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Midwest Musings with Kevin Ramsell · Midwest Racing Central Today

• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, everybody, and welcome to this week's edition of Midwest Racing Central.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Today, I'm Pete Pistonian.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Boy, we've got a lot to get to.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: There's been some news here in the Midwest about the racing scene.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: We still have some racing this weekend at Dell's Raceway Park.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: So let's bring in our Kevin Ramsel to help break it all down here on Midwest Racing Central today.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Kev, how are you?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing good.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: How about you, Pete?
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing well.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Looking forward to it.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, good to see you.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, I don't know.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're still gonna make it up to the Dells on Saturday.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's still my plan for the Alive for Five finale.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's gonna be my plan too.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: The weather looks very favorable for this weekend up there.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: So uh you know it's nice when you get up and you see that seven-day forecast and there's no prediction of rain until next Tuesday.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'll take it.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'll take it.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Great, great for all the cars too.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: We know Time of Jesus' gonna run the truck race Friday at Talladega, and he's gonna be up there.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that uh should be a lot of fun.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Got the Midwest Truck Series, should be a great Saturday afternoon there at the Dells.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: It should be.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think they got uh four different championships they're gonna be doing up at the Dells, along with the uh the Midwest Truck Series, the Midwest Stash Series will also determine their champion, and they got their Lie for Five champion and the 602 uh create uh late models uh will also determine their champion.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: So a nice little championship uh Saturday up at the Dells, and uh you know what what a way to uh go out for the 2026 season up in the Midwest.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Look forward to it.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll make that road trip on Saturday.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: But as I mentioned, as you know, here at the site, we've written a lot of things, some columns and such.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start with some big news, and let's just start with the big news.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: We had Marty Mello on here a few weeks ago, and he told us about look for some unified late model rules they were working on, and we got that news.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, now the ASA stars national tour and the ASA aligning with Cars Tour Pro West with Kevin Harvick and that group.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Initially, what are your thoughts about that before we get into some of the dynamics of how it's gonna impact the Midwest tour, Kevin?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I think everybody's gonna be uh interesting to see how the change will be.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: The biggest thing that uh that comes out of that is the fact that we're no longer gonna be super late mile two-barrel racing, which has been a long-standing tradition up in Wisconsin, up in the Midwest, going back to the Arco days.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, everybody done that.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the major reason why they've always done that is two barrels is because it's always a very cost-effective thing to do, especially on the motors.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, when you know uh Mike Lumpy Lumpke, when he was alive, um missed that guy too.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as one thing he told me one time, and I put this in my column, was that he him and Eddie Chu and Ricky Brooks met with people who were with uh engine builders like Dwayne McGunagill, T-Zar, and I believe uh Carl Wagner, this was back in like 2017-2018, and they all got to discussion about the two barrels versus the four barrels.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And they said it's real simple is that with a two-barrel, and this is the engine builders telling them that teams only need to refresh their motors maybe once a year, if they need to refresh their motor.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas the four barrels got more wear and tear, and you need to refresh that motor at least halfway through the season and at the end of the season.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: So there were some some different cost factors involved with that.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, when I saw uh Dwayne McGonagill last year up at uh WIR, he he basically reinforced that comment was still true today.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, talking to some teams and drivers this week, you know, there's um some mixed emotions about you know, you know, some of them that really don't care because it's just a simple thing of just taking out the two-barrel carburetor and putting the four-barrel carburetor on.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's certain there's some engine packages um like the uh the LSE motor and like the ace motor and things like that, that may need some more changes to go over to a four-barrel carburetor.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And those teams, in which for what I understand is a very minor amount, would have to switch over to that.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the funny thing is, is that I think the whole general comments and it in talking to one car owner, and I won't say who it was, is that comes down to is the culture of the organization, of who's running the organization, how that how they are you know treating the teams and all that.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: I a lot of times it's not gonna come down to just okay, well, we're gonna increase the payout and do things like that.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be how well are they treated within that organization.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Do they feel it's it's like customer service friendly?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is do they feel like they're welcome at the event?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I think the where it's gonna come down to with the culture of that.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you can you and I both know from going back in history, Greg McCarn's is just like his dad, John McCarnes, you know, where they would go around and thanks for coming.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: We really appreciate you coming.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Do it doing that personalization thing where some people are not feeling the same with the new leadership today, with that, where it's there's not that feeling of uh cohesiveness type of thing.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that's and I think it's gonna come down to not just the cost of racing, but the absolute culture of how that series is being run.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Case in point, look at the other announcement that was made this week with Greg McCarn's taking back over the big eight series, and look how much of that really ballooned up, and people are like, Oh my goodness, and all that.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's because Greg has that notoriety and that thing of what the culture is like of having a staff that's well established, and um basically having that uh just that overall feeling that when they go to a race that Greg McCarnes is promoting, that they know they're gonna get respected and things like that, and they know that they're going to get a fair shake with it.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the other people now are looking at from the standpoint of uh the cost factor, is cost gonna be more and all that?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Is are they gonna be is this more of a personal thing of where the promoter is being questions will be is will the is the promoter really in it for himself or for the betterment of the racing community and making their impact on the whole racing scene altogether a positive impact with it?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: So one of the qu and I think that well, I'm gonna go back to Greg McCarn's in a bit there, but I think you're spot on with that.