Madison Int'l Speedway with Gregg McKarns

Gregg McKarns joins the podcast to share his thoughts on the upcoming seasons at Madison, Angell Park and around the midwest.

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Hi everybody and welcome to Midwest Racing Central today. Pete Pistoni with you. The calendar is about to turn to May. That means more racing here in the Midwest, including at Madison International Speedway this weekend. Let's bring in the man who runs Madison and is involved with so many other things here in the Midwest. Greg McCarns is with us here on Midwest Racing Central today. Greg, how are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Awesome. We're doing uh we're doing great. Just uh racing season is definitely uh in full swing and getting ready to go here for the Joe Sheer Classic on Sunday at Madison.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Well, let's talk about Madison and then we'll get to all the other things that you do. So that's your first race of the season. For those that don't know, the Joe Sheer Classic ASA Midwest tour, what can we expect this coming Sunday, Greg?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Yeah, so this is the 19th annual. Uh when my wife Angie and I bought the track, uh, it was going. And uh since then we've uh we've really stepped it up and uh paid tribute to to Joe. And uh he's a short track legend, not just in the Midwest, but nationwide. And uh it's pretty cool to carry on his name. His wife Connie's uh on her way here right now, and we're actually gonna have a bunch of Joe's old memorabilia on display, and there's gonna be a silent auction for that. And we got some other tricks up our sleeves. So uh it's a 15,000 to win 200 lap race. Uh we we've grown that over the years, and the teams have responded well. And uh the who's who of uh Midwest Super Late Model Short Track Racing will will be in Oregon on on Sunday afternoon at two o'clock and uh 200 action pack laps. We do uh controlled pit stops, which is a rolling it's a bit different than what you would see on NASCAR. Uh basically, if uh if a green flag run goes 50 laps sometime in the next 15, the caution will come out, and that saves the teams uh on uh you know pick crew money. Uh a live pick crew when we went to this was anywhere from five to eight thousand dollars to bring in for the day, and so we eliminated that cost for them. It's a six-tire race, so you'll see uh you'll see the the strategy play out on tires a uh a lot more than than you do when there's too many tires. Everyone takes tires at the same time, but you'll have comers and goers and guys will wait to put tires on the last lap or you know, the last pit stop, and other people like Paulie Schaefer a few years ago at at our uh show in Kakana, he put the tires on early and he outran the field. So you just never know how it's gonna play out. And weather uh looks looks good for the weekend, and we're uh we're just getting ready to welcome all these guys and and see how it plays out on Wisconsin's fastest fastest half mile on Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Well, we can't wait for that. Uh that will be the first race for your Madison International Speedway season. I look at your schedule. Your schedule is so interesting to me, Greg. You do a good job of bringing in sort of national events, big events, but also balancing it with your regular Friday night schedule there. Bring the listeners into kind of what's in store for the rest of the year and how you kind of go about putting your schedule together at MIS.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Yeah, we say that uh you know, I'm a race fan first, so I just uh I just did a trip from Florida north and I hit my 254th racetrack. I've seen racing at. So I'm a I'm a bit addicted to this. And the beauty of it is that we're able to schedule what we want to see at our racetrack. So once a month we have a big show. So for instance, in May, uh it's the Joe Shearer Classic, and then in June we actually have a couple big shows, but the ASA Stars National Tour is here on a Tuesday night. July, we have the Howie Leto classic with the Midwest Tour, August. We have the Arkham Minard series, so there's something different. But our weekly show uh has really taken off here as of late. Uh, we average 23 late models a show on Friday nights. It's a 7:30 show. We're done by 10 o'clock. It's uh four divisions, and and we get after it. And uh we just have uh just a great mix of mix of drivers in that late model class, champions from other tracks, champions from our track. Uh Jacob Gady, who uh runs with us at lacrosse, just won the national uh NASCAR championship. And he he's coming to run Sunday also. So you just get a you never know who's gonna drop in. Uh a few years ago, we had Buddy Kulfoyd show up in the late model on a Friday night, and uh now he's running uh you know, he's one of the top dogs on the world of outlaw. So you just the the caliber of talent that's able to come through here on a Friday night. We this is a show place, and uh those weekly programs really uh really uh hit the mark uh each and every week. So and every week something different. Uh whether it's uh you know our one of our biggest shows for our weekly late models is that we have the uh it's uh fast cars and freedom 76. So it's twin 38 lap features, $1,776 to win each of them. Uh that uh we were over 30 cars for that show last year. Uh our big eight shows, so big eight late models that uh run down at Grundy, and uh you know, we're based out of Rockford for years. Uh, we have two shows with them, uh Memorial Day weekend, and then the first uh Friday of August. So uh every week offers something different. The the fourth division that we bring in, we'll have everything from vintage stock cars to legend cars to bandaleros to uh uh east coast, uh uh eastern Wisconsin modified, which I mean that's like the old Miles Melius cars ripping around our quarter mile track. So we try to bring in uh different uh that fourth division's always rotating. So one one week it might be a high school racing association, and the next week it might be uh four-cylinder Midwest Dash car. So uh always something a little bit different here on a Friday night at Madison.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Now you mentioned the quarter mile, and I was gonna bring that up. I had not seen that since I was up at your place last year. I know you've done that for a while. What was sort of the impetus of putting that in and the kind of racing you put on for the fans on that little quarter mile track, Greg?

