The State of Short Track Racing with Jim Tretow

Veteran broadcaster Jim Tretow discusses what lies ahead in 2026 for short track racing throughout the Midwest including pavement late model racing, dirt racing and the challenges of weekly racing programs.

Follow us on X: @MWRacingCentral

Watch the video version on Youtube: @MidwestRacingCentral

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hi, everybody, and welcome in the Midwest Racing Central. Today I'm Pete Bistoni. We're just a few weeks away from starting the racing season here in the Midwest. And let's bring in a guy who's got his finger on the pulse of all things short track racing. Jim Trado is with us here on Midwest Racing Central today. Jim, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:27

I'm really good, Pete. Thanks for having me on. This is exciting. We're uh Snow is finally out of here, right? We're getting to go on racing up here in the upper Midwest.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Our fingers are crossed for sure. Well, I appreciate you giving me some time. I know you're you're a busy guy. I want to start off the top, Jim, and I had to look this up. One of the many things you do, your racing roundup show with an incredible run. I mean, more than 40 years for 2026. Congratulations on that, Jim.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Thank you. Thank you. I've not been involved that long. Um, but the show's been around for 42 years now. We do it on Tuesdays in front of a live audience or at the racetracks around the upper Midwest, and it's looking forward to being a great season. We do it every Tuesday, and it's a lot of fun. So thanks for asking me about that show. It's definitely a passion of ours. It was on radio for 30 some years, and now it's a podcast. And we really just enjoy highlighting short track racing of all types, just like you do.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Well, I'm glad you mentioned, you know, being sort of like uh almost a labor of love because you know you are involved in a lot of different forms of racing, as I am as well. But there's something about short track racing here in the Midwest. It's in my DNA, I know it's in your DNA. Let's start with that right now. Uh, you're up in Wisconsin, I'm down here in Illinois. This is a good example, Jim, that Illinois people and Wisconsin people can get along with one another despite our sports team's uh affinity. But let's just start big picture. Where do you think we are right now on the short track scene in this area of the country, both Wisconsin, Illinois, maybe over to uh Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, this neck of our woods.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

We have we are spoiled number one with the car count and the passion we have with race drivers saying, Yes, I want to race a 602 outlaw late model, and we're on a pro late model, and I have a super late model in the garage. I mean, we don't have that everywhere. We don't have um, we're lucky to get 15 cars in certain categories across the country, and that's a bare minimum. It seems like no matter the division where we go, whether it be Grundy County Speedway or Dells Raceway Park, I mean, it's just such a great hotbed for short track racing. What I do see, however, in the super late model world, um, the ASA Midwest Tour, the ASA Stars National Tour, uh, the CRA super series, that that is kind of leveled up for people who want to just have a super late model and go racing. We've also seen a decline slightly in the amount of superlate model races and series that run or even tracks that run weekly um in super late model racing, the top division. But what we have seen is a growth in force under racing and now the Crown Vicks are blowing up all over. So we're seeing a way for everyone to kind of pivot and find a way for not only the fans to get involved, but young racers to get involved with the the uh success of the legends and bandoleros moving into other divisions across the country. So uh I just think that we're we're in a good spot. We could be in a better spot. We need more fans in the stands um to get these people fired up. And I think there's there's really a good hotbed here. I just would like to see a few more people in the stands overall in the Midwest.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

I I agree. I want to talk about super late model racing because again, that's near and dear to my heart as well as yours as well. Yes, a lot of the weekly tracks don't do super late models in terms of their weekly shows, but I think it's interesting. Like Slinger went to their Triple Crown series, the Dells has the Alive for Five series, the summer six-pack series here at Grundy County Speedway. Do you think that's a little bit more what we're gonna see where there's some more special events for supers and then maybe some other shows for the weekly programs at these kinds of tracks, Jim?

