs of this link) to have racing at the track that I have enjoyed several great nights of action at over the years, but for now weekly racing is just not feasible.

Things can change though, you just never know. Somebody in town might win $208 million tonight......

Monday Notebook: January 19, 2015

Rico Abreu held off four-time winner Kevin Swindell to score his first Golden Driller as the champion of the Chili Bowl in Tulsa, Oklahoma Saturday night. With more than 330 drivers in competition, the most ever for the storied indoor midget race, it is another impressive accomplishment for the up and coming driver from California who, along with his winning driving style, is quite unique. Several have suggested that the 4' 4" Abreu is on the fast track to a NASCAR ride and can you imagine the marketing possibilities should that come to fruition? First though I would love to see him continue to rise in the ranks of open wheel racing, perhaps following up his 2014 USAC Midget National Championship with a run at Rookie-of-the-Year honors with the World of Outlaws. One thing is for sure though, if he does make it to the Cup ranks it could end up being a story made for Hollywood as it was just six years ago that Rico caught the racing bug driving go-karts against another teenage rising star from California, Kyle Larson.

The Wild West Shootout drew to a close last evening with six events over nine days in near perfect weather down in Tucson. I have made several trips to Florida for SpeedWeeks over the years and while I did not make the trip to Tucson this year, I have been there for at least a portion of the series the last two. In Florida the weather is more of a crap shoot both in regard to temperatures and precipitation while in Arizona, yes it did get a bit chilly on me one night two years ago, but rain is seldom if ever an issue. And the track is very racey, proven once again by the video summaries of each of the six races on Dirt of Dirt.

Darrell Lanigan won the opener and then followed up with a win in the fourth race driving the Childress Racing #F5, but his Shootout ended early when he suffered a broken thumb in an accident on Thursday night. Lanigan will now have about three weeks to heel up a bit before his defense of the World of Outlaws title begins on February 6th at Screven, Georgia.

Missouri's Tony Jackson Jr. and defending USMTS Modified champion Rodney Sanders scored victories in nights number two and three before Jimmy Owens became comfortable in his new seat owned by Bryan Rowland and won the last two races including the $10,00-to-win finale. In that last event New Mexico's Garrett Alberson was the early leader before his engine grenaded handing the lead over to Iowa's Chris Simpson. Owens drover around Simpson mid-race, but Chris stayed within striking distance and appeared to have the runner-finish secured until a late caution for Jason Krohn slowed the field. Jimmy Mars took advantage of the restart and snared second away from Simpson who had his best showing of the series finishing third.

Lanigan looked to have the $2,000 Keyser Manufacturing point championship all but locked up before his injury, but in his absence it was Sanders who claimed that bonus ahead of California driver Jason Papich who has shown great improvement after spending 2014 on the Lucas Oil Late Model Series.

Super Late Model racing now takes a break before Speedweeks kicks off in Georgia on February 5th, but for a look at how the Back Stretch Dirt Late Model standings look after the January events, see below. Points are awarded for each event, weekly races and specials, with the point-scale determined by the winner's purse. And, if you really want to see the names of a bunch of Late Model drivers, check out the final points from 2014.

Brookfield, Missouri's Hunter Marriott won the $1,250 in the second night of action at Arizona Speedway's Snowbird Classic for IMCA Modifieds. North Dakota's Marlyn Seidler was the winner the first night.

The Tipton saga continues with no confirmed news despite the fact that some not so anonymous forum board posters seem to think that everybody needs to know exactly what is going to happen here at least three months before anybody would be thinking about having the first race there for 2015. As if there are no other tracks that a driver could go to if he just went ahead and prepared a car for the upcoming season......

No news out of Bloomfield, but I did see that a gentleman indicated that the track in Fort Dodge may return to action this year as Frontier Raceway Park. Remember how I have said that while it seems like we are losing race tracks from year to year, we are actually net even?

		The "Back Stretch"
		Dirt Late Model Points	Through 1/18
Pos.		Driver	Hometown	Points
1	.	Darrell Lanigan	Union KY	10
2	.	Jimmy Owens	Newport TN	10
3	.	Jimmy Mars	Elk Mound WI	6
4	.	Tony Jackson Jr.	Lebanon MO	6
5	.	Rodney Sanders	Happy TX	5
6	.	Billy Moyer	Batesville AR	4
7	.	Chris Simpson	Marion IA	4
8	.	Donald McIntosh	Dawsonville GA	4
9	.	Jason Papich	Santa Maria CA	4
10	.	Tim Roszell	Coldwater AL	4
11	.	Adam Hensel	Barron WI	3
12	.	Russell Brown Jr.	Valdosta GA	3
13	.	William Thomas	Phenix City AL	3
14	.	Jeremy Faircloth	Swainsboro GA	2
15	.	Riley Hickman	Ooletwah TN	2
16	.	Stormy Scott	Las Cruces NM	2
17	.	Walker Arthur	Forest VA	2
18	.	Chase Junghans	Manhattan KS	1
19	.	Joe Kump	Hollywood FL	1
20	.	Larry Damitz		1
21	.	Stephen Breeding	Isom KY	1

It is sad to say that we still have a long way to go to realize the dream

Monday Notebook: January 12, 2015

I failed to mention in Friday's notebook that I unofficially saw my first racing of 2015 back on Saturday January 3rd when Morgan and I spent about four hours at the Tulsa Expo Raceway for the Tulsa Shootout. We saw several Last Chance events across the several division of Mini or Micro Sprints and left before the official opening ceremonies took place for the feature races on Saturday night.

