Short Track Racing and the ARCA Series with Charlie Krall

ARCA Communications Director Charlie Krall joins the podcast and discusses the 2026 season for the series and provides his analysis of the state of pavement short track racing.

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Midwest Racing Central Today is hosted by Pete Pistone and produced by Mia Pistone

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hi everybody, welcome into Midwest Racing Central today. Pete Stoney here at Midwest RacingCentral.com and let's talk some short track racing and bring in a guy who's got a lot of experience in the short track world. He's also the communications director for the Arca series, Charlie Kraw with us here at Midwest Racing Central today. Charlie, how are you, my friend? I'm doing great, Pete. Thanks for having me on. Well, we appreciate it very much. So I get this question a lot. Let's start with this. They say, hey, Pete, how do you do all the things you do? I get to work at SiriusXM, I get to do this stuff here, I get to do college sports. You are everywhere. How do you kind of balance what you do with ARCA, the short track world, and all the things that are on your plate every week?

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Well, I'll tell you what, first and foremost, uh I I have a boss and a group of people that I work for and work with that are very in tune to the racing world themselves. And and being in touch with what's going on in the short track world, whether it's uh the ASA Stars National Tour or whether it's some of the local short track stuff that I get to go off and do, that really only helps what we're doing here uh as we try to build that ladder system for these young drivers to come up and through. Uh, the the biggest challenge is finding the time, as you know, to do this all. Um, you know, there's there's only so many days and so many weekends in the year. And you know, you still would like to have uh some quiet time of your own to uh to maybe hang out with your children and spend a little time with the wife. But uh, you know, it's it all tends to work itself out. Um, you know, having having kids that are uh really big fans of of racing of all sorts, and and having a wife that that was involved in in racing as a team owner herself, uh, you know, a decade ago, you know, they all understand it and they get it, and it it makes it a lot easier to uh to to juggle all of these various balls we have in the air. Yeah, that helps a lot.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Let's start on the on the ARCA side, and I want to start uh a little uh closer to home of what's coming up. The Arca East series is gonna be at Hickory Motor Speedway for the first time in a couple of weeks. There's some new names on the entry list there. Tell us about that event coming down the pike there and about uh how excited you are to have ARCA at a historic track like Hickory.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Oh man, I'll tell you what. Going to Hickory Motor Speedway for the first time with with the Arca Bernards East is gonna be fantastic. I went to Hickory for the first time uh as a spectator for the old Bobby Isaac Memorial Bush series race back in 1986 uh with my grandparents. And what a neat racetrack! And and going back there the last couple of years with the ASA Stars National Tour, it's like stepping back in time, you know, that racetrack. Well, while they have obviously have kept it up, um, you know, the racetrack itself is exactly the same as I remember it from back in the day. Um, looking at our tentative entry list, uh, we've got uh as it stands right now, 25 drivers entered, and we're still you know a week away. So um I think it's gonna be a terrific entry list. I know the racetrack has sold agaba tickets already uh in advance of this. Um, you know, one name that I'm I'm really interested in seeing how he's gonna do. Uh we all we all are are very fond of of Cletus McFarland, uh, you know, Garrett Mitchell coming to the races. Uh, you know, Squirrel McNutt, his his little right-hand man there. George Siciliano is gonna make his his Arca East debut. Uh, I know the plan for them is they they'd like George to come and run this race at Hickory, uh, get approved to then go and run the race at Kansas to then go and get approved to run Talladega with Cletus. So uh we'll see how that goes. Uh I know Rhett Jones Racing has has prepared the car for George and uh he's very excited to come and do it. Uh and he's he doesn't have a lot of actual like late model racing experience, but the stuff that he and and Cletus do with those cars and those crown Vicks that they take all over the place, I think he's gonna do just fine.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

So for some of our listeners who may not understand Ark East, Arca West, Arkhamonard series, why don't you just explain kind of the hierarchy uh and how those two divisions support the main national series, Charlie?