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Yeah, I think we're already there. And you'll see actually some purse increases like at Grundy with their six races. They're gonna probably have a good car count, they're gonna have a good amount of money, and they probably plan their schedule accordingly. ASA Midwest Tour is going to a five grand to win show pretty much everywhere they go, it's 10 or 15 grand to win at some of their bigger races around the upper Midwest. So teams that want to gear up to that can do that. Um, yes, I feel that the 17 or 18 straight Sunday nights or Saturday nights at a certain racetrack is kind of by the wayside for superlate model racers, partly because the cost of the promoters a lot of money to put superlates in the pits every week. Um, and also is a chance for drivers to run 10 or 12 races and say, Hey, I run the Tundra series or in the Alliance for five or on the Super Six at Grundy. I've got 18 races. I'm good, my sponsors are good, so I don't need to chase points. I don't need to be that guy that uh fans in the stands want to buy t-shirts and hats from uh that that run my local track weekly. So we've seen that transition already. Um, but I really believe that there's a lot to be said about the preparation and the performance of the short track racers at every level here. Um, there's not a lot, a whole lot of heaps that are flying around the racetracks anymore in the upper Midwest. And once you get to that super late model level, um, it's hard to keep those cars for 18 weeks too. If something breaks down, you're gonna lose a car or two for a couple of weeks, and that impacts the points. And people go, Why aren't there more cars here? So there's a lot to balance. I still think I still think we're working through that.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

I don't want to get too deep in the weeds here on the technical side because I'd be way over my skis on that, Jim. But when we talk super late model racing, you know, the promoters have talked about unified rules and trying to keep everything as close as possible. Now it's never going to go back to the old days of the ArtGo series where you could build a car, you know, race on a Tuesday and then go Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday to some of the weekly tracks. But the unified rules kind of initiative, what do you think that is right now on the super side for some of the tracks up in the Midwest?

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Well, I think Wisconsin probably leads the way in how many different engine combinations you can have to race in a superlate. How many, how many engine combinations you can race in a pro late model? There's uh four or five different engine manufacturers that have come out with a car or an engine or now it's a LS motor or is it a crate motor? Um, can you run this certain engine certain places? Are they putting weight on the car to make sure you're equal with a guy that has uh uh more horsepower on the engine that's his butt ace or nine to one, whatever it may be? So I mentioned these and spitting out these names and numbers, but in reality, there's probably too many kind of engine combinations going on for superlates. So when there is uniformity and there's a way to say, here's the three engines we'd like, here's the ones you can't run. Uh, that seems to be probably more of a parody uh deal. I know that my uh nephew races at Wisconsin International Raceway, and his engine, I believe, was outlawed at one point in time in the Superlate. So he ended up putting a different motor in and go probably a model racing for a year before that got squared away. So there's a lot to filter through there. I think some of the series have done a great job. Uh, some of the tracks have done a good job, but unfortunately, we don't have uniformity 100% yet. It's not just about keeping your car count, I don't think. It's more about um having the ability to say, I can race against that guy. If I show up and I'm 30 horsepower down, forget it, I'm not even showing up. So that that's been the mix gamble since Mike Miller and Dick Trickle back in the day brought the 91 with Carl Wagner into short track racing. Um, getting that to where it's an affordable engine and it's something you can race against against guys that have a lot more money and bigger horsepower.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

So that sort of leads me to my next kind of point. You mentioned the Midwest tour, and obviously the roots of that. Greg McCarnes was running that series for so many years, the offshoot of the Art Go series with his dad and John McCarns. And a lot of what you just said was how that series was built. The local guys have a chance to talk and race against the touring guys as they come in. A little different now, but I still feel the Midwest Tour is maybe one of, if not the strongest, regional super late battle tours in the country. What do you attribute that to, Jim?

SPEAKER_01 6:57

I think it's the the matter of consistency. Um, Greg McCarns has been there uh for a long time. The series started in 2007, so we're already in our 21st season or whatever it is. I say hour because I get to call some of the live stream of the races on track TV where ASA, uh the ownership of ASA changed. Marty Mello and MDM Promotion now owns it, taking over from uh from Greg McCarns, who sold it off to Bob Sargent a couple years ago. But Greg McCarns is really involved. He's been involved since 2012 in every way in the series. Uh, so his consistency, his stability, his promotion has, I think, and a lot of phone calls during the week. A lot of lot of a lot of drivers want to know what's going on. And he's on the phone all the time, talking to him saying, What are you doing? You coming? Um, how can we help you guys? Hey, this is a hotel deal. That's all part of what happens to happen. And the it has to happen and it has successfully in the Midwest tour. So to get the commitment of 14, 16 short track drivers there from Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, uh parts of Indiana, if they want to race the series and they commit to it, that's 11 races to get it right. And that's a really good, really good competition with a two-barrel. And um, it's a it's a well-established. Here's the rule book, we're not changing a whole lot, kind of a deal. So I think it's uh that's a really stable platform. I think it's really good for the fans to know who's there. And there's been enough drivers sticking around long enough, they're not just 16 and gone at age 17 to really uh develop a great following and some really storied short tracks around the upper Midwest.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

