I Put My Girlfriend Through an Entire Season of Sprint Car Racing

If anyone knows how long the sprint car season really is, it’s my non racing background girlfriend. Almost every night I would have Flo or DirtVision on my phone or the TV for another 410 sprint car race. She grew up watching her dad work on cars as a mechanic, but was unfamiliar with dirt racing until she met me. To her credit, she bought in to the point where she could repeat phrases from ASCOC announcer Blake Anderson. She started picking drivers that she enjoyed watching and pointed out tracks that looked like a good place to visit. I started taking note of her observations because I thought it was interesting listening to the input from someone who does not have a dirt racing background. Here are some of the observations below.

Favorite Tracks

Her list of favorite tracks aligned with the opinions of most of the sprint car community. If she had to choose one, it would be Port Royal. She once made a comment about how smooth she thought the surface was for the drivers. I couldn’t argue with her, as Port Royal is probably my favorite track in the country.

She acknowledged the upgrades that Huset’s made, as she could tell the facility was in great shape based on the drone shots on TV. Obviously, Knoxville was also included on her list, as she was dialed in during the Nationals. Another honorable mention was Skagit, as the mountains in the background caught her attention.

Favorite Drivers

Tyler Courtney is far and away her favorite. She really became a fan after the “Dirt” documentary aired on Flo. She even purchased some Sunshine merchandise at the High Limit event at Bridgeport. I think this shows how beneficial the “Dirt” series was for some casual or new fans to the sport.

She enjoyed the early season dynamic with Brent Marks and Anthony Macri constantly racing each other hard. I think she fed off of me, as I have a slight PA Posse bias and really like both of those guys.

Favorite Announcer

Blake Anderson takes the cake. We probably watched every ASCOC race this season and it got to the point where she was expecting Space Jam at every race. She thinks that Anderson has the best music playlist throughout the evening. We both hope that Anderson will be involved with the new High Limit series in 2024.

Driver Dynamics

My girlfriend is a therapist and she would find herself analyzing situations as I would do my best to explain to her.

One of her first observations was about the schedule that Kyle Larson was running. She feels that he will get burnt out from the constant travel and demand. I explained to her that this is what he does and that is how he has always been. That didn’t matter to her, as she felt that the demand would become too overwhelming for him over time, especially as his kids racing career begins to take off. We both feel it will be an early retirement from NASCAR.

The other dynamic was about the Macri family split. I told her about all the rumors online and what the general consensus was about it all. She felt it was nothing more than typical family drama that happens when you run a family business. She didn’t think that Anthony was lying about being burnt out, but that it was his way of saying he was just tired of dealing with the drama that comes with a family business. We both agreed that it would work itself out as it did.

Lastly, she enjoyed all of the Australian drivers that are involved in the sport. James McFadden, Kerry and Ian Madsen and Lachlan McHugh we’re always guys she was rooting for. She wants us to take a trip to Australia during their sprint car season.

Other Thoughts

She absolutely hated when the camera would cut away during bad wrecks. We both agree that it’s necessary to do while crews work on the driver, but sometimes the pause is long and unnecessary.

We live in Arizona and we think there should be an early season West Coast swing that includes Central Arizona Speedway.

She doesn’t like how the World of Outlaw drivers cannot run as many races as they want outside of the series.