That was the way that we had planned it as I had driven down to Oklahoma to visit my youngest son after he was unable to come home for Christmas due to his work schedule. Instead of staying Tulsa for the feature races we headed over to Oklahoma City so that I could see his new apartment (he moved to OKC the day after the Knoxville Nationals) and to get a tour of the city that he now calls home.

Don't forget that the headline event for the temporary indoor dirt track in Tulsa begins its five-night run tomorrow with the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals and you can watch all of the qualifying nights live on pay-per-view at the Racin' Boys Network.



I enjoy this time of the year from the standpoint of pulling together the schedules that you can find on the Calendar page at Positively Racing as it builds the excitement for the coming season, but it is definitely an evolving process that promoters and series organizers go through as changes can happen often before we actually get to the start of racing. And of course that is the reason why we have that big disclaimer at the top of the page!

I noted a couple of events that have changed today and the update was sent to the Webmistress for her to upload when she has a moment. First involves the Deery Brothers Summer Series events that were originally on the Davenport Speedway schedule for April 10th and September 26th. The April 10th show will now be the Rebel 5K for IMCA Late Models while the September show moves to Saturday the 12th and will be the All Star Classic. Neither will be a Deery Series event.

The other change that I noted today came with the release of the 2015 schedule for the MOWA Sprint Cars. 34 Raceway in Burlington had the MOWA series running in tandem with the debut event of the National Sprint League on Saturday April 11th, however that event was not listed on the newly released MOWA schedule. When asked on the Facebook page about 34 Raceway the response was that the series would not be at 34 Raceway this year. There is no other event scheduled on April 11th so those drivers can still participate if they choose, but it will not be a MOWA sanctioned event. As of now the 34 Raceway schedule still shows it as a combined MOWA/NSL show.

Aaron Reutzel won his first-ever 410 Sprint Car feature on the final night of the Winter Heat series in Arizona. The Texas driver has been a regular in ASCS 360 competition the past few years and had earned a front row starting spot in each of the first two Winter Heat races before mechanical problems ended his evening. David Gravel, Craig Dollansky, Sam Hafertepe Jr. and Kasey Kahne completed the top five and it was announced that Winter Heat will return to the Cocopah Speedway in January of 2016.

Darrell Lanigan drove the Raymond Childress owned #F5 to victory lane in Saturday's opener of the Wild West Shootout in Tucson ahead of Billy Moyer and Chase Junghans, while Chris Simpson finished in the eighth position. Then on Sunday night it was Missouri's Tony Jackson Jr. driving around the outside of Minnesota's Don Shaw mid-race to take the $5,000 win. Wisconsin's Adam Hensel was second followed by Lanigan, Jimmy Owens and Terry Phillips. Simpson finished sixth. Four more events to come from Tucson on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and you can watch them live at Dirt On Dirt.

It was no surprise that the winner of Sunday's Ice Bowl, Tim Roszell, went flag-to-flag in the traditional January event at the Talladega Short Track in Alabama. It was impressive though to see how dominant he was in doing so as the local driver drove away from the rest of the field as they raced around the low groove of the track that is much better at night and in warmer weather. Trust me, I have seen both! The race did have some last lap drama once again though as Donald McIntosh, the new driver for Blount Motorsports, and Billy Ogle Jr., the old driver for Blount, tangled while racing for third exiting turn four with both of them spinning across the finish line. Riley Hickman was able to slip past them to take third behind defending champion William Thomas while McIntosh was scored fourth and Ogle fifth.

Enjoy the game tonight!

Friday Notebook: January 9, 2015

Happy New Year! Here it is only the ninth day of the year and we already have race results to comment on as well as some big events coming up this weekend. The "off season" has really been minimized over the past few years!

Super Late Models ran for $4,000-to-win on New Years Day at 411 Speedway in Seymour, Tennessee, and not only did a full field of 46 cars show up on a chilly, but a big crowd also bundled up and came out to watch on the biggest day for college football in years. Dawsonville, Georgia, driver Donald McIntosh went flag-to-flag for the win while the racing behind him was pretty entertaining. McIntosh has been racing and winning weekly shows at the Dixie Speedway just north of Atlanta for the past couple of years, but now that he has teamed up with Blount Motorsports you might want to keep his name in mind for more regional and national level shows.

