From the Editor – Justin Zoch

from the

EDITOR REASONS TO SMILE

By Justin Zoch

REMEMBER 2020? Or have you been able to successfully forget it yet – if so, congratulations. It was without a doubt the strangest and worst year ever in this country, filled with COVID deaths and restrictions, an ugly campaign and election, civil unrest and upheaval and, of course, the usual fires and natural disasters. It wasn’t good.

In our little corner of the universe, racers struggled to keep their careers afloat and racetracks searched to find ways to keep their doors open. Schedules for touring series were in constant flux and some tracks were forced to run for reduced crowds or even without any inessential people in the grandstands or on the grounds.

So, here we are, on the cusp of 2022 and as we look back on another racing season in the books, there was a lot more joy to catalog this year than the previous one. Here is a just a partial list of the things that made 2021 one of the best racing seasons in years.

I never in my life thought I’d be worried about buying a pit pass to the Knoxville Nationals but with all the hubbub over the 60th edition and the quality of the field and the pure joy of just being back after a year of the One and Only, that was exactly the case. The grandstands sold out early and there was talk that pit passes would be limited as a safety precaution. Crowds all year were fantastic for special events and touring series and the hunger to return to normal activities was palpable.

The amount of money that Brandon Overton won in just one season of late model racing tells us that our sport is back to being in a healthy spot where competitors can earn a living and fans are willing to shell out to see it, either in person or from one of the various streaming services. It seems that there are huge money races every weekend now and the fact that one guy - Overton - scored six wins that paid more than $50,000 tells me that there is a lot of good going on in the sport.

The prevalence of throwback or fun schemes seems here to stay. With merchandising so crucial to bottom lines, I love that teams are embracing fun schemes like Bobby Pierce’s Mystery Machine or heartfelt ones like Justin Peck’s Kramer Williamson Tribute Car. Bringing back the fun or tying in the history of the sport was awesome at the 50th World 100 and the 60th Knoxville Nationals and I hope that continues past the anniversary races. Heck, Kyle Bronson even ran a throwback pavement sprint scheme on his late model for the World 100. That’s cross promotion!

The amount of young talent should give us all reason to be excited, particularly in the open wheel world. Losing guys like Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell as full-time competitors could have been a real blow but the talent pool is so deep right now with teens like Corey Day and Ryan Timms winning impressively. Timms’ resume, in particular, brings great joy as he won in POWRi Midgets, ASCS 360s, had four 410 feature wins and won a feature at the Trophy Cup. That’s star power early in a career.

There seems to be one thing that we can all agree on in this country – Kyle Larson is having one of the finest – I’d probably say the finest – seasons in the history of motorsports. I never thought I’d live to see the day a NASCAR racer could challenge for that championship, win on road courses and the Coca-Cola 600 and also win the Knoxville Nationals. It just didn’t seem possible, even with guys like Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart – they never had what felt like a legitimate shot to win the Nationals. Add in the fact that Larson also won a huge late model race at the Prairie Dirt Classic and the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals, the Front Row Challenge, late model races all over and it is almost staggering the season he has had. After a self-inflicted mistake nearly ruined Larson’s career in 2020, his rebound in 2021 on and off the track should give us all hope in humanity and the power of redemption. Can 2022 be even better?