The news that Dale Earnhardt Jr. plans to retire at the end of the 2017 season should come as no surprise to NASCAR fans. Frankly I was surprised that he didn't retire during this past off season after sitting out the final events of the year due to symptoms from multiple concussions and even though he came back to try to win a Cup championship, it does not look like that is going to happen. Hopefully he can win a race or two before hanging up his helmet, but most of all I don't want to see him take any hard hits. Junior is a great personality and will continue to generate revenue away from the track in retirement.
The big question now is what will this do to NASCAR to lose its most popular driver? Will Junior Nation continue to come to the track in 2018, or will they stay at home and maybe watch it on television instead? NASCAR will likely see a bump in attendance for the remainder of this year as fans will want one more chance to cheer on Earnhardt, but after that the bottom just might fall out.
The announcement that the World Racing Group is punishing the LaSalle Speedway and promoter Tony Izzo Jr. for allowing the Best Motorsports Team to compete in a DirtCar sanctioned event during the Thaw Brawl while still under suspension for "tiregate" was more of a shocker to me. The track has long been UMP sanctioned, but the tone of this press release indicates that this will never happen again as apparently WRG had warned Izzo about allowing Josh Richards to compete even though the claim was that the Best Motorsports Team had "sold everything out" to another team prior to the event. The track actually posted a picture of the hauler on Facebook the day of the race with the comment "Josh Richards and the Best Performance Motorsports team pulling in!" Richards went on to win the MARS/ALMS sanctioned event, two regional series under the wing of World Racing Group, on Friday night while Saturday's finale was cancelled due to cold and rainy conditions.
Okay, so first of all MARS is in the news again in a manner that can't be good for them, and the punishment to Izzo is significant in that the opening weekend doubleheader for the UMP Summer Nationals "will move to an alternate facility". Recall that this is the weekend that has previously been held at the Cedar Lake Speedway in Wisconsin, but was moved to LaSalle when Cedar Lake decided to run a $50,000-to-win Modified event instead. It will be interesting to see what alternate facility will be willing to step up at this late date to take this weekend as not only does it come at the normal financial risk of running any event, but the track could also suffer a backlash of drivers and fans who are in support of Izzo in this situation. His Sixteens Race Promotions was also going to have the June 29th Summer Nationals date at the Sycamore Speedway and even though it is not specified in the press release one would have to think that it will be taken away from Izzo as well.
LaSalle's next event is a Thursday, May 18th Lucas Oil Late Model Series event and then Izzo is the promoter the following night as the Lucas Series moves to the Luxemburg Speedway in Wisconsin. The IMCA One Night Stand event has grown significantly at LaSalle the past couple of years so perhaps you will see a couple of more IMCA shows on the schedule there going forward, or you never know, this all might get resolved with no actual date changes taking place. It will be interesting to follow though! As of this writing the Summer Nationals schedule at the UMP website does not show any changes.
The promoter of the Gateway Dirt Nationals, Cody Sommer, was seriously injured when the steering column on his pickup truck broke and he struck the wall while packing the track at the Mansfield Speedway in Ohio Sunday night. The truck was reportedly going around 50 mph at the time of the incident and rolled several times after hitting the wall. Fortunately Sommer and a passenger were both wearing seat belts and both were transported to a nearby hospital.
IMCA Racing today shared a picture of Lance Borgman, the Sport Mod feature winner last Saturday night at the Eagle Raceway. Borgman is holding one of those big winner's checks for the photo and it is in the amount of $250. This of course has prompted several comments of how bad the purse is, that the track should be boycotted and one comment that says "probably why his face says "your kidding right"".Here's the interesting thing to me though, Borgman was the best of a 52 car field in the weekly show. That's right, I didn't mis-type it, five-two, fifty-two Sport Mods signed in and Lance Borgman knew going in that the feature paid $250 to win. How do I know that? Well for one he has raced there and won at Eagle often in the Sport Mod class the past couple of years after a solid career in the Stock Cars and, two, it is very easy for anybody to know what the weekly purse is at Eagle because it is easily found on their website.