And I think part of that consistency for me, Jim, too, is the schedule, as you mentioned. Some tracks, Madison and Grundy and Slinger, Jefferson, sort of threcks that have been on that Hawkeye Downs. Some of those tracks that have been on that schedule for a long time are still on this schedule. And I think that adds to the consistency you mentioned with that tour.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

And part of it is you still can race your late model. You can still be a Ricky Baker and race and Grundy. You can also race the full schedule. Um, you can be Jacob Gady and have a car that only runs at Elko and a late model, but you have a you have a car you put together to run the Midwest tour races four or five a year. That that can bring in additional income, that brings some additional awareness. Um, you know, get some races, stretch his legs for the super late. Uh, I also believe that's the signature races that are around the upper Midwest have kept these guys together. I think the Bettenhausen's a huge race still. I believe the Oktoberfest is a huge race still. Uh the Slinger Nationals brings out a different beast altogether, but that's those are established traditional special races. The traditional dates of the ASA Midwest tour are pretty much you can set your clock by. First Sunday in May, we're going to Madison for the Dogier Classic. We're going to have a race on uh the first Tuesday in August at Wisconsin International Raceway, a 250 lap race that pays 15 grand to win. You can kind of bank on some of those traditional dates, know that schedule, and uh, and I think Greg McCarns has done a great job in working with other promoters saying, Hey, Grundy, we're racing a race on this coming Saturday, but we don't have one for two weeks before the week after. If you're gonna do a six-race superlate schedule, this might be a better fit for you to work with that. So I think there's a lot of coordination that we don't know about, but I think Greg McCarns is uh we keep mentioning his name, he's one of the best at getting the most out of his stuff. Yes, he's can be selfish at times, but more importantly, he's also looking out for other racers and other promoters going, well, if I can't race that Saturday, where do I race? Or he may look at the schedule and go, When is the Slinger Nationals? I don't want to race that Saturday before because my guys might want to run the nationals and might be tuckered out for the following weekend as well.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

I always I always joke with Greg. I bought programs from him when he was a kid for a lot of years, Jim, and now he is running one of the best divisions we've got in super late model racing.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Uh Greg, Greg and his family are amazing. Uh, they just bought Madison International Speedway, they just burnt the mortgage. Yes, he uh had an 11-year note on it, so they officially own a racetrack. But uh yeah, the passion's there. And Greg's still involved, I think, with eight or nine Midwest tour races as our promoter outside of his day-to-day operations in Madison and operating with a lease contract at Angel Park Speedway, a dirt track in uh in Madison area uh in Wisconsin that's uh been around for 80-something years, uh running that on Sunday night. So there's a lot going on in his world, but we're fortunate to have him here in the upper Midwest.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

