Based in Charlotte, the World Racing Group is a top-tier sanctioning body for national, regional and local short-track racing, mostly on dirt, in large part through its ownership of the World of Outlaws national series for Sprint cars and dirt Late Models, plus the northeast-centered Super DIRTcar Series for big-block dirt Modifieds. Full plate, right? Yes, until WRG CEO Brian Carter stood up yesterday at the Performance Racing Industry trade show in Indianapolis and announced that WRG will organize two new national series for non-wing Sprint cars and Midgets, like you see below. They’ll officially be called the Xtreme Outlaw Sprint Car Series and the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series.
The announcement in Indy made no such statement but this much is immediately clear: WRG has fired a Magnum-caliber shot squarely across the bow of the United States Auto Club over its longstanding – since 1956 – hegemony in presenting back-it-in open-cockpit action on dirt, sans wings. According to the announcement, each series will have a 10- to 15-race schedule in 2022, the events piggybacked off existing World of Outlaws race dates on both the Sprint and Late Model sides. WRG anticipates a minimum point fund of $100,000 for each series. The first Xtreme Outlaw event is set to take place in February at the DIRTcar Nationals, held at Volusia Speedway Park, another WRG property. The event traditionally kicks off Daytona Speedweeks and will partially overlap USAC’s annual Winter Dirt Games that take place down the road, literally, at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala. This is a major power move by a growing sanctioning force and is going to be highly interesting to watch unfold.
Jim Donnelly On Wheels 