Home Features Scott Bloomquist encouraged by the current trend toward more lucrative races

Scott Bloomquist encouraged by the current trend toward more lucrative races

Scott Bloomquist

Greatness is exemplified when a person has been able to maintain a high level of performance in his/her particular field over a long period of time.

Few in any type of endeavor have been as successful as Scott Bloomquist has been in Dirt Late Model racing for as long as he has been. Hundreds of feature victories, multiple championships, and an impressive collection of crown jewels are among the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member’s list of accomplishments in this sport.

For the reasons stated above, few would be more qualified to comment on the state of modern-day dirt racing than the 58-year-old driver from Mooresburg, Tennessee.

Bloomquist showed during the past two weekends in the XR Super Series-sanctioned Karl Kustoms Bristol Dirt Nationals that his competitive days as a racer are not over as he compiled two top-five and three top-ten results out of the four races held on the dirt covered Bristol Motor Speedway. He recorded a best finish of second on the first Saturday night with a fourth being registered on the final evening of competition.

The races in Bristol were Bloomquist’s first outings of the 2022 season.

The legendary racer took time to comment on the recent trend toward higher paying races on the Dirt Late Model schedule. The XR Super Series, along with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Late Model Series, and the FloRacing Night in America Series have each been responsible for more events paying $25,000 or more to win than has ever been seen in this sport. And, of course Eldora Speedway will dole out $1,000,000 in one of its June features along with its usual generous payouts for the Dirt Late Model Dream and the World 100.

Bloomquist has long held that having more higher paying races is essential to the health of not only the race teams but the sport as a whole.

“I think there’s no question about it,” Bloomquist replied to InsideDirtRacing.com when asked if the sport is moving in the right direction. “Anybody who doesn’t support this(XR Super Series) is kind of foolish, I think. There’s never been this many events, especially early in the season, but throughout the entire season that pay these kinds of purses. The pay back(through the field) and the whole concept that they’re taking by racing at the finest facilities in the country, it’s an honor actually, and I’m glad I hadn’t retired before it happened.”

Along with better purses, Bloomquist believes some dirt tracks need to place greater emphasis on the condition of their facilities.

“The biggest thing really is just a more organized pit area and better lighting,” he pointed out. “Obviously, you need a decent grandstand that will hold an adequate number of people. We go to some places where we park on uneven ground and there’s hardly any lighting and the race track lighting is a big part of upgrades that are needed at some places.”

Scott Bloomquist(0) racing with Kyle Larson(6) at Bristol

However, there is one aspect that overrides all others in his mind.

“But the number one thing these tracks need to focus on is making damn sure their track is prepared so that we can race on it,” Bloomquist insisted. “Everything else will fix itself if you have good races. These cars are so fast now and that makes it harder to pass sometimes. They’ve got to be sure to work on those race tracks to make them really good for the racing.”

The current financial landscape in dirt racing is in the process of transitioning from a grandstand ticket sales oriented model to a streaming service subscription model. Bloomquist sees the positives and negatives of this evolving trend.

“Inevitably, you’re going to be seen by a lot more people but you hate to lose the feel of the crowd,” he said. “I think people are probably just going to pick and choose a little bit more this year which races they attend because of fuel prices and those sorts of things. I think the fans are going to keep coming though.”

Over multiple decades of racing, Scott Bloomquist has seen a great number of changes within the sport of Dirt Late Model racing. And now, he appears to be encouraged in regard to its current direction.

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