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I see Caseys decision as being spot on for a blue collar series.....Or any series that only survives when owners can field cars and healthy talented drivers are available 2 gas em up....
Almost makes me think maybe Casey has experience with owning cars, driving cars, driving for a low budget owners, driving for big buck mega teams, at a tight bullring with no ambulance for $600 to win last night and tomorrow night at a dirt superspeedway for 6 figures to win with the same car. Surely nobody under the age of 70 could have that much experience though..
I will never understand how a 3rd year promoter still in his 30s has been able to take a series that grew so fast with Andy, Hoss and posse in charge and maintain the steep and steady trajectory WAR had since day one. More nicer tracks, more cars, more drivers willing to haul 6 hours and pass 25 other racetracks to get to a WAR show... oh wait...they aren't coming because of Casey, they come because their ego loves the thought of winning a race that people can watch on TV. Betcha Casey found that website... FLYONTHEWALLdotcom, that lets him overhear 20 years worth of discussions/negotiations between track owners, series bosses, contingency sponsors, manufacturers, and advertisers and understand what each needs out of a deal. Or maybe hes blackmailing Forest Lucas to get all those televised races on Mav and dates at nice facilities... gotta be one or the other but it's working so keep it up.
Ya know... seems like there was a similar story a couple decades ago... some dirt racer guy out west started trying to book a few races at a few tracks to go along with a strong weekly show at one track.. if I remember right, within a few years this local extracurricular series grew into the sanctioning body for all the highest paying nonwing shows from coast to coast, had 20 or so teams willing to cross the country once or twice a year to support the series, and plenty often the big check stayed within the series instead of being cherrypicked by some of the big name USAC teams they went head to head with when they went on the road. That dude learned how to accommodate the needs of all the business partners, please the paying customer, and maintain a good core group of owners/drivers who woulda drove the rig off a cliff if the guy told em he could book a show down at the bottom.
In my old age I'm havin a hard time remembering that guys name... I wanna say Don Shoemaker but thats wrong...he was a famous horse racer...or Miami Dolphins coach??? If any IOWers can remember any race history before messageboards maybe youll know who I'm talkin about... maybe Casey could call him or meet him someday and ask for some pointers.
Or maybe the only credit Casey deserves is props for marrying up... maybe WAR keeps kickin butt cause Casey married a girl whos entire extended family spent 4 nights in the shop and 3 in the pits every week of her life..never with unlimited budgets...maybe a family with more heart and talent than one gene pool should ever get...maybe her family dipped a toe in promoting to honor someone they lost, and due to another loss they worked harder to honor both and created the biggest, most diverse, most coveted 3 day openwheel show ever imagined in their part of the country..
It's likely that nobody will ever understand why one promoter can be successful, supported and appreciated year after year while another promoter a few miles away is surrounded by chaos, drama and discontent until they suddenly close down for good mid season. But one thing we can all do is recognize when somebody lucks into having a good growing track or series. Recognize em, jump on the I KNEW ITD WORK bandwagon, and make sure we smack talk every troll who ever asks a legitimate question or offers an idea on twitter.
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