I wonder if those who are commenting realize that Eagle Raceway currently boasts one of the most successful weekly racing programs in the country with full fields requiring a B-Main in all five divisions and, this past Saturday night, even a C-Main in the Sport Mods. Yes, the track sits smack dab between the two largest cities in Nebraska, Lincoln and Omaha, but there are plenty of other tracks across this country that are in or near large population bases that do not even come close to these types of car counts. And in fact, some are struggling just to stay open with (as a completely made up but fairly accurate comparison) ten in this class, eight in another, five in this one and twelve in their most economical class. So why is Eagle so successful? Well, I for one believe that the purse structure has something to do with it, so here the link once again, pull it up and let's explore.
While some of you might not agree, or more likely don't want to hear this, the Sport Mod class was developed to be a support class, an opportunity for drivers to get some experience or "seat time" for them to then move on to the Modifieds or some other "higher" division. It could also serve as a good fit for a driver who is on a tight budget to go out and have some fun every Saturday night as well and with $250-to-win and $50-to-start this purse seems to support those intentions. So why do 52 drivers show up for that kind of purse? Does the purse itself actually encourage competition?
The other item that I want you to look at is the Modified purse. That's right, it only pays $400-to-win and the only reason that there aren't a bunch of people making smartass comments on that one is because IMCA Racing screwed up and put Borgman's picture on that post as well instead of Modified winner Clint Homan holding his check. But did you look at the full payout? It pays $150 just to start the Modified A-Main for a weekly show at Eagle, that is more than some special events that offer up four figures to the winner! There were 28 IMCA Modifieds in action at Eagle Saturday night, so bitch all you want Facebook jockeys, the formula is working and perhaps it is time that some other tracks do the same. Yes, I have seen tracks who have Modified car counts under ten guarantee $100-to-start without much success, but this just can't be a temporary thing it has to be a commitment and it won't just "magically" work overnight.
If a track were to reduce its Sport Mod purse and increase the Modified purse to what Eagle pays the complaining would be relentless, just check Facebook for examples, but would those more experienced/successful Sport Mod drivers who want to be paid more money move into the Modified class? With those drivers now out of the Sport Mods, would more beginners or low budget racers not only fill the void, but overflow it? Eagle Raceway is one glowing example of a weekly racing purse and how it influences car counts. How is your track doing?
Speaking of Sport Mods, let's shine the light on four drivers who are enjoying some early season success in our area. Colton Livezy won his second feature in a row at the CJ Raceway on Friday night and then followed it up with a win on the half-mile at Eldon on Saturday. With his win at the Quad City Speedway on Sunday night Dustin Schram now has three victories on the young season. On the weekend following the news that he plans to retire at the end of the 2017 season Tony Dunker scored wins on Friday night in Donnellson and Sunday night in Quincy. And of course nobody is as hot in any division as Tyler Soppe is right now as the Sherrill, Iowa, driver won his seventh feature of the young season Sunday night at a seventh different track, the Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway.
After sweeping a weekend doubleheader at the I-80 Speedway two weeks earlier, Canadian Thomas Kennedy won another winged 360 Sprint Car feature at the Park Jefferson Speedway Saturday night.
Craig Dollansky dove Wayne Modjeski's #14AJ car to a ninth-place finish at the IRA Sprint Car show at the Beaver Dam Raceway Saturday night. Bill Balog was the winner.
Eric Bridger was well on the way to his first win ever at the Knoxville Raceway when his 305 engine went up in smoke with just a few laps remaining. Kevin Hetrick, who jumped from the 305's to the 410's for the 2016 season, returned to the 305 class and took the win.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago after Lee County's season opener that Keokuk's Daniel Fellows looked like a driver who would find victory lane in this his first season driving a Sport Compact. It didn't take long as Fellows won on Saturday night in Eldon and again Sunday at Quincy.
I am hoping that the weather cooperates tomorrow so that the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa can kickoff it's 2017 campaign. I will probably need to stay out of the Sport Mod pits :)
After that I have a wedding to attend, so here's hoping that all of you can find a dry place to enjoy some racing action over the coming weekend and thank you for taking a look at the Back Stretch!
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