SPEAKER_01 4:11

So so the Arkhamanards East and Arkham Menards West all have uh very long histories of their own, despite the fact that ARCA has has only sanctioned them since 2020. What is now the Arkhamanards East used to be the old KN Pro Series East, uh got its start when it was known back in 1987 as the old uh the NASCAR Bush North series. Uh so that history dates back to 1987. Uh out west, uh the what is now the Arkhamonards West, it used to be the old NASCAR-Winston West series that dates back to 1954. So uh while the name has changed, we haven't done anything to change that history. Um, the cars are still very similar to what they were uh prior to uh the NASCAR merger uh that put everything together. Um, but what how we have kind of envisioned those two series to be, while we still uh have them as a standalone series championship, and you know, you know, someone like Trevor Hoddleston, who is who is not a 15-year-old, uh, you know, we see those as a as a way for some of these young drivers to get their feet in the door and to to come and race for a championship before they're eligible to come and run, you know, on the big tracks like the Daytonas and the Talladegas and the Michigans and the Chicagoland Speedways of the world. Um, you know, being uh 15 years of age, like uh let's just say Brent Cruz was a couple of years ago. You know, Brent was not eligible to come and run for the Arkham and Art Series Championship. Uh, he could have uh gone and run for a championship in the ARCA East or West. Um, and that's exactly what Jesse Love did. Jesse Love was a two-time Arca West champion by the time he was 16 years old. Um, you know, and then when he was old enough to come and compete in the Arkham and Art Series, the the you know, the national Arkham and Art Series tour, that's exactly what he came and win a championship there too. So uh it's all part of that feeder program, you know, that you know, kind of bridges that that gap between the the regional touring series, like the Cars Tour or the ASA National Tour, uh, and it drive, you know, drives people into the NASCAR national series, the the trucks, the O'Reilly Auto Parts series, and then the Cup series.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Which brings you to the Arkham and Arts National Series. I mean, I saw you in Daytona in February, and one of the things that I always loved about this series from day one was the versatility of the series. You go to every kind of racetrack under the sun, including here in the Midwest. We'll see you at Berlin, we'll see you at Madison, we'll see at some of the tracks here in the Midwest. How is that balance in between putting that schedule together, Charlie, and having a representation at some of those traditional short tracks, but beyond super speedways, dirt tracks, and everything else you do with the Menard series?

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Well, I'll I'll tell you what, the that formula kind of was put in place in the early 1980s when John Markham died uh in in May of 1981. Um, a lot of people don't know this part of the story, but the France family actually kind of helped guide uh ARCA back in those uh very troubling days for this company. Um, you know, Big Bill France and then Bill France Jr. uh went to bat for the ARCA, what was then the Talladega Supercar Series, and and went to places like Atlanta and Pocono and uh even Michigan and some of those other racetracks and said, Hey, we we would like for this series to to stay afloat and it needs dates. Uh, you know, and we we added uh dates at Talladega and uh we we our long-established date there at Daytona uh that goes back to uh you know to 1963, um, and added dates at yeah at Pocono in Atlanta. And in and we we found that the balance between some of those southeastern super speedways and the Midwestern short tracks worked really, really well. Um, you know, at that time it was a very heavily Midwestern series with a lot of the drivers and teams from your neck of the woods, a lot of those folks from Chicagoland area, Lombard, Illinois, and and whatnot. Um, you know, they really wanted to stay and race those Midwestern short tracks, but they really liked the opportunity to go down and race at Daytona and Talladega and Atlanta and Charlotte and whatnot. So um it's a balance that we have really tried very hard to keep over the last 20 years. Um, and now that we have this partnership with uh Menards, you know, part of our contract is you know, Menards wants to have those races where their stores are. So so we we we try to keep as many of them up here in the Midwest as we can.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

I look forward to that uh coming up this summer. Charlie Carl's with us here on Midwest Racing Central today. Now, let's shift gears and just talk a little bit more about the other part of the your world, short tracks, late models. You know, you do good work there, as you mentioned with the ASA Stars National Tour. So we had Daniel Henrick on my NASCAR show this week on Sirius XM. And I asked him what's he's what's he doing outside of the trucks. He said, I'm building a late model. And I said, Daniel, you're gonna have to be a little more specific than building a late model. Is it a super late model? Is it a car store late model? Is it a two-barrel carburetor late model? He sort of laughed. In terms of that world, where are we right now? I know a lot of tracks here in my part of the country have tried to get a universal set of rules, and I don't know how successful that's been, but how do you think that is in pavement late model racing right now, Charlie, in your mind?

