The Case for (and against) Dirt Racing in NASCAR 

2slap vids in one week, we have truly been blessed

As an Aussie I am very much for the dirt racing in NASCAR, Australia is one of the only places outside of the US to have high-level dirt track racing (we call it Speedway) and it rocks. Tickford Racing made a video a few years back where they took their Ford Mustang V8 Supercar to a dirt track and let Cam Waters slide it around, it was sick, and NASCAR racing on dirt is basically that whole concept as a full event.

I encourage everyone here to attend a national level dirt racing tour event. Incredible to watch in person.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the "Prelude to the Dream" at Eldora. They use to have several cup drivers and legends race a big money exhibition race. Not only that but the teams would have the Late Models wrapped to represent the racer too. Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Red Farmer, John Force, Kyle Busch, and I can't remember the others. It was a really really cool event.

I'd rather flo racing continue to grow, get their prices down and bring real dirt racing to the masses. 410 sprint car racing is amazing right now

Since they went ahead and repaved North Wilkesboro anyways, I feel like NASCAR missed out on a unique piece of history by not putting dirt on the track and running the All-star race on dirt for it's 75th anniversary at the track that was originally BORN a dirt track. 😢

Flo racing and dirtvision is the way to go if you want to watch dirt track racing. Sprint cars and super late models put heavy stock cars on dirt to shame.

I've been an avid race fan literally my entire life. I grew up going to a small dirt track an hour south of Kansas City. I live in Dallas. I used to LOVE to go to Texas Motor Speedway, up to 3 times a year (both Cup races and the June truck race) I would attend one dirt race a year from 2006-2015 (the Texas Motor Speedway dirt track) but since 2015 my love for dirt has increased 10 fold and I found that NASCAR had become a once-a-year novelty and (as a photographer who gets into my home track for free) I forgot how expensive NASCAR is. I've developed some pretty good friendships at the local dirt track, my home track even had NASCAR Truck series driver Kaden Honeycutt race his crate late model this summer. Dirt is closer, if you're a fan it's cheaper, and there are plenty of drivers to support. Shoot, because of what I do, I get all kinds of swag, I have upwards of 80 dirt racers tshirts and probably 2 dozen hats. I will only wear NASCAR Throwback gear now.

Dirt content is terrific keep it up!

On the note of totally transforming a track. I still can’t get over the cost that must be associated with building a track at the coliseum every year for the clash.

Would love to see them add Eldora and the Charlotte dirt track. Honestly, don't buy the logistics argument anymore. When you can plop a track right in a football stadium, you can go to a real dirt track.

Kings royal had way more than 25,000 people last year i'd say at least 30,000 if not more

Ever since I found out about ARCA running DuQuoin and Springfield in the 2000s, I've been interested in this "asphalt cars on dirt" thing. Even though they're slower than purpose-built dirt cars, it's cool how they can push it to the limits, and dip back into their roots for a bit.

As an Iowan, I honestly think people won't mind Knoxville being taken over by NASCAR. Iowans, and especially small town Iowans, take pride in any little possible recognition. They'll readily accept a week of shutdown for big NASCAR hype. Hell, when the Iowa Speedway race was announced, it was news for a week here. However, the venue probably isn't ready for it, let alone all the other things you pointed out about the organizational issues. Just won't happen, I'm afraid

Gonna throw a track into the ring: Port Royal Speedway. Wide half mile, high banks, multiple grooves for all cars, and you can get that placed packed to the brim

Literally watched Trucks at Eldora replay yesterday and it's a great race, I wish Cup cars could go there

Lucas oil in wheatland Missouri could possibly host a race also for the lower series

NASCAR absolutely SHOULD run dirt races. There's too many intermediate races on the schedule, so they could easily take one date away from a couple of intermediate tracks to add dirt races to the schedule. Why not run Knoxville AND Eldora?

Flo racing is going to be a growing problem for nascar in the coming years. I expect them to ban drivers from competing on dirt soon. Larson will probably bail on nascar when that happens

Thing about the NextGen car, the chassis are interchangeable. Talked to a mechanic at trackhouse and he said the same car that won at COTA was the same car ran at Talladega and the All Star race (for chastain) in 2022

I was under the impression the next Gen construction meant they didn’t have to have different cars. You can take a car anywhere rc to super speedway to short track.

The correct numbers for attendance is 30,000 for eldora and 21,500 for knoxville. Eldora sells out for the kings royal and world 100. Both venues could hold a cup race tomorrow.