SPEAKER_00 5:50

So that race that track was put in uh prior to us purchasing the track. Uh Angie and I purchased this in 2015. Uh, we've been promoting events here, uh, she and I since 2003, and our family has been promoting events here since 1978. So, an interesting part is I found one of my dad's old folders, and he had been trying Fred Nielsen owned the track in the early 80s and had hired my parents as the managers, and I found a sketch of uh of the racetrack my dad wanted to put in as a quarter mile. And this little track that we have here, we call it the ring of fire, uh, is just about dead on with what he had sketched out for Fred Nielsen in the 80s. And I asked Terry Kunis, you know, and Dave Grunberg had they ever seen that, and they hadn't. They just uh it was meant to be in the track races so well. We got guys that race all over, and uh they they just like the Riedner family, it is a long history here in Wisconsin, and uh anytime they come run on it, they just uh always point out what a what a great track it is. We move the wall away, so we uh we try you know we try not to tear up anything. If a if a guy gets out of shape, they're able to go through the infield and get back at it versus tearing fenders off. So uh after we've done that, it's uh uh it races a lot better. Our six-shooter class is our top our our main class on that, and uh we average over 20 of those a night. And uh, you know, you just never three, four wide racing. It just lends itself with the way the banking is and transition onto the big track and everything. It's just a a a fun, fun little track we have here in the middle of our half mile.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

So lots always going on there at Madison, but uh you're also involved in a lot of other things. And on Friday nights are at Madison, on Sunday night, Angel Park Speedway up there, a dirt track. Tell us how you got involved there and what are some of the things that the fans can look for here in 2026, Greg.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Yeah, we have 10 races this year at Angel Park. So our son Al is graduating from college and he's gonna be the the point man there and uh learn the ropes even more. He's growing up in short track racing as I did, and uh, we're excited to see what what he uh is able to bring to the table there this year. But we uh the badger midgets are I I liken it to sorry for the Bears fans out there, but I liken Angel Park to Lambeau Field. You don't have a football game at Lambeau Field if the Packers or the Badgers aren't playing, especially especially the Packers. Well, you don't have a race at Angel Park if you don't have Badger Midgets, so they're part of all 10 shows. But then we have you know uh IRA 410 sprints, we have the World of Outlaws there, we have the Dirt Kings late models. It's a uh a different uh different basket every week. Uh the we we were over 30 legend cars, and those legend cars rip around that track, it's just cool. But at the end of the day, it's a home of the mighty midgets, and we close out the season on uh Sunday of Labor Day weekend, so that's September 7th this year, and that's the 41st fireman's nationals, and so it's a midget open-wheel double header. We have USAC National Midgets and uh and the Badger Midgets. I actually went out to Turkey Night Grand Prix a couple of years ago, and we were sitting out on the beach and fires going and having a couple beers, and the guys across from me had no idea who I was, but they were talking about Angel Park and how great the badger midgets are there, and they were from California, so it's that that's a special place. And uh, I used to go there as a kid, and and of all people, I'd see Joe Shears sitting in the stands, and I always thought that was so cool. He'd go there on Sunday nights to watch the races, and that always resonated with me. So when we came to Madison, that became uh a date night for Ange and I to go over to Angel Park on Sundays, and the promoter and me always thought that we could do a better job, and and now we're uh going into year six uh uh being at at Angel Park, and we we love it over there, and uh we continue continue to make improvements and continue putting on really uh exciting shows on Sunday nights.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