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Well, I will tell you, I think it's a little stronger than it was maybe five or six years ago. Um, I think there is still a level of confusion, as you just said, to what a late model is. You know, you you talk to someone in the Charlotte area, a late model is a late model stock car. And you and I up in our neck of the woods, uh a late model stock car would be like a sportsman type car. Um, you know, when we hear late model, it's super late model. Um, so I and I'm not saying one is better than the other. I'm just saying that the nomenclature is a little confusing from time to time. Um, I I really wish we could figure out a way to to to separate some of that confusion a little bit. Um we have seen uh on the ASA star side of things, we've seen a pretty steady growth in in car counts. Um, you know, from the upper teens now. I think we're we're gonna be solidly into the maybe the mid-20s at most of these races, which is a very good thing. Um, you know, uh Marty Mello and and the MDM productions group that have have taken over uh the ASA uh tours from from Bob Sargent and Track Enterprises work really hard on you know putting the the sponsorship programs in place that you know will allow these teams to come and race for uh the type of money that they should be coming and racing for at some of these these events. So um, and the teams have responded in kind by by coming and entering these races. Um I I think we're in a really good spot, Pete. Uh I don't think we're where we need to be with this. I mean, you and I remember the glory days of the old ASA tour back in the in the you know mid to to late 1990s when we had 50 and 60 cars come to some of these races. Um boy, it would be great if we could get back to to even having 35 cars at some of these races. But um I I think that it's you know, for a a series that is now just a handful of years old, I think the ASA Stars National Tour is is probably right where it needs to be for now, but there's still plenty of room for growth in the future.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Well, and then obviously the umbrella under that closer to home to me is the Midwest tour, which is obviously sort of finds its roots in the old Art Go series back in the day with John McCarns. And again, you talk about the glory days. When in those days we'd see an Art Go race on a Tuesday, and then those guys could take that same race car and go to La Crosse on Wednesday and Kakana on Thursday and Madison on Friday, Dells on Saturday, and Slinger on Sunday with the same exact race car. I'd like to get a little closer to that. I don't think we ever will, but I want to ask you about that part of it as well. What the Midwest Tour and the CRA series does and the the Southern Super Series kind of the same idea, kind of what we talked about with ARCA under the umbrella of the ASA Stars National Tour. How do you think that's working out, Charlie?

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Well, I particularly for the Midwest Tour, I think it's working really well. Uh, Midwest Tour is still very, very strong. They're getting tremendous car counts up there. Um, you know, Greg McCarn's following that line from from the old ARC O day, Greg. Greg is is still very involved there and has has done a really great job um, you know, with with the rules up there and and built a very solid foundation. Uh it's it's none of this is cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but it's you know, that rules package is not as expensive as as some of the others, and it allows racers to come out and and compete without breaking the bank, so to speak. Um, some of the other tours, um, you know, particularly the CRA Super Series, uh, which you know, I can trace that though, you know, that series roots back to the mid-1990s as the old Indiana Late Model series. Um, you know, I I think that struggling a little a little more to to get some of those uh drivers to come on a uh a non-ASA combination race, so to speak. Um but I but again, I I think having that foundation in place is what's really important in having some of those traditional races like uh you know the the race here at Toledo Speedway. You know, and some of these are combination races with with the national ASA tour, but you know, having some of those those races in place and and having a place that these guys can come and race these cars, you know, they still want to come and do it. Um Midwest late model racing, uh particularly with the template body style cars, there's only a couple of places that do it on a regular basis right now, Pete. And and it's we I think we've got to find a way to to rein those costs in a little bit more and and find a way to to maybe pay those those race drivers a little bit more. And again, not my money to spend in either either case, but um, you know, this is just what I'm hearing from from the drivers and the teams that participate. You know, it does it costs a lot to come and get these cars, and it costs a lot to get them up the road to get to the racetrack. And you know, I think the teams would like to come and race for a little bit more money too. But um, you know, I I think, and again, I give Marty a lot of credit. He's out there shaking those trees really, really hard to try to get get it so that the uh the equation for these race teams is not so upside down these days. No, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