100%. I agree with you. All right, so you mentioned the Midwest tour and you mentioned the ASA Stars National Tour and sort of how that all fits together. So you do a lot of work with, as you say, both divisions. So you have the Southern Super Series, the CRA Super Series, all part of that umbrella. What is this now? Year three, I want to say, since this has all been kind of put together. What's your assessment of kind of what Fox Arge and that crew did? Fourth year.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Yeah, this is this is the fourth year. I was at some of the initial meetings. One was at National and the All-American Volta in 2022. They began the series in 2023, uh, 10 races, now 12. And what it has done is brought in the best national short track racers from around the country. What it's done is this it was an established trying to get everybody to pop be uh on the same plane, two barrel and four-barrel carbers, which I thought would be the initial concern at the outset, which ultimately it had been. The series had to make a decision. Uh Bob Sargent and his staff made a decision to go just four-barrel racing, which kind of told the Midwest tour guys, hey, if you're gonna run with us, you got to put a four-barrel on. And no matter how good your car is with a two-barrel, we don't have us, we don't have a uh uh something that is comparative that will attract you to what we're doing. Uh, there's many attempts to try it, whether it be weight breaks or or uh different configurations on the cars themselves, but it just doesn't seem to draw the Midwest guys, but it has drawn the interest of Toyota, has drawn the interest of Chevrolet. So their development drivers are now coming through the ASA Stars National Tour. Uh ASA, the name is owned by Marty Mello. He owns the Midwest Tour, he owns the C A Super Series, and there's an affiliation with Southern Super Series, which is basically in the uh Southeast. Last year, the Southern Super Series had 17 points races, five of those were in combination with ASA Stars. They all run four Bill Carburetors. So that that has really been a stronghold, and it really has helped establish the series quickly, not only with the really good teams, but established drivers like Steven Assey, Boba Pollard racing with that series. You can you can depend on seeing them at racetracks around the country. Plus, you also have a guy like Cole Butcher who just rated the truck series. Uh, the first ASA national tour champion in the stars in 2023 was Ty Majewski. While he's racing full time in the truck, so it has brought a lot of interest and a lot of attention, and now manufacturers to uh to the highest level of super late model racing, which I like to say uh puts on a really good show. And it's there's no slouches, man. That race we had at New Smyrna Speedway, I say we because I get to call those races as well on track TV. Uh, I get to travel the country twice in Florida already this year to see the speed and the consistency and the really the the approach these teams take and drivers take, it's pretty impressive. It's really impressive to see these guys at this level.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

It's really good. So the next time we see those cars is gonna be the same week here we're gonna see the Midwest tour at Slinger. You got those cars that you mentioned at ASA Stars National Tour at Dominion Raceway, which I've not been. What do you expect for that one coming up here in a couple of weeks, Jim?

SPEAKER_01 13:09

It's in Virginia, it's probably the newest short track I've been to in a long time. Uh, I know that Lakeland, Florida went away in about 96. That's about the year I think that they built Dominion Raceway in Virginia. It's beautiful, it's got a big three-story building as the tower. It's got a great grandstands, great food. The concessions are inside the building. They've got a two-mile road course and some permanent garages on the on the property. So if you want to bring your Porsche and house it in the garage and plunk around on the road course, go ahead. Um, they've got a lot going on as well. They also have an eighth-mile drag strip that goes right behind the right behind the grandstand. So it's a really neat facility. Uh, the racetrack itself is kind of wide and sweeping. Um, it doesn't have a lot of banking, and there was concern about single-lane racing there last year because you just get a fine line and you get going. But no, we saw a lot of good two-wide racing, and the stars adapted quickly to that speed, that speedway. So they had one race on it. I was there for that one. I was pretty impressed. Um, I believe it was Derek Thorne, who's won the snowball derby, came to finish second after putting on tires later than everybody else. So there's a tire factor as well, not just line them up, stop at halfway, and get going again. There's some strategy to that. And he kept his tires till late and charged from about 13th to second to finish behind Cole Butcher in that one.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

So that's a good one coming up here. So you mentioned uh streaming and where we are right now. And I think we're in a renaissance, in my opinion, for short track racing because there is so much streaming out there, but you know the other side of that coin. Some of the promoters like to your point, how do I get people in the grandstands if I'm asking them to stay at home and watch it on TV? Where do you think that is right now, threading the needle, Jim, between those two things in short track racing?