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: But one of the things I know that Marty said that he's hoping to get to a point where if you and I build a race car, we could go race the Midwest tour, we go race the ASA Stars National Tour, which I think on paper is a great idea.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: In reality, in this day and age, how many people do you think might do that?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Be able to pick up and just go wherever they want to go and run 30 times a year with a super quick.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, you know, like Casey Johnson uh said to me, is um give me one second.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: I got I got the quote right here.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on a second.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Here or is that here?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I was not prepared for that part of it.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: So uh Casey, I'm excited about it.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a lot is our race is you know, I'm excited about a lot of our race tiger conservation, isn't really a thing.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: I believe four-barrel may suit the driver to back to drive back into a little bit back into a little bit.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've also heard from other people saying if I want to go four-barrel racing, I just take the two barrel off and put the four-barrel on.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's been there's been some assumptions out there that this is going to be wholesale changes to the cars and all that, and then everybody the consensus of everybody was is we just gotta put the four-barrel carburetor on.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And for that part of it, it's not that big of a deal.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the other side of it is is you when let's say when uh you want to go and run a stars national tour race versus a Midwest tour race, you gotta buy a certain amount of tires, you have to buy a certain amount of fuel.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you have to buy a certain amount of this and that with it.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Where with the Midwest tour race this year, with it, you pay the pay the entry fee.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's no you there's no tire.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're basically you they limit how many tires you can buy versus how many they want you to buy, and there was no fuel required fuel purchase requirement.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that's you that's talking to a couple of the teams and things like that is that it's was that's gonna be the cost outside of it.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just don't focus on the engine side of it, but look at from what the cost would be from the motor side of it.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, the other thing they need to do too is if everybody runs on the same tire, then you got a different thing.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: But if I understand the uh national tour ran a different tire, and to where someone wants to go run, you're gonna have to buy uh a decent amount of practice tires and things like that with it.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not just not just some motors going run those other things as well.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's other factors involved too.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: So we don't know schedules yet, but I'm just curious your thoughts, like what this will do when we get these schedules, Kev, to places like the Dells with the Alive for Five series, Grundy County with their six-pack series, the triple crown that they have at Slinger, do you think those things are gonna be kind of on their own island, or you think they might have some sort of an umbrella effect here to what we're talking about?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's good.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a million-dollar question right now.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how how will the how will the new ownership uh group of the cars uh the cars tour work with the local tracks?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Will they just kind of put themselves on an own island saying, okay, since you know, well what or will you know that's gonna be the the other factor is will the tracks switch over to that or not?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Mart Marty told me back at the Dell's and says, you know, we're we're we're a tour, we're gonna be four-barrel racing.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to do tour barrel, keep it at the local track for local racing that week uh with it.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll be real curious, and I think maybe you and I, we could you and I can corner Jerry Alby on uh on Saturday and say, what are you gonna do with Live of Five?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna keep it at a two-barrel or you're gonna go to a four-barrel next year.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um Travis Dasso at Slinger.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure what he's going to do with it as well, with with his with this uh series at Slinger.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Grundy, you know, I'm not sure what the pulse is down there.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: I have a feeling that they probably may want to stay at a two-barrel because they've had decent car counts down there and very dedicated drivers stay in there.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how many of those guys actually would want to go up and do the tour and things like that?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and the other thing too is how many of those guys would switch from you know, put on the extra, put an extra put on that switch of carburetors over to run a tour race if it came there versus not going to go there.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the part that a lot of people are are concerned about as well, too, is how many are you the local flavor when a national tour comes into town with is is there gonna be an opportunity for their local guys to run it?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's what made Arco so so dang popular was that aspect of it.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it it's hard to say.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we almost got to see what the promoters themselves want to do, and then of course the the promoters are gonna look out what's better for them for their own track with it.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I had a feeling they'll probably be canvassing their own drivers going, okay, if I say it too, Barrel, and then I don't have a tire rule, and I you know, if I well, I have a tire rule for saying week that this race is only gonna be restricted to four four brand new tires per event, and not have to spend the extra costs on on racing fuel because you and I both know, and there's no hiding it with it.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Someone gets a little cut of the profit on those tire rules and those fuel rules, and that's the reason why those rules are put in there for it.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's up in the air.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's why there's that's why practices started at the snowball derby as we speak.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: You're exactly right about that.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I think practice started today, I think.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: You're right.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then you know, and that not that not to only say this in jest is um it's kind of funny when you go down to the tire building and it says bright tire sales on it.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yes, I kind of know where that's coming from.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: You're right.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so again, to uh to your point, well, you know, with with your the I looked at the entry list for the Alive for Five, your point with Jerry Albi.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: Why would you change if you got 30 something super late models on the entry list on Saturday, right?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I I think it's gonna be interesting to see which way they go.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Let's double back to Greg, though, taking over Greg McCarn's the big eight series.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: And we know how successful that was.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: The weekend warrior concept kind of faded away a little bit.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: They've had some issues.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Him coming back, what are you hearing and what he talked about at Fest about what he wants to do now that Greg McCarnes is back in charge of that series, Kevin?