I feel like the fact that they made the Bristol dirt race happen even once let alone 2 years in a row means that something like this could happen again. I mean they are going into the third time making the LA coliseum into a track for one weekend, someone in the higher-ups is a fan of little pet projects becoming real for sure. Should be interesting to keep an eye on

Dirt racing is a totally different beast to asphalt racing. It really should be in nascar just like road racing. Different skills means different drivers winning different races

My dad took me to many a race at Orange County Fair Speedway. There's absolutely something special about dirt tracks. He had a bumper sticker on his old pickup that said "If you ain't got dirt in your beer, you're not at a real race!"

2:26 This always makes me remember a quote by Brain “The White Mamba” Scalabrine, “I’m closer to LeBron than you are to me.”

I remember watching the first Bristol dirt race and seeing the late models parked next to the cup cars and thinking that the late model guys are way faster on the track but make way less money at the same track

Honestly I got friends of mine who usually wouldn’t think twice about nascar who fell in love with Bristol dirt especially since the transition to night race meant the dirt didn’t dry it out making it a dust bowl like 2021. That ending of the 2022 race being a classic in my opinion. Personally I saw improvements every year in which usually I can’t stand a track having a 2nd date unless it adds a new interpretation of the track ( Roval vs oval type) which lets that date stand on its own . Now its a direct competitor for the playoff race which if you’re saving up to go to a nascar race, 80% of people are gonna choose the night race since it’s the same racing.

i still find it pretty ironic that kyle larson, an avid sprint car dirt racer, doesn’t want to race dirt bristol

Personally as a life long 30 year old nascar fan. I fell in love with the cars on dirt. I’m going to miss it.

A Cup Race at Eldora would be awesome

The World of Outlaws World Finals runs at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway. ZMax Dragway is next door and the 1.5 mile quad oval is across the street. I don't understand why CMS can't bring in temporary seats for the dirt track and run there.

I have noticed these good ole boy nascar types lie about eldora, it's attendance capacity is above 30,000. Easily researchable.

I went to Bristol Dirt in the spring. I never want to see dirt in nascar ever again.

If NASCAR was listening to their core fan base, they would get rid of the playoffs.

I'm going back into racing next year, and I plan on racing at my home track which is an asphalt track, but I also plan on running dirt on Friday night as well to get more track time and a feel for dirt. Granted, I'm only running in the 4-cylinder divisions, but still.

I just want to clarify that the current cup car is easy to swap packages for. So they don't have specific cars for specific tracks. Spire for example planned to run the dirt car at talladega in april of 2022. Ross's talladega win car was also his cota win car too I believe. So It's not about having a specific car for a dirt race. right now it's just swapping out packages for each car. So they aren't spending out for a specific dirt car.

It really shits me how NASCAR fans complained about the spring Bristol race, then NASCAR changed it to try something different, and then fans complained that they wanted the regular spring race back, even though they were whinging about it a few years ago. Like, what the hell do you want???

Everybody here wants to talk about flo racing but dirtvision has a better production value and most of the top 410 teams are sticking with WoO (for now)

Top level dirt track racing is amazing to watch right now and what flo racing is doing for the sport is incredible. Who cares about nascar.

The only thing about if Nascar were to go back to dirt is that I dont think they have any plans on going back to Eldora since Tony started the SRX Series, which if im not mistaken is why the trucks left for Knoxville. So there really arent any options out there that would fit if you went to a purpose built dirt track.

Vast majority of oval tracks in america are dirt. Seems silly for the "top level of racing in america" (It's not) to not have multpile dirt races

It should be known that Nascar limited the Duncan family and Knoxville when it came to track prep for those truck races.

Eldora footage warms my heart. My people.

I think variety would benefit the season. Toss in some dirt races and a few more Road Courses to mix in with the usual long tri-oval and short oval. Winning driver needs a diversified skill set to be the most consistent. I'm from CA and I've attended Sonoma a few times and the stock cars on a road course are a fun race.

I’m surprised that Knoxville Speedway is in Iowa. That makes it much closer to me than I originally thought. And also, yeah I agree that NASCAR should race on dirt consistently. Though I personally think that would be a problem due to how NASCAR and Eldora’s track owner Tony Stewart have had not so good relations in recent years.

I kind of want Slipknot to perform at Iowa Speedway, mainly because they are the biggest band (that I know of) from Iowa, it might be fun, it might be chaos (you know like Slipknot shows generally are)

Literally opened up your channel to watch something and a vid was uploaded 1minute ago, couldn't ask for a better coincidence!