SPEAKER_01 14:33

I'll take the ASA stars specifically. Uh, Pensacola has five flag speedway, home of the snowball derby. The crowd at Pensacola in March wasn't nearly as large as it is for the snowball derby every December. But again, that's an established weekend. It's the only thing going on in town. It's the only short track in America in December, and it pays 50 grand to win. Uh, they paid 15 grand to win at uh the uh SARS race that I was just at at the end of March. It was a great race. We just didn't have the we didn't have the full grand stance. So uh the dichotomy is you're building something new with the stars and you're growing that. You're still growing that an awareness because superlates don't race in Virginia a lot. It's it's late model stock country. Um, so to get that awareness and get that established, it's really a uh a Dominion raceway saying we want to do this. And uh the series saying yes to however many requests they get to the dates they want to run. So there is some traditional dates, there's some traditional racetracks they're racing. Um, the the closest we'll get, I guess, is Slinger Speedway on a Sunday night, uh Father's Day weekend, and then the following Tuesday at Madison International Speedway in June. Um, so that'll probably draw a lot of fans that are just curious. Uh, they may see one or two or four of the Midwest tour stars uh come out. But that's the idea of just taking your driver, like ideally, Dominion Raceway. If they could have found a ride for Chase Johnson, who finished second in the national weekly points in NASCAR to Jacob Gady, he won, I think 12 features at Dominion. If you could find a way to get him in a car at that level, he would have drawn fans. So that whole process of getting the awareness to the fans in the grandstands, they you need to give them somebody to care about. So I think through the streaming, we get awareness, but we also need to be turned that into buying a ticket and say, watch this on demand after you get experience the racing. The the one-day show we're gonna have coming up at Dominion is gonna be two practices on Saturday night, qualified at 9 a.m. uh no practice at 9 a.m. qualified 11 race at two, I think it is. So you can get a one-day show with an autograph session thrown in there on the front stretch. So it's really kind of a a way to say you can experience this. We want you there. Um, it's just hard to say why people do or do not buy a ticket because yes, you are paying 150 bucks for flow racing, you are paying more than that for uh other streaming services. Um, you know, it's a weather factor. How many, how many miles do I have to go? Um, so the enticement has to, I think, be in the product. And I think some of these series have a really good product, the Midwest Tour. Um, again, established dates. You can watch them on track TV, but there's a whole lot of people showing up at those races because it's a traditional established 21 years and going now series where they know the drivers, they know who's gonna show up and they know they're gonna have a good time.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Absolutely. All right, I want to just double back and end our conversation. We've talked all about pavement, but a lot of dirt tracks in our area of the country as well. And it feels to me like last year I had an opportunity to go up to Wilmot, and I've got Sycamore down here where I am. LaSalle came back to life. People ask me all the time, why does it feel to them like dirt track racing seems to be thriving a little bit more than some of the struggles, Jim, we see on the pavement side? What's your answer to that kind of a question?

SPEAKER_01 17:20

I think I think uh on the dirt side, we're very fortunate to have two national touring series for plate models, two national touring series for sprint cars, and a lot of regional support. Uh, here in the upper midwest, we have the bumper to bumper advanced auto parts IRA outlaw sprint series. Those four ten guys will go to Knoxville and race on a weekly show. They'll try to make the Knoxville Nationals, they'll tow down Oklahoma like Logan Julian did to tow race with the outlaws this past weekend. So they'll have equipment that's capable of doing that on a national level, and they'll have the draw to say, Hey, I want to do that first, get warmed up before I run around the upper Midwest. We also have the high limit series throwing a bunch of money at it, and they're on FS1 now. They're on flow racing. Uh, so is IRA. So there's some sort of attractive there. Dirt Vision has its own platform that people buy into that can watch all sorts of dirt division dirt divisions uh run by the World Racing Group. So I think that the awareness is there. The frequency probably has a little bit to do with it as well. 80 races, 64 races in the uh sprint car world. Uh the dirt late models, they're they're paying for big money. And they get guys like Brian Shirley to race the entire schedule out of Illinois. They get a guy like Bobby Pierce, who's won everything, right? Out of Illinois. So to have that following, Brandon Shepard as well, to have that strength hold and say that that's my guy. I watched him race at LaSalle. I saw him, I saw his dad race at Santa Fe back in the day. Those kinds of things are still there. Um, I guess there's uh my my shortest portion of finishing this answer about why is dirt seem healthier. I think the frequency is there. I think the uh the ability to afford it is there because there are so many different races you can get to go to. Uh, I also think that you've got something vested. You know somebody that's in those race cars or worked on those race cars. And it seems like on the pavement level, we talk about touring. Uh, it's a very, very thriving pit area on pavement side, but it seems like dirt dirt teams just seem to stick together forever. It doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of change, and and that can come with uh a lot of age and experience and fans saying, I wonder if that guy's still racing. And the answer is probably yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Well, we've got a lot of racing coming up here all across the board. So we're looking forward to it, Jim. Appreciate you. Give me some time. I know you're a busy guy. Look forward to seeing you out there this summer, and I know the listeners and the fans will be as well.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

I wish you all the best with this platform as well, Pete. Thanks for all the exposure and efforts you do for the short trackers and everybody else.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Thanks very much. That's Jim Treado. We appreciate you being here on Midwest Racing Central today. I'm Pete Pistoni. We'll see you next time and check us out at Midwest Racing Central.com.