That's great. So that's a great weekend up there in Wisconsin. So obviously, when we talk about a dirt track or a pavement track, a special event, one of the common denominators is you kind of alluded to this, the fan experience. When people pay their hard-earned money to come up to a racetrack and spend their night. What's sort of your philosophy for a fan when they come onto one of your properties in terms of a race night, Greg?

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Well, as I said earlier, you know, I'm I'm a race fan first. Uh I grew up in it, you grew up in it. A lot of us that are are watching this, uh you know, been around it since we were in diapers. And we uh I just want to make sure that when that fan comes out, they're leaving smiling, they're leaving at a decent time, they can go meet the drivers. Uh, all those things are important. The program in hand, a driver's list so they know who the players are. Uh, you know, all those things sometimes get forgotten in this technical world that we live in. And uh we just try to try to make sure that that experience, whether it's from the clean bathrooms, affordable food. Uh, I have a whole list of things that you see, you know, you go to the airport and it's $14 to park a day. And you know, we don't charge a dime to park. There's just you know, life right now, you get nickel to dime so much, but there's just that family dynamic um at all of our racetracks. So we also we're also involved on uh in lacrosse on Saturday nights, but we have family pricing at uh at all three tracks, and that's two adult emissions and up to four youth emissions, ages 17 and under. Uh, I think it's just important to to have that place where where families can come out and and uh experience and make memories and all those all those special uh you know memories that you build year after year, uh those don't go away. And the pictures of the kids in the grandstands or uh you know down in the autograph session, all that matters. So uh we're we're always trying to trying to make sure that uh you know we can do better, constantly taking notes. What uh when we go to other tracks, how can we uh how can we make that fan experience better? So of all things, I went to Cletus McFarland's Freedom Factory a couple weeks ago, and he had a VIP experience and you got to get in early, and uh basically you were overlooking the pit area. And you know, that it's nothing new, it's been done before, but maybe it's gotten forgotten or put on the wayside because it is kind of labor intensive. But uh so we got back here and kind of studied MIS, and it's like, well, how can I let people in the pits early at Joe Sherry Classic to the you know go be by Time of Jesus' car or Casey Johnson's car or their you know James Swan and his truck? How do I do that? And I'm uh I'm looking and I'm like, well, if I fence this area off, they're not really gonna have the view of all the guys. And well, cars don't go on the track till 11:30. So we're gonna open the pits from 9 to 11 uh on Sunday for those that bought tickets tickets in advance, and they can they can be uh admitted early and get to see the drivers before they go to battle. And I think that's you know that that's important because uh it's better to have a horse in the race than someone to cheer for. We can all go to a Cubs game and we know to cheer for the Cubs or to the Brewers or the Bears or the Packers or what have you, but you show up at racetrack and there's you know anywhere from 20 to 30 cars out on the track, and it it's uh who do you cheer for? But if all of a sudden your kid sat in uh you know, sat in Jordan Devoy's car before the races and he signed an autograph card for your son and personalized it. Well, now you might become a Jordan Devoy fan, and now you're cheering for the 38th car come Sunday. So uh all those things, uh you know, is it's never one one there, there's no not one bullet that's gonna make it all happen, but it's a collection of a lot of different uh moving parts to to pull an event off.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

So important as well. And Greg was the 43rd recipient of promoter of the year, so I think he knows what he's talking about. So I want to kind of follow or end our conversation and talk about the uh competition. And another thing you've been really involved in in this world of late model racing and super late model racing here in our area of the country is trying to get some unified rules, and we know that's an arduous task. Where are we right now? You know, we've talked to folks from Grundy and Slinger and the Dells this year about what they're doing with super late models. How do you see that, Greg, right now about super late models and trying to get tracks to have kind of the same rules as much as you can around the Midwest?