I am not a big NASCAR fan but I do love racing in general. Your videos have helped me to learn more about oval racing

I want one dirt race per year. Track variety of a great. It makes the season more interesting and it separates NASCAR from the open wheel forms of racing. However, let’s not turn a paved track into a dirt track when there’s so many good dirt tracks to use. I’m biased towards racing on dirt though as a rally fan

The fact that Pinty's is the division that first managed to have dirt, paved, street and road courses on a single calendar is endlessly amusing to be given how short it is. All we need is to have an ice exhibition before Euro does and it'd truly be a full package.

As fan of NASCAR from my child and worked on, built many engines and a 80s model cougar StreetStock car for the local dirt tracks. It was the greatest time if my teenage years. My stepdad drove and worked the pits and as a spotter, even had shirts made lol. We would record the races if we weren't going to be home amd always looked forward to watching them. This was mid to late 90s though. I stopped watching after Dale's wreck (RIP Intimidator) and my stepdad killed himself the same year. So, for me, I'm partial to the dirt tracks and small-town short tracks. The one that we went to the most of you're interested S1apSh0es was in Rusk, TX. The one is Tatum, TX ran spinters, great time...great times... I sure miss it.

I'd definitely be alright with a dirt race staying in the Cup Series schedule, just put it on a dedicated dirt track instead of hastily converting an existing track to dirt as a once-a-year gimmick. I think most of the problems you highlighted could be pretty easily surmountable, it's just that NASCAR doesn't want to even try to surmount them.

Glad to see an upload , always enjoy the content bro ❤

Ironically, Childress approach to training drivers worked for me in Sim Racing as well lmao. I mostly play the F1 games and when I tried DiRT Rally 2.0 for a good while, I noticed my car control was miles better than it was before, plus, sliding cars around dirt courses is just fun, it doesn’t matter if it’s an dirt oval in the south US or some bumpy jumpy back road in Finland.

Ima miss the Dirt Bristol race. I enjoyed it for those 3 years.

There has to be some middle ground between having a dedicated NASCAR dirt race track and overrunning the smaller towns. Perhaps incorporating a dedicated dirt track in the infield of already existing speedways and superspeedways and incorporating some sort of module grandstand system to where they can easily move fans closer to the action when it comes to race day? That way there's less dirt to haul around and dump, we get our cup cars on dirt, and if they staff it with "dirt track specialists" then it opens up an entirely new local venue for grassroots dirt track racing.

Jeff purvis' home track. Clarksville Speedway. Home of the toliet bowl and the Tucka-see challenge.That track would put on a helluva dirt race

I think a Big Money exhibition race at the Dirt Track at Charlotte or Talladega Short Track would draw a crowd. Let's do a Wednesday show with Late Model Stocks, similar to the cars used in the CARS tour, and give $1 Million to the charity of the winning driver and $1 Million to the winning driver. It can be a continuation of the Prelude to the Dream from several years back and incorporate several racing series drivers (NASCAR, Dirt Late Models, Sprint Cars, IndyCar, Ect.) For the race program, 2 Lap qualifying followed by heat racing, B Mains, LCQ, and the A Main. No Points, No guaranteed starts, Just race cars, Drivers, and 1 Million on the line.

That "what is a sprint car" video got recommended to me pretty cool channel alot better than the other nascar youtubers

After watching this, the shorts used for videos of older races like the Buick (as well Pixar's Cars 3 when they show the old dirt tracks) and watching the current Gen is interesting, however the point made by the SRX has to be there

That feeling when Slap mentions your home dirt track as the last short track added to the schedule in 1970. Albany Saratoga Speedway, the great race place!

I call bs on the 25 000 for eldora number. Tony stewart claimed that there was 35,000 people at a world 100 one year. I honestly dont think anythings stopping nascar cup from running eldora except politics

I think NASCAR could do a dirt or mixed surface road course at a rallycross track, really take the sport back to its roots.

First of all love this video S1ap, and am looking forward to both more deep dives on things, and short track tour content. Second off, I don't see the Next Gens ever going back on dirt. Those cars were clearly not designed for dirt. They did not look right out there, the chassis were likely torn all up, among other things. Add the lack of horsepower and yeah Next Gen Cup cars on dirt aren't going anywhere. Third, I could see bringing back Gen six cars if HMS (who btw still make them for track day use) agree to supply the whole field or at least part of the field. (ARCA teams selling or renting their cars back to Cup teams?) Since that will likely never happen; this brings me to the last point which is, maybe just keep dirt for the Xfinity and truck series. Both are more closely aligned to dirt oval cars (even if Xfinity get IRS one day it would bring them more in line with FIA Rallycross cars) and can be modified for permanent dirt duty. Xfinity & Truck standalone event at Eldora would be cool and an easy sell to The CW as a special event.