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think he just wants to keep the cohesiveness of what the weekly late model is, be it you want to call it the limited late model or or like the pro-late model, you know.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, if it looks like a duck, it smells like a duck, it acts like a duck, it is a duck type of thing.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, with it.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think it just comes down to is again, um, you know, the the Deary family, David Deerie has been pretty much running that series since, you know, since um since Greg left.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then and and I don't know what caused things to go downhill.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: I really don't.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's a fact that I'm scrap I scratched my head at it.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's uh if it's uh if it was a culture thing versus thing versus versus people just didn't feel like they were welcome.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um because I always felt that that any member of the Deary family knows how to promote.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And what what caused the decline in the with the uh big A series, I'm not real sure.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not real sure.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, with Gray coming back, there's almost like a renewal type of hope feeling type of thing with it that they can you know that they feel like they're back on firm ground.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: That might be part of it, is that if you think about it, and just as something that just crossed my mind now, the Big Eights, you know, with the demise of Rockford Speedway, could that have been reflected on the future of the Big Eight series as well with it?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it was there some question, you know, was there possibly some question marks with it?
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's something I would have to ask ask some race teams about to see if there was if that what was their exact reason that they did not want to participate with it.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was very comforting to see the healthy car count they had up at Oktoberfest, but the announcement wasn't made not till during Oktoberfest.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very hard to say who, what, where, when why, or how with it.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: But overall, just looking on social media and and such, the the the reason having Greg McCarn coming back is a positive thing.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: They I think they're looking at the fact that I think there's that the series is gonna be on a firm footing now.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that they are I think that maybe the question marks of what's gonna happen, all that has just been footprinted on there saying we're we're we're we're here now, we're here, and it's here to stay.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that might break back some of the teams too.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the other thing too is, you know, I think one thing Greg will probably do too is work on the whole uh I think one of the other things I heard too was the they they ran a different tire than what the weekly guys ran.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: So if if the if Greg can, you know, you know, you know how Greg is, Greg wants to get everybody on the same page and all that.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: The big question now uh with with those types of cars is um Jeremy Miller told me about this on one of my chats is are they gonna stay on the eight-inch tire?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Or will they move over to this 10-inch um Hoosier 1070 tire for next year?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you're already seeing a little tire war kind of thing going out there where uh lacrosse and elko are already on that 10-inch tire, and uh Jerry Albion got the Dell saying, No, we're staying with the eight-inch tire.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's gonna be the um the the big hurdle that Greg needs to overcome first is that is that tire factor with it, you know, where is what you know what's gonna be the best best best way to go, what's gonna be the best tire to use down the road for that.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that that's gonna be something to keep an eye on during the offseason, especially when they have their informational meeting in January and uh at the racers auction up in Fond du Lac for that.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully, hopefully Greg lost some answers.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Him and him and Angie are taking a well-deserved vacation.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still questioning their destination to Poland, but I I put on there, I said I said, I said, which racetrack is that was over there that you're going to.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: So there you go.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: So well, but I think Greg when comes back refreshed, I think that'll be the first thing he'll want to tackle.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, we'll have pierogies at Madison International Speedway at the uh concession stand, right?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: You can bring that back with him.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: So good stuff.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Kev, always appreciate your time.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: Appreciate all the contributions you make here to the website.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: To your point, it's gonna be a very busy offseason.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: I look forward to seeing you Saturday afternoon up there at the Dells.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sounds good.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: I look forward to seeing you with you.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we we can sit together and just laugh about everything.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: So sounds good.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: All right, all right.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's Kevin Ramsel.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: You can check him out here at Midwest Racing Central today.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: As I mentioned, we've got the Dells this weekend.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: We'll also have everything covered on the ASA Stars National Tour.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: We've got the All-American 400 coming up, and then we're gonna wrap things up November 15th out at New Smyrna Speedway.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: We'll have all that covered, plus all this offseason news here in the Midwest.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: And Peter Stoney, thanks for tuning in.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you next time on Midwest Racing Central today.