Paul McMahan, Kyle Larson and sixty-year-old Steve Kinser have taken wins on the first three nights of Winter Heat out in Arizona. If you click on the links you will be able to watch highlights from each driver's victory. This is the inaugural event and while the car count in the low thirties may be a little less than some expected, the caliber of talent is definitely solid. It is hard to tell from the videos, but it does look like the stands are a bit sparse so hopefully between those tickets sold and any cut of the pay-per-view fee by SpeedSportTV this event will make enough to return in 2016 and beyond as it is definitely a trip that I would like to make someday. You can watch the final races this weekend on PPV.

The last two Januarys I have made the trip to Tucson for the Wild West Shootout and as I sit here in the frigid cold I am wondering why it is that I am not out there again! Oh yeah, that's right, my lovely bride has convinced me that all of our travel and entertainment budget must be dedicated to our first ever visit to Italy this summer. So instead I will be checking in with Dirt On Dirt beginning on Saturday for this event that draws an interesting mix of both Late Models and Modifieds. Iowans Chris Simpson and Ryan Gustin are slated to compete in the Late Model division as Gustin will try to repeat his success from last year when he captured the $10,000 finale, why Brad Dierks and Jesse Sobbing are on the long list of Modified drivers expected to compete. Dirt on Dirt is offering free video of practice tonight before six nights of pay-per-view action through Sunday the 18th.

For those of you who really want to sit in front of the computer and watch live racing all weekend you can login to SpeedShiftTV beginning at 4:00 p.m. Central today and start watching the Ice Bowl from the Talladega Short Track. Saturday and Sunday's shows are day races so you could watch them during the ay and then switch over to your choice of the Winter Heat Sprint Cars or the Wild West Late Models and Mods that night.

If you are a regular reader of the Back Stretch you may be surprised to see that I am essentially "promoting" live pay-per-view broadcasts as I have stated in the past that I do not believe that these are healthy for our sport. I have noticed that the cost of these PPV's have risen significantly which tells me that the tracks are now getting a fair amount of the revenue from each subscriber and, if they are not, well they are being sold a false bill of goods. However I still cringe at the prospect that we may eventually have races that have only friends and familes in the grandstands while "race fans" sit at home and watch on the computer. How can that happen? The Ice Bowl is a perfect example. For a total of $50 I can watch all thee days in climate conrolled comfort from a comfortable chair. Contrast that to the five times that I have driven from Iowa to Alabama for this event spending money on fuel, hotels and admission to, at times, freeze my butt off while sitting on the concrete block grandstand. Fifty dollars or five hundered dollars. Sure the computer can't beat actually being there, but that $450 difference in expense and the 24 hours of drive time makes the choice pretty obvious and empty grandstands are not good for the sport.

Ducks or Bucks? Who are you picking in Monday night's Championship game? Oregon looked like a machine in the Rose Bowl and made Florida State look like they didn't belong in the "First Four". Wrong! The Seminoles belonged, they just had the misfortune of having to play Oregon first.

Oregon 51 Ohio State 24

(Tuesday morning update....well that went completely different than I expected! This is the reason that I am not a gambling man....)

As an Iowa fan I am seeing more signs that the Ferentz era is nearing an end with the January release of a "depth chart" for 2015. First of all, I don't ever recall that happening before, but more importantly it lists C.J. Beathard as the "starting" quarterback, his job to lose. Two reasons why this makes me shake my head in disgust:

1- After sticking with Jake Rudock through almost all of the previous season this is essentially an admission of stupidity by the entire coaching staff for making that decision game after game, and

2 - It makes it look like the theat to transfer if he didn't get more playing time from Beatherd's father is the reason why this change is being made. This sets a very bad precedent.

Sorry Hawk fans, but I don't think that "Sunshine" is any better than Rudock when it comes to playing quarterback for this team. Yes, Beatherd has a stronger arm and appears to be quicker when on the run, but Rudock to me at least appears to play smarter and is more accurate with his short throws. Both are solid quarterbacks. Neither of them are stars. And neither of them is going to excel while playing for the current coaching staff.

The first game on the 2015 schedule is Illinois State, the team that will play for the FCS championship tomorrow. It will likely be a long season for the Hawkeyes.

While we wait for the 2015 plans at two tracks that ran weekly here in eastern Iowa last year, and may not this year, race fans in northwest Iowa not only ave another weekly track, but they have a new race night as well. Now known as the Kossuth County Speedway, the track in Algona will now run weekly on Thursday nights with IMCA sanctioning. This comes after long time promoter Joe Ringsdorf moved Britt to Saturdays and announced that he will bring weekly racing to the Clay County Fairgrounds in Spencer on Friday nights.

That's all for now, enjoy your weekend!