North Wilkesboro is the Winnipeg Jets of NASCAR, Texas Motor Speedway is the Arizona Coyotes of NASCAR.

Cherokee is a badass place go there. You really need to take a trip to the upper midwest and Pennsylvania if you wanna see the best dirt facilities in the country though

Short Dirt track racing is the best motorsport.

I hate to say it, but it's a pipe dream in the Gen 6 era. NASCAR has given itself over to large ovals, large crowds, and asphalt. At least, in the Cup series. I see a future where there is a Cup series exclusively on ovals, a separate road-racing series, and a separate dirt series. Just a thought.

I would become a paytreon if you did more videos on short track racing outside of nascar

I needed a new slap video to watch, ive been rewatching all the old ones 😂

I would love to see a dirt race I get why. The odds are against it. But look at the Chicago street race. Everything was against that, and that turned out amazing, and they put dirt on a non dirt track, so

I think what many tired fans like myself understand a lot of what you're saying; we just don't *want* it to be true. The Chicago Street Race (with the rain) was an exciting and new event; even if riddled with problems. The idea that we could get more of that kind of excitement with a dirt event is really tantalizing for folks like me. While I understand your points (and counterpoints) - I just wish there was something that could be done. Heck, for years we all thought there was no way we would ever see a return to North Wilkesboro - but here we are.

Maybe NASCAR should have its own dirt track series, which is running parallel to the Truck Series as a feeder for Xfinity and Cup.

What I think could be cool/interesting is (with some schedule reworking) have ARCA, Xfinity, and trucks do essentially an indiana sprint week/eastern storm/Ohio sprint week type of event. For a week, have the 3 series run 2-3 races at a dirt and paved short track somewhere in the mid west or south east. And have the series or sanctioning body put up big prize money. So for example, take this Midwest based idea Sunday: xfinity at Slinger Monday: arca at Berlin Tuesday: trucks at the Terre Haute Action Track Wednesday: xfinity at Sharon Speedway Thursday: Arca at Kokomo Friday: xfinity at Atomic Speedway Saturday night finale: Trucks at Eldora. Keep ticket prices low, involve the local track promoters, put the races on National TV and hell maybe partner with some kind of weekly show at the track to help boost those guys.

You’re killing it lately boss

I went to Kansas speedway a few years ago and recently went to the dome in STL for dirt nationals this past weekend. I think nascar is on its final leg, the fans show up and support dirt track so much more than nascar with all their rules and point structure.

Hiya from Davenport IA! We had the outlaw sprint series here not too long ago and i'd love to see more series come here.

Vaporwave Smooth Operator by Sade, impressive!

Well, if NASCAR got off their high horse. You allows some simple modifications for short tracks And dirt, I don't think it would be an issue but like you said they don't want to change.

The gen 6 cost almost as much if not more than next gen when you factor in how much they spent in R&D and the absurd amount of cars they built each year.

Here's my idea... Oswego is a 5/8 mile paved track in New York and since 2016 World Racing Group has had it covered in dirt to contest Super Dirt week. NASCAR could work with WRG to split the cost and run a dirt race there the week before or after SDW, which would put it either in late September or mid October. Since many dirt tracks have wrapped their seasons at this time, it would put this race in front of much of the dirt racing worle at a time when NASCAR is struggling to compete with the NFL. Oswego currently seats about 10k, but the front stretch stands desperately need updated, and there is room to expand there, so the seating capacity could dramatically be increased which would benefit both NASCAR and WRG.

I heard a while ago that Tony wanted to put the dirt track race on Eldora for 2021, but NASCAR never returned his calls. I don't know if that's true or not, but if it is, then the Cup dirt dream is pretty dead. Now that said, I would love to see the Truck series go back there. Two other options from the ARCA series are Springfield & DuQuoin. Both are 1 milers inside of fairgrounds. The issue with Springfield is pretty much the same as the one with Knoxville, where the seating capacity is only 13k and they have no room to expand. DuQuoin is even lower (8-9k) but with some room for renovations (expanding the frontstretch stands, adding backstretch stands, etc) it could work if someone's willing to throw enough money at it. ARCA could definitely use the boost as well, since car counts have been pretty low for a while. Now, if you really want to go all out, get Kyle Larson and all of his dirt friends at High Limit to build their own dirt track somewhere. If anyone would know how to do it, it's them. And with the recent purse increases and charter system they have, it's clear they've got money to throw around. Obviously there is a gigantic difference between increasing purses and building a dirt track ready to host NASCAR races, but hopefully you get what I mean. Amazing video as always S1ap. Your videos are always the highlight of my day.