The last point I want to make, and again, appreciate Charlie Kral being with us here on the podcast. Uh, you mentioned Toledo Speedway. I talked to track promoters here about their weekly programs and what they're trying to do, not with tours, but just every Friday or Saturday or Sunday night in some cases, just to put that weekly show out there. And you know as well as I do, Charlie, that's getting harder and harder and harder. What are you hearing? The one thing that I have is a commonality when I speak to promoters is they talk about bringing families and kids to the racetrack, and they'll do anything to do that. What are you hearing on that end in terms of the weekly racing out there these days?

SPEAKER_01 15:01

So so my boss Ron Dragor uh owns a couple of racetracks. He owns Flat Rock Speedway, the Saturday night, you know, just south of Detroit, quarter mile. Uh, and then he also owns Toledo Speedway here in Toledo, the big fast half mile. Um, Flat Rock's still a weekly racetrack every Saturday night from you know late April through early September. You know, it's the same program that they've run there since I was a kid, you know, late model street stocks and figure eights. And and again, I mean, uh, just like with anything in the motorsports world, it is kind of contracted a little bit. They're instead of having you know 28 late models, you might have 20. Um, and instead of you know, 20 figure eight cars, you might have 16. Um, still get a pretty decent crowd on Saturday nights, and a lot of those are the same families that have been coming there. I see a lot of the same faces that were there when I was a kid, as a matter of fact. Um, on the on the Toledo Speedway side of things, it's a little bit more of a challenge. I think the bigger the racetrack is, the more expensive it can be to compete on. And if you have a bad day uh and you you find yourself in an incident, you know it's it's really difficult to repair these race cars these days, very expensive. So Toledo has kind of transformed from a weekly racetrack into a special events-only racetrack. Um, but events like Arkhaminard series and USAC Silver Crown, we've got uh a twin bill for the for the turn one CRA pro late model division and and wing super modified that we haven't had at Toledo Speedway in about 15 years. Uh, we've got a couple of nights of destruction with uh the school bus figure eights. We've got a uh a uh 500 sprint car tour race uh with you know, and that that always brings a big crowd. There's a lot of uh open wheel fans in this neck of the woods. So a very diverse schedule. And I think that's what you need to do, particularly with these special events only racetracks. You need to have a very diverse schedule, and you got to bring the people things that they want to see. And uh, I think over the years, uh Ron and the new uh general manager here, Brandon Hamby, have done a really good job of identifying exactly what it is that that our fans want to see, and they're they're bringing them exactly those types of shows.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Yeah, I mean, I remember here the the late great Rockford Speedway, my home track that you know went out of business a couple years ago. The figure eight trailer race was the one they were selling tickets for in April before anything else. Absolutely right. Absolutely. I mean, that was what people wanted to see. We would pack them in that night for sure. Uh listen, I really appreciate your time. I know you're a busy guy, but thanks for being here. I know again you have a passion for short track racing like I do, and uh, look forward to seeing you this summer out and about here in the racing world. Thanks for having me. Anytime you want to come and hang out with us at one of our short track shows, Pete, we'd love to have you. We'd love to do it. That's Charlie Kral. He is the communications director for ARCA. You also see him as part of the broadcast team for the ASA Stars National Tour and some other broadcasts from coast to coast. I'm Pete Bistoni, thanks for tuning in here at Midwest Racing Central today. And don't forget to check things out throughout the season and the week at Midwest Racing Central.com.