SPEAKER_00 13:51

We we we were really good last year, and I think we're we're still in a good spot. Uh some of the some of what's happening is trying to align more with the national and right, wrong or indifferent. Um, the you know the greater upper Midwest, if you will, uh from an asphalt super late mile racing standpoint, is uh is strong and good good car counts, good fan support, uh, but it's different than than maybe what you're seeing down south. And we have guys that are running chassis that are 20 years old, and we have guys that are running chassis that are uh, in my opinion, way overpriced for what we're doing, and uh they're still qualifying within uh you know a tenth of a second of each other, if not closer. And a lot of times it's the older older iron is getting it done. So part of that might be with the two-barrel platform, which we've been on since the you know, really since the uh concept engine came along. And uh I guess that would have been in the early 90s or late 80s. And uh the mid upper Midwest was the first to go to the nine to one engine when the big uh cubic inch engines were were dominating, and guys like Dick Trickle and Tom Ruffner saw the the writing on the wall that we need to we need to be mindful and keep the the realities of the financials in check. And so they got behind that nine to one program with with Clem Droste. And so I think that two-barrel program, while uh you know, we all love the sound of four-barrel racing and everything else, but the you know, the the wear and tear on the cars, on the engines, everything else, to go two tenths of a second quicker, it might not make a whole lot of sense. And so fuel cell heights are are a bit different. Um, bodies got in line this year uh nationally with uh the new five-star body and the spoiler that they allowed out on that. So uh, so that's a a good step. And at the end of the day, a guy like Justin Mondike can pull from uh from central Wisconsin and he can go down to to Florida and race in the winter and and put a four-barrel on. So uh, you know, the fuel cell height, we have been at 10 inches uh here in the Midwest. A couple people went to eight to get to get with uh more in line with the national, but uh most cars have that uh bracket in place to be able to adjust that. So at the end of the day, it's not perfect, but we're we're a heck of a lot closer than we have been. Uh, we have a lot of engine options up here. Um, and obviously if a guy wants to go national touring, uh he's not gonna be able to take some of those uh combinations uh to the south or out to you know Kern County in California or what have you. But um, but that's okay because it's uh that's nothing new. It's it's been going on since the 90s. So because then it was 18 degree heads, and uh so while you want everything perfect, we also have to make sure that our own house is in order. And within our house, uh we're we're pretty uh pretty darn close. We're uh you know a Ty Frederickson can run the same uh car at the Dells on uh Icebreaker as he does at Joe Sheer Classic, as he does at Octoberfest, as he does uh across the across the region. So I think that's very important. And the the guys that want to go do the national deal, uh really back to the ASA national uh program uh in the 80s and 90s, whether it was a V6 engine or uh later on the LS1 engine, uh a guy had a a touring uh ASA car, and not that we want to get back to that, we'd rather everyone be able to run the same car, but it's uh it's nothing new. So we'll continue to work on it, or the the powers that be uh we'll continue to work on it. I I I'll concentrate more on special events and and uh weekly racing at this point because there's uh with the uh new ASA uh program that's nationally, they're probably in a better position to uh to get those rules uh more in line, whether it be with Midwest and CRA and Southern Super Series and uh Cars West and all that. There's just a they have a bigger footprint and uh excited to see what they're able to pull off because it was uh for nine years we tried to get everyone on the same page and and we did, and now uh now the next part's coming to try to get everyone on the same page nationally. So excited to see how that looks because it obviously will be a benefit to everyone.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Yeah, we look forward to that. But uh, we know we've got some strong racing here in the Midwest, certainly a Madison this year, Angel Park, lacrosse and some of the other tracks we're involved with. Appreciate you giving us some time this week. I know how busy it is. Best of luck this season, and uh look forward to coming up and seeing you at MIS this summer, Greg. Thank you. Sounds like a plan. Thank you much, and we'll uh see you at the races. There he is. It's Greg McCarnes from Madison International Speedway, Angel Park, involved with a lot of different things here in the Midwest, and uh look forward to heading up to MIS out there in Oregon, Wisconsin this summer. I'm Pete Pistoni, thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next time right here on Midwest Racing Central today.