I know there's always the competitive business standpoint, but imagine Nascar partnering with World of Outlaws to build a purpose built dirt track capable of handling a nascar crowd, and giving more public support/TV time for large Outlaws events. I'm not sure how schedules line up or what the financial implication is, but fostering the high level of the dirt scene while giving yourself a track to host a couple dirt races on could have potential to expand in a couple of directions

I would love the cup series to race at Eldora but I don’t know if that’s possible since they burned that bridge creating Bristol Dirt

I was in attendance for the Xfinity Fall Bristol Race and they said it over the intercom that Dirt Bristol won't be returning. I was surprised by that, but I prefer the concrete over the dirt. If you want to race on dirt, then go to Eldora Speedway.

West Virginia Motor Speedway would be PERFECT for a Nascar date. 5/8 of a mile dirt track that just had a big renovation in Mineral Wells, WV. Eldora is not the only one.

I think temporary seating could be used for Knoxville to begin, and smart infrastructure decisions would be able to fit more permanent seating while keeping to the small site they have. A super season for me would be (by amount of weekends): 3 dirt ovals - Eldora, Knoxville, Purpose built venue on west coast to increase swing (Auto Club Site), or Charlotte (temp seats for capacity) 2 2.5ers - Pocono and Indy (pocono double header possibility) 6 Supers - Daytona, Tally, and Atlanta 10 Speedways (1-1.5ers) 8 Shortracks - Bristol, Martinsville, Richmmond (these three rotate on who gets 2nd race), Iowa, NWilksboro, IRP (temp grands) 5 Road courses - WG, Sonoma, Charlotte Roval, Canadian track, rotating final one 1 street circuit - Chicago (possibly rotating or travelling) 1 Dirt Road course - Pair up with some other organisations to build a place where there's a flat track for Cup cars, and other shorter tracks for anything, etc. I guess similar to how daytona Beach was bar sandy ruts in the corners. The Dirt car should be able to be used because the cars are symmetrical now right? This covers everything but drag racing that saloons/sedans/stockcar/GT cars can do, and makes it *the* series for the anytime-anywhere drivers. but I can only dream.

"This ain't asphalt son this is dirt."- Doc Hudson

great video 🏁🏆

Two things I disagree with: 1) the inability to put the Cup series at Eldora is a bit over exaggerated, as NASCAR could simply work with the track to make the venue bigger. Plus, non competitive pit stops would cover most pit road issues, and the field size wouldn't be much of an issue for the racing (would probably make it a little extra chaotic but in a good way). 2) having a dirt car on hand for 1 race a year wouldn't be a bad thing considering how little they use their Superspeedway cars, and the chassis problem could easily be solved by NASCAR handing them another (which I'd imagine they would if they wanted this to work). Everything else is spot on as usual; wish the video hadn't been on the shorter end but it was great while it lasted 😎

1:54 Hey Boyd's Speedway is My neck of the woods, nice to see some love for it

If nascar wants to sell that Nascar drivers are the best drivers in North America honestly there needs to be a few dirt races, super speedway and 1.5, short tracks and road courses. So 2023 schedule was great even had a street course.as a 25 year fan following Nascar they need to keep the schedule diverse. I like seeing all the different skill sets and it makes the title more prestigious if won. You have to be a master all all skill. Let’s keep a dirt track going forward

I support running the dirt race on Easter. On Easter, TV eyes are more significant than butt's in seats, so you can get away with way less seats, or maybe even no seats at all. They could try it at the Dirt Track at Charlotte, since it's close to home for most teams and most of the infrastructure is in place for the other facilities.

Yessirrrr im at cherokee speedway every saturday💯

Perhaps NASCAR should return to racing 2 or 3 times a week as was the practice when Richard Petty accumulated most of his 200 wins.

Very well said and I fully agree. I attended the last two Bristol dirt races and they were fun in person. I do however understand the financial issues all around with them though especially with Bristol losing its summer dirt season this year

Another awesome video!

Im of the opinion that NASCAR should include: Ovals Road Courses Dirt Tracks/RallyCross Rally (point-to-point) on both paved/unpaved routes

I had never watched more than a few hours of NASCAR in my life until I saw the first ever dirt race being advertised. I now won't miss a race for anything. I didn't know that dirt racing existed anywhere before that and I still think it's a coolest thing ever. I am so disappointed that it's not happening this year and I hate how much it gets trashed since it's the reason I, and I'm sure